The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the March Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score was 51.9, up from the mark of 50.3 in the previous month. This score reflects an increase in design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 58.1, down from a reading of 59.5 the previous month.

By next Fall, the architecture students of Washington University in St. Louis will no longer be allowed to use Styrene on their projects. The university's newspaper, Student Life reports that the commonly used white plastic material was deemed in 2014 by the National Research Council's National Toxicology Program as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen." Thus the Sam Fox School of Design is taking its own measures to protect their student's health. A number of other schools and cities have already banned Styrene since the NRC's ruling.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected ten recipients for the 2016 Housing Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards program, now in its 16th year, was established to recognize "the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life."

The 2016 AIA Housing Award recipients include:

Jennifer Siegal, founder of Los Angeles-based Office of Mobile Design (OMD), has been announced as the winner of the fourth arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture, an international award to women’s architecture organized by Italcementi. Siegal was unanimously chosen by the jury for being “a fearless pioneer in the research and development of prefabricated construction systems, at low prices for disadvantaged users and areas, who has been able to invent and build practical solutions and a new language for mobile and low-cost housing."

"Innovation and unconventional thinking are both hardwired into my DNA. This shows in my body of work and research that questions everything, particularly the static, heavy, inflexible architecture that we somehow still expect in a world that is anything but," said Siegal in a press release.

Steven Holl Architects (SHA) has been commissioned by Williams College to complete a program and masterplan study for the Williams College Department of Art and Museum of Art (WCMA). "The Master Plan aims to evaluate programming and space needs toward the determination of a program to catalyze the engagement of students, faculty and visitors with the visual arts," says SHA.

After talking with nearly 30 distinct groups of students, faculty and museum staff, SHA defined five main goals in which the study is based on:

The Western Australia Government has commissioned OMA and Hassell to design the new WA Museum in Perth. The team was chosen over three shortlisted consortia for the reputation of "creating dynamic architecture" and "international reputation," according to WA Culture and the Arts Minister John Day. A schematic design is expected to be released this summer. The museum plans to open by 2020.

Thomas Heatherwick has been selected to receive the Tribeca Film Festival's (TFF) 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award. Part of the TFF's seventh annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards (TDIA), the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Heatherwick for his "dedication to bringing design, architecture and urban planning together in a single workspace at his own Heatherwick Studio." He will be presented the award alongside Kenya Wildlife Service Chair and leading paleoanthropologist and conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey.

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Chilean-born artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz has designed Swiss watchmaking brand Audemars Piguet's new lounge for Art Basel Hong Kong. "Taking inspiration from the ice formations and snowy winters of Audemars Piguet’s home in Le Brassus, Switzerland, the lounge will express the purity of nature and the passing of time," says Errazuriz.

"With water and ice as its main thematic elements, the new stand will give form to the concept of ice cycle as a metaphor of time. Three key components will anchor Errazuriz’s design: the icicle as a beautiful form, accumulating over time; the water drop, seen as nature’s ticking pulse; and ripples in the water, symbolizing the forward movement of new life. The drips of the melting icicles resemble nature’s pulse, like the beating of a heart or a ticking clock."

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) has announced Phyllis Lambert, architect and CCA Founding Director Emeritus, as the winner of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize 2016 Architecture Awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. The $20,000 prize is given to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art.

Lambert "is the conscience of modern and contemporary architecture, protecting its past and advocating for its future as a vital art form," said jury chairman Elizabeth Diller.

Known for its seven miles of "golden" beaches, the English town of Bournemouth is planning to build a £25 million cultural centre on the country's south coast. The project's organizers, Bournemouth Development Company (BDC) has shortlisted five international practices from 38 interested participants to vie for the commission: Zaha Hadid Architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Levitt Bernstein Associates and Jestico + Whiles.

C.F. Møller Landscape's Nordhavn Islands project has won the international competition for an innovative learning, activity and water landscape in the harbor basin in front of the new Copenhagen International School in Nordhavn, Copenhagen. The new Nordhavn district is taking shape fast, and, having won the international Nordhavn Islands project competition, C.F. Møller Landscape will now create one of the first and most unique projects in, on and under the water in the quarter.

UNStudio has won a competition to transform the former Deutsche Bank site in Frankfurt's financial district into a lively mixed-use site comprised of offices, apartments, hotels, retail, gastro and open public spaces. With four high-rise towers reaching up to 228-meters-tall, the proposal plans to feature the city's highest residential and office buildings.

“Bringing a mixed-use project into this financial district will not only enliven the area during daytime, but it will also introduce evening programs and create an essential form of social sustainability to this part of the city," says Ben van Berkel of UNStudio. "The introduction of the residential and the leisure components are key to this strategy. This sculptural family of towers will also create the suggestion of a cohesive neighborhood within the skyline and emphasize the importance of this part of the city within the whole."

Kazuyo Sejima is designing a new express train for Japan. Commissioned by Seibu Group, the Limited Express train would be a "friendly" addition to the company's "Red Arrow" series, which so far boasts brightly colored, traditional designs that stand out from the surroundings.

Much like Sejima's architecture, the initial concept reveals a light, semi-transparent design that allows the train to blend into the landscape.