In 2002, the United States Department of Energy initiated the Solar Decathlon – an intense competition challenging collegiate teams to create residences that fuse the most sustainable technologies with functionality, comfort, and of course, aesthetics. Over the course of the past decade, interest in the Decathlon has grown dramatically [be sure to read our previous Solar Decathlon coverage] as the competition has piqued the interest of students from top universities, as well as millions of public followers learning the advantages of energy-efficient, cost-effective housing.

Team New Jersey, a collaborative effort between the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, has designed a handicap accessible net-zero energy prototype featuring low-maintenance concrete construction and the latest green technologies, complete with a striking beach-inspired aesthetic.

More about the residence, including a great video, after the break.

This weekend on April 2nd, Ben van Berkel of UNStudio will be presenting a lecture during the Smart Geometries 2011 Copenhagen – an event that focuses on the role of digital parametrics in architectural experimentation and design strategies. van Berkel, an avid believer in computational design, will focus on his firm’s projects, such as the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Raffles City mixed use development in Hangzhou and the Star Place Luxury Shopping Plaza in Kaohsiung, to illustrate their application of smart geometries. ”"Parametric design is in itself not so interesting. It needs meaning. We need to combine the possibilities of the virtual with how we discipline the real in a new way,” explains van Berkel. With digital modeling allowing for greater innovation, creativity and experimentation, van Berkel explains how such technologies improve communication on projects to such an extent that design and construction can be much more compact, accelerated and efficient. “In the 90s we were fascinated with the potential of these emerging techniques and their ability to control geometry. However our interest was never solely focussed on the geometry, nor on the computational techniques themselves. Our interest lay largely in the possibility to carry out spatial experiments and to see how the resulting structures could actually be constructed,” states van Berkel. For more information about the lecture, check out the Smart Geometries website.

On a recent visit to Hamburg, we were able to see the progress of Herzog & de Meuron’s grand concert hall [check out our previous coverage here]. Although construction costs continue to escalate [almost 70 million Euro have been donated by private businesses for the project, and the project is well over its 240 million Euro proposed budget], once complete, it will be the highest inhabited building of Hamburg and bring even more life to the area’s harbor.

More images and more about the visit after the break.

A week ago, we shared our ideas about creating a system of temporary housing that could be rapidly constructed after a natural disaster. Building upon that idea, today we are sharing Shigeru Ban’s cardboard partition system for the hundreds of people crowded into gymnasiums seeking refuge after the earthquake. These simple partition shelters are a way to provide a sense of privacy to the families using a low cost, flexible and quick modular solution.

More after the break.

GS-CA has designed a weather-resistant canopy to shelter the clay tennis courts of the National Tennis Center. Developed by an international team led by George Stowell, the long span structure utilizes a low pressure air inflation system to provide a lightweight aesthetic and spacious playing atmosphere.

More images and more about the canopy after the break.

Continuing our reporting on the Architecture Billings Index, the ABI score slighly increased from 50.0 in January to 50.6 this past month. Although only a small jump, regional average for the Midwest and South remained over 50 (55.3 and 50.1 respectively), and the West and Northeast reported scores of 49.1 and 46.4. ”Overall demand for design services seems to be treading water over the last two months,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “We’ve been preaching patience and cautious optimism for a full recovery because there continues to be a wide range of business conditions for architecture firms that are also influenced by firm size, practice specialties and regional location. We still expect the road to recovery to move at a slow, but steady pace.”

With the small Chinatown site proving to be too confining for the growing Children’s Museum of the Arts, the institution secured a new space in Hudson Square, New York. Now that the new space is three times the size of the Chinatown site, WORKac has designed a museum where the activities are connected in a natural manner and are organized around a central colorful gallery. This dramatic increase in square footage will allow the museum to reinterpret the best parts of their current museum and add the new programs they had long desired.

More about the project after the break.

Immediately, the plan was criticized for its monotony and, in particular, the 90 degree angles of the street intersections – which were designed in an economical fashion as right-angled houses were the most affordable to build.   While cities such as Washington DC had grand diagonal cross streets, Manhattan’s plan divided the island into repetitious compressed parcels with no attention paid to changing topography or location.  However, opinions of the system seem to be changing, as, over the course of decades, the grid’s logistical framework has proven beneficial and has allowed a magnificent modern city to rise.

More after the break.

Earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, monsoons in India, and now the disasters in Japan. Each has left thousands displaced from their homes, giving us, as architects, reason to re-think the idea of temporary housing. In Chile, strict building codes helped some infrastructure withstand the 8.5 quake; yet, there is a limit to the pre-disaster measures a country can take. So, what are the steps for dealing with the after effects of the disaster, be it wind, water, or seismic damages?

Each world tragedy brings with it the opportunity for the creative to find solutions that will help give shelter to people.  There are many obstacles to overcome in Japan’s case – roads are completely destroyed which presents quite a challenge to collect and transport material, plus snow has covered much of the region.  Yet, if we could re-think the idea of a house and pool our efforts to create a system of rapid response temporary housing that can overcome such obstacles, think of the number of people in devastated areas that would benefit from such a project.

More after the break.

Dédalo magazine, a student based publishing project developed by the Oporto University Faculty of Architecture, has organized a lecture series for March 31st through April 2nd. The series, entitled dis:Place: Deviations on Architectural Practice, intends to explore the (de)contextualizations or (inter)relations within contemporary architecture, and thus understand the more complex issues of site/place, dissecting the meaning of movement and exchange, both physically and ideologically. The lectures will be held in Oporto, Portugal, at the Architecture Faculty of Oporto’s University and offer a varied panel of international lecturers.

Check out the lecture schedule after the break.

For the University of Southern Indiana’s new University Center, Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture designed a local landmark for the campus that aims to promote interaction among students, faculty and the community. Constructed with mostly local materials, the project boasts a salvaged 28 ft.-tall, Indiana limestone arch to mark the main entrance and the exterior is clad in slabs of quarry-faced roughback limestone, which would have otherwise been used as scrap material.

More images and more about the project after the break.

For WORKac’s skyscraper design for the Shenzhen Metro Tower, the architects created a new a new kind of mixed density to promote a sustainable and a diverse stacked city. This vertical city holds places places of intense urban interchange that combine infrastructure, mixed uses, and public space. Located at an intersection with a horizontal crossroads of major boulevards, this vertical interchange between the underground metro, ground-level bus station, shopping podium and the offices and hotel above will essentially be linking the metro with the sky. ”We call this tower the Interchange – a vertical city that twists together natural green space with ecological systems, structural and functional efficiency with dramatic new forms and technology, while linking the underground to the sky,” added the architects.

More about the project after the break.

Foster + Partners’ City Park proposal has recently been selected for the 40-hectare masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District. Since this past August, we have been sharing the three competing shortlisted projects – OMA’s Three Villages, Rocco Design Architects’ Cultural Connect, and Foster’s City Park – and your comments have sparked great discussion concerning the advantages and disadvantages of each. The selection process for the cultural district was quite unique as the three projects, that were selected from 12 proposals, then entered a public consultation exercise. For three months, the people of the West Kowloon district had the opportunity to review and comment on the projects, which then had a strong impact on the panel’s final decision.

Back in July, we first introduced Aarhus, Denmark’s School of Architecture along with a cool temporary pavilion assembled from euro-pallets. Recently, three of the university’s students – Johan Stoustrup, Gustav Kragh-Jacobsen and Martin Erlandsson – have shared a creative video-project which focuses on the abstraction of fragmentation. Entitled ”Fragments of the Ideal City,” the video depicts the city as an constantly changing organism as different video clips project various images upon a lime plaster model set to music by Band Ane.

It has become standard to check the stock market, book a flight, and find a restaurant using our phones…but to review building permits? Starting today, Mayor Bloomberg of New York announced the Quick Response code that will allow New Yorkers to simply scan the bar code located on construction permits to access information about a specific building or construction site. The information given will share the “approved scope of work, identities of the property owner and job applicant, other approved projects associated with the permit, complaints and violations related to the location,” explained the Mayor in a press release.

What do you think of this new feature? More about the latest app after the break.

Check out WORKac’s latest expansion project, which includes replacing an existing library with a better functioning structure. The library’s perimeter becomes an activated strip with different rooms for adults, teens, children and staff. Above, a continuous “loop of green” runs across the roof introducing greenery into the dense neighborhood.

More images and more about the project after the break.

New York architect Thomas Phifer recently published his first monograph and shared the publication with us. The work matches our perception of Phifer’s architecture – elegent and pristine – as the pages are filled with exciting photography, capturing the essence of the buildings in their natural context. As Phifer shared when we interviewed him, “We really seek to open buildings up again…to nature and to the sun, to the sound of the wind; to bring back that sense of nature which is part of architecture.”

More about the monograph after the break.

Tomorrow marks the opening day of Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House. The 70,000 sqm project consists of two solid geometric forms wrapped with a structural exoskeleton. The two components, with their similar form, color and shared structural expression, create a strong artistic expression to house the cultural center. Hadid’s angular exterior intentions are carried through the interiors, shaping dynamic gathering spaces and interstitial spaces. For the main auditorium, Hadid’s concept has manifested itself in the form of fluid ribbons that wrap the main stage. Previously, we have featured some great photos showing the building further along in its construction process , thanks to our reader Sharwe, and we’re excited to share news of its opening!

“Overlooking the Pearl River the Guangzhou Opera House is at the heart of Guangzhou’s cultural sites development. Adopting state of the art technology in its design and construction it will be a lasting monument to the New Millennium, confirming Guangzhou as one of Asia’s cultural centers. Its unique twin boulder design will enhance urban function by opening access to the riverside and dock areas and creating a new dialogue with the emerging new town,” explains Hadid.

More images after the break.