It all began last year when Autodesk sent a survey to its customers asking how they imagined AutoCAD for Mac OSX. Then, back in May, we saw an early preview of the software running on Mac. This was a leaked version, and Autodesk didn’t say anything (we asked!) about it.

The summer is fading away, but that doesn’t mean that the fun is over. What about spending the fall semester doing your internship at the most read architecture website, working with a highly motivated group of architecture lovers, contributing to keep the architecture community informed about projects and news around the world?

This year we are opening not one, but two positions at the East and West coasts (London is also a possibility).

Details on what we are looking for (and what you can expect and learn) after the break:

As we told you a few months ago, AMO (the think-tank inside OMA) played an important role on Roadmap 2050, an initiative by the European Climate Foundation which looks to chart a policy roadmap for the next 5-10 years based on the European leaders’ commitment to an 80-95% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.

Last week we presented you the current status of Salvador Dali’s Museum in St. Petersburg, FL.

Ten kilometer south from the Porsche Museum we featured last week, we find the Mercedes Benz Museum, designed by dutch architects UN Studio and photographed by Michael Schnell.

The 35,000sqm project designed by UN Studio between 2001-2006, includes also a restaurants, stores, offices and an auditorium.

The design is based on the geometry of a clover, with the spaces connected between two helical ascending ramps, around a central atrium.

According to Ben van Berkel, joint founder and director of UNStudio “The Mercedes‑Benz Museum sets up an interface for a series of radical spatial principles in order to create a completely new typology”.

And by this, he refers to how visitors experience the museum: They do not begin their visit to the exhibition at a conventional entrance at the base of the building. They are transported by lift to the top floor. Here they have the choice of two tours, during which they descend through the building. The paths of each tour meet on each floor, enabling visitors to switch between tours – the Collections tour and Legend tour – should they wish to do so.

After this project was completed, several tried to imitate it and these kind of circulations became a cliché among architects (and students).

You can see more details of the lift system at NotCot.

More photos by Michael Schnell after the break:

Augmented Reality amazed us over the last few years, evolving into something beyond simple visualization.

A while ago we presented you “Habits, Patterns, Algorithms”, a monograph on Stephan Jaklitsch Architects, a firm with a vast experience in interior design, with hundreds of built works around the world, examples of good usage of materials, and careful attention to detail.

The firm is behind the design of Marc Jacobs stores around the world, and now we got the chance to see a preview of their first ground-up store for the brand, located in Omotesando, Tokyo, right next to Herzog & de Meuron’s Prada store.

The 3,000sqf project (which already won an Award of Excellence from AIA New York) is a stratified volume, with two dark strips sitting on top of a glass box, acting as a lamp during night.

A couple of weeks ago we visited the office to interview Stephan and Mark Gardner (video coming soon!) and got the chance to see some of the facade mock-ups.

More information, including details on the facade and construction process, after the break:

Danish architects ADEPT Architects, together with an impressive group of collaborators, have been awarded with the 1st prize on the competition for the Dalarna Library in Sweden. The team includes Sou Fujimoto (Japan, see all his projects previously featured on AD), Topotek1 (Germany), Rambøll A/S (Denmark) and Bosch & Fjord (Denmark).

The new library, placed centrally at the Dalarna university campus, is organized as a ”spiral of knowledge” (see diagram below). The sloping terrain continues in a ramp through the building. Wrapping itself the ramp creates a spiral-shaped space – the heart of the building for information seeking and easy orientation. This organization of program creates a various learning environment where students can take part in the vibrant life of the library as well as retreat into various study niches. The different sound levels and activities create a diverse and eventful library.

Architecture photographer Michael Schnell shared with us his interior photos of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, designed by Austrian architects Delugan Meissl. The project was completed in 2008, after being awarded with the 1st prize in a 2-stage competition back in 2005.

The exhibition space we see on these photos in contained by a monolothic volume supported by a steel structure, which spans 5,600sqm to a dramatic effect as you can see on the above photo.

More photos after the break:

A few weeks ago the LA Business Council hosted the 40th version of the LA Architectural Awards.

Selected by a jury of 10 notable design and building professionals, the winning projects cut across a wide range of building types, from commercial office spaces to affordable apartment complexes to sports arenas. The call for entries went out in December 2009 to more than 7,000 industry leaders. From the hundreds of submissions received, the jury selected 31 winning projects in 20 overall categories. All winning projects, except the “Best of LA Architects” award winners, are located within Los Angeles County. “Best of LA Architects” recognizes local architects for projects completed outside of Los Angeles County.

The Grand Prize went to the LAPD Administration Building by AECOM (in a joint venture with Roth Sheppard Associates), and we also find projects recently featured at ArchDaily such as the Hidden House by Standard Architecture, the Cherokee Lofts by Pugh + Scarpa, the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects or the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics by Morphosis.

All the awarded projects after the break:

“The Internet allows a daily exchange of particular topics of interest. So, you can kind of put out a question regarding a topic of interest and you will have many people respond to assist in that discussion.”

During the 2010 AIA Convention in Miami Beach we had the opportunity to sit down with George H Miller, AIA President.

George is also a partner at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Given his position as a partner on one of the most recognized firms in the US and as the voice of the architects through the AIA, George has a very good idea on the current state and future of the profession. We did our usual set of questions, but also included two things that I find very important: The importance on pushing IPD and the role of the AIA during the financial crisis (and what lessons can be learned after it). We also recommend you to read our article on his position regarding small business taxes, part of his efforts to improve the way architects practice in the US.

We published each question as a separate video so you can easily watch them. On a side note, there is some audio noise due to a bad mic placement. My fault, won´t happen again.

“The house is a machine for living in.”

- Le Corbusier

With this statement, Le Corbusier acknowledges the relation between technology/mass production and the new ways of living that the modern movement tried to materialize. For him the house was a static car, a designed functional object that could be mass produced. When the Villa Savoye was completed in 1929, 5.3 million cars were produced in Detroit.

From this point forward, architecture and car started a long lasting relation, with examples such as Albert Kahn’s buildings for Ford, Giacomo Matte-Trucco’s FIat Factory in Turin, Archigram’s Drive-In House concept, the Mecedes Benz Museum by UN Studio and the recent Lincoln Rd 1111 parking by Herzog & de Meuron.

Along this line we find the new Nanjing Automobile Museum by 3Gatti Architecture Studio, which was awarded with the first prize on an international invited competition. The project not only shows the car in an unusual way, but it also lets you to experience the museum by car:

We first heard about the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SSE) building by OMA during the peak of the new chinese construction revolution. Then we saw Rem Koolhaas breaking ground together with the Chinese government, and capitalism in China started to have a tangible representation.

The new building for the NASDAQ equivalent (730 high tech companies & startups, moving over US$500 billion) has now topped out at 246m.

“For millennia, the solid building stands on a solid base; it is an image that has survived modernity. Typically, the base anchors a structure and connects it emphatically to the ground. The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not gravity. In the case of Shenzhen’s almost virtual stock market, the role of symbolism exceeds that of the program – it is a building that has to represent the stock market, more than physically accommodate it. It is not a trading arena with offices, but an office with virtual organs that suggest and illustrate the process of the market.”

- OMA

The project is based on pure volumes, a combination of a tower and a podium suspended 36m high. The podium is one of the biggest cantilevers in the world, an operation that liberates the ground to create a big public plaza which is visually connected (representing the new economic openness) to the lower part of the tower and the podium itself, the places were the stock exchange operations take place. Above the podium, there is a series of office space for internal operations of the SSE, totaling 200,000sqm for the entire building.

The tower’s structure is a robust exoskeletal grid overlayed with a patterned glass skin – the first time such glass has been used for an exterior at this scale. The patterned glass reveals the detail and complexity of construction while creating a mysterious crystalline effect as the tower responds to light: sparkling during bright sunshine, mute on an overcast day, enigmatic at dusk, glimmering during rain and glowing at night.

- OMA

The building is expected to be completed by August, 2011.

Renderings afte the break:

A few weeks ago we presented you the Sports Facilities for the ODESUR Games in Medellin by Giancarlo Mazzanti + Plan B (Felipe Mesa), a video shot by photographer Cristobal Palma for Abitare.

Graphisoft recently released ArchiCAD 14. ArchiCAD was a pioneer in BIM, a tool that has now become standard not only in terms of design and construction, but also for the life cycle of buildings. ArchiCAD has been available for ages for the Mac users, having a large install base on that platform. Their pricing program has made it affordable for new practices.

But back to this new version. Graphisoft has added several new features aiming for better, open collaboration, something very important in terms of pushing BIM as a standard tool on which different professionals can work together. In ArchiCAD 14 we find several workflow enhancements (such as IFC integration, a neutral data model not controlled by any vendor) to successfully bridge along different CAD/BIM/MEP packages, such as Autodesk and Revit, a big step towards an effective IPD (Integrated Project Delivery).

This version also includes BIM Server to further improve teamwork collaboration (64-bit version for the Mac), and Teamwork “Pack & Go” (to allow you to keep working with your team anywhere you go).

More on ArchiCAD 14 new features after the break:

A few weeks ago we introduced you one of the latest built projects by Frank Gehry, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. The center is supported by Keep Memory Alive, and it is planned to become a national resource for the most current research and scientific information for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington ‘s Diseases, and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) as well as focusing on prevention, early detection and education.

On our previous feature we got a glimpse of the project, which at first sight might look like just another Gehry project. And now, thanks to these new photos by Matthew Carbone, we can get a better look at it.

The center features three main spaces:

We have seen the Danish pavilion on its conceptual stage, during construction, completed and finally opened to the public.