The completion of a building in the planning project of Saclay, Paris is a unique opportunity for ECDM to design one of the markers of the future center of excellence established on the plateau. The uniqueness of the site, and it’s present and future characteristics, make it an interesting emerging area. The Campus EDF project is dense and compact, a volume which unifies a diversity of programs. The building is treated as a block framed by blocks of green, a building perfectly inscribed in a geometric landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal by ferrarifrongia for the Deventer dock is to create a community pervaded by artistic spirit, a desire to build, house atmosphere, and play. The first intent of the project is to release the dock surface to become a beating heart of the new activity of the district. To follow this aim, a new building is conceived, suspended from the ground at a height of 6 meters. With its stereometric silhouette, the new building is a connection between the historic heritage (black silo, high silo, elevator), without brutalizing their facades, letting them breathe and respecting their historical value. The whole complex is pervaded by an artistic atmosphere with colored goedetic structures, which com-penetrate together with existing and new building, working as showcases in spreading color in the dock. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Wanting to preserve what was found by minimizing the building’s visual impact on the surroundings, but also to exploit the precious sea views, the house by doxiadis+ is nestled into the slope of the hill and most of its volume hidden underneath the earth like a snail. Only two small volumes protrude, framing the views and signalling their presence, giving it the scale of the nearby traditional volumes and a very simple, almost poetic dimension. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The second year of the AIM Competition invited participants to implement Green Transformation to the Shougang Group, the yin of dialectics of Beijing’s urban development. The design was to play an equally as significant role as the CBD (Central Business District) in making Beijing a healthy, balanced, and attractive city. It shall become a “Central Recreation District”, differentiated from the Central Business District. Due to the vast area of the Shougang Group site, this year’s focus was on the redevelopment of Er-Tong. Because green transformation spans the multidisciplinary layers of architecture, landscape and urban design, this year’s AIM competition recognized five different awards for outstanding performance. More images and information on the awarded projects after the break.

The Ghalemorghi Airport, the first airport established in Iran, was opened in 1922 on 300 hectares of land in the south of Tehran and the first ever flight in Iran took place from this airport. When Tehran municipality decided to demolish the walls of this military airport in order to change its function to a public space and theme park, a competition was announced for designing the main entry gate of the project. The aim of this new gate by Ali Ghorbani, Ali Kashfi and Hosein Shirazian is to create a space to establish a strong link with the park away from the traffic and chaos of the nearby highways. This new gate has to correspond to the scale and atmosphere of the park. More images and project description after the break.

The Planning Exhibition Hall by Khoury Levit Fong is a new urban institution with a particular spatial constitution and purpose. While most are based on familiar building precedents, such as museums or convention halls, they believe that the unique dedications of this institution demands a formal and typological invention: an ocular device or camera transformed into a building. So they place the large-scale city model (1:600) on a plinth that seamlessly extends the public realm into the building by sloping up from the street. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and PWP Landscape Architecture shared with us their proposal for the 8 Washington development in downtown San Francisco. The plans will continue the revitalization and support enjoyment of the historically under-utilized northeast waterfront by reconnecting the City with the Bay and providing housing and community amenities which include: dynamic pedestrian corridors linking Pacific Avenue and Jackson Street with The Embarcadero; a children’s play area featuring interactive sculptural gardens; an expanded health and aquatics center; cafés, restaurants and retail; and centralized underground public parking for the Ferry Building Waterfront Area. More images and project description after the break.

EASTERN design office + KAWAGUCHI & ENGINEERS shared with us their project, Light Thread, China Agricultural University’s Gymnasium / Wrestling Arena for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. During the Olympic Games, the wrestling arena has a 10,000-person capacity. After the Olympic Games, 4,000 temporary seats can be taken out and the interior can be refitted with three arenas, a pool, and 6000 seats to transform the space into a gymnasium complex. Since this building will come into the possession of the Chinese Agriculture University, they sought to create a condition that allows the special requirements of the Olympic Wrestling Arena and the functional features of a building for the Chinese Agriculture University to both be fulfilled in a single construction. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The new municipality building of Netanya, located in the old part of the city introduces a unique public park for the city – a green heart – that like a ribbon gradually transforms from a horizontal landscape to a vertical climatic structure. Designed by the Dutch office ShaGa Studio in collaboration with Shyovitz Architects, they define Netanya’s future identity as a coastal city which truly embraces an urban sustainable lifestyle for its residents, workers and visitors. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Held every five years, the competition for this year’s pavilion called for a temporary building which may be easily disassembled and relocated to another site. The modular pavilion by Prechteck exists of different parts, housing different functions, all singular cells, but the strongest in coexistence with its neighboring parts. The main concept is that during the 5 years, each cell can be assembled in a different German city and serve as an info booth to the next. At the beginning of the next five years, the parts get transported back and get reconnected on site. More images and architects’ description after the break.

MY- AMI, A virtual and digital exhibit of architectural photography by Paul Clemence, has been extended to be on view until January 17th as part of the Design into Miami event, which started in November. A look at Miami’s unique urban landscape can be seen through Clemence’s refined eyes.

From the mundane to the exquisite, from “starchitects” to ” anonymous”, from glamourous Lapidus to cutting edge Herzog & de Meuron and contemporary Arquitectonica and Chad Oppenheim. From dyzzing glass atriums to swimming pools ( a most Miamian architectural “equipment” ), Clemence gives us his take on how he perceives the city. The photos selected for the show speaks of details, of moods and brings us a feel of what is to be in that constant evolving, cosmopolitan, creative and liberating city, its colors, its shapes and even a little splash.

The exhibit will be partially in display at the RS showroom and continuing online at here. More images after the break.

“In order for a pain to be healed… you have to acknowledge the fact that this pain has occurred” Maya Lin. Construction of the first memorial began in 1966 (during Soviet times) in response to the 1965 Yerevan demonstrations during which one million people demonstrated in Yerevan for 24 hours to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Genocide.

Inspired by the above events as well as the specificity of this memorial regarding the site conditions, the winning design of the project by Etienne Bastormagi Architects had to undergo a conceptual brainstorm. The design proposes a space – not only to remember the ones that died through the act of genocide-that is designed to celebrate the ones that have survived and helped us reach to our existing status. More images and architects’ description after the break.

In approaching the design for the new Kimball Art Center, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) found great inspiration in the urban development of Park City, the Kimball site, and the city’s mining heritage. They feel the form of the new Kimball Art Center emerges where these rich stories overlap. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The project ‘housing with a mission’, featured at the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Biennale on architecture and urbanism, is designed as a co-production by five Chinese and five Dutch architectural offices and aims at building 1000 dwellings for the ‘Ant Tribe’ in Beijing. This is the Chinese name for the generation of millions of young graduates who live in cramped conditions in the outskirts of cities and work in low-paid jobs.

The Chinese offices include Standard Architecture, Urbanus, O-Office, Node and CAFA. The Dutch firms include aronsgelauff, Next, KCAP, NL architects and Barcode. More images and project description after the break.

PARK shared with us their proposal for the harbor revitalization competition in Aalesund, Norway. To revitalize the southern harbor district situated adjacent to the historic city center, they put an emphasis on the relationship between the distinct architectural heritage of Ålesund and the new development, which includes large scale functions like a cruise terminal, a hotel, a conference center and a bus station. Their design incorporates an infrastructure that solves the issues of through-traffic and at the same time upgrades public transport and light traffic. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Skolkovo Innovation Center (‘Russian Silicon Valley’), a high-tech hub to be built at Skolkovo near Moscow, Russia, is intended to concentrate international intellectual capital, thereby stimulating the development of break-through projects and technologies. The modern approach to residential buildings often creates a feeling of isolation. A person has his or her own apartment and a little garden, while neighbors are perceived as competitors. The new residential area, including apartment houses and townhouses, designed by Arch Group, is designed for temporary accommodation of the scientific elite shown in the apartment houses while the townhouses feature a multi-layered environment. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Between the canal and the railway, the site of the prize winning project proposal by RNDM Architecture is currently enclosed. Therefore, their project strives to reconnect it with the city, which is why they rely on strong structural elements to both organize the territory and make it attractive. The design is set up as a new urban landscape that draws on elements of identity that constitute the urban tissue of old Toulouse. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Open Call for Ideas: How much does your building weigh? put on by COAC (Col·legi Oficial d’Arquitectes de Catalunya) challenges teams to take action and explore your city, searching for non-consolidated urban spaces in need of activation! Focusing on the design and realization of mobile, elastic and inflatable structure(s), these ‘inflatable activators’ could literally be anywhere in your cities! They could be located along road infrastructures and they also could colonize strategic urban nodes or plazas but most importantly they temporarily transform them into active spaces.