Great projects often come from competitions. You don’t believe me? Check our fourth part of our previously featured awarded competition projects after the break.

3LHD to design private medical center in Croatia Close surrounding and historical site of Firule area are one of the most enjoyable Split’s living, working and recreation environments. Extraordinary location for the polyclinic is one of its greatest advantages. Placed near existing hospital complex on Firule, close to the sea and fresh air gives it even more importance and value (read more…)

1 October 2010 will see the starting signal fired for registrations for the 8th International Design Award 2011. Students of architecture and design have to submit their entries by 31 January 2011. The re-structured concept for the largest student design competition simplifies participation and rewards universities setting and submitting a term/semester project assignment.

The San Ysidro Land Port of Entry is designed to be the port of the future, not only operationally, but also in terms of high-performance buildings.

Designed by the award-winning architectural firm, The Miller Hull Partnership, all three phases of the project are targeted to achieve LEED Platinum certification due to energy efficiency, water conservation strategies, and an integrated design process. Most notably is the potential of achieving net zero energy in all the occupied spaces, the first facility open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, to achieve this in the United States.

Complete press release and more images after the break.

The board of Sberbank, the leading bank of Russia, signed a contract with the Dutch Architect Erick van Egeraat for the realization of their new Corporate University, west of Moscow, close to the Novorizhkoye highway. More images and complete press release after the break.

You didn’t check ArchDaily last week? You may have missed an incredible horizontal skyscraper, an opera house by Zaha Hadid, a pavilion for La Biennale, a fantastic house in Spain and my own personal dream vacation house. Check them all after the break.

Paraty House / Marcio Kogan There is a legend which says that the region of the colonial city of Paraty and Angra dos Reis (between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) has 365 islands, one for each day of the year. Two boxes of reinforced concrete, rest fixed connected on the mountainside of one of these islands; two modern prisms between the large colossal stones of the Brazilian coast (read more…)

The Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities, with the PaBAAC – General Direction for the landscape, fine arts, architecture and contemporary art – and the Biennale di Venezia present AILATI. Reflections from the future, an exhibition conceived by Luca Molinari for the Padiglione Italia at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, where Studio Tamassociati will present his work in the category “Socially aware design”.

We found this amazing video by Dutch Profiles on Rem Koolhaas, principal of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), and recent winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Enjoy it!

n order to demonstrate the historical continuity and unique position of private residential architecture in the local architectural scene, the exhibition includes private residences with special iconic meaning from the period of the first Estonian Republic and the Soviet era. However, the main emphasis is placed on the 21st century, thereby creating such a voluminous overview of the best of Estonian residential architecture for the first time.

The Exhibition is accompanied by a 250-page catalogue, with rich illustrative material and articles, to expand the topic. For more information, click here. You can see six Estonian houses after the break.

JA Joubert Architecture, has won second prize in an international competition for a new mixed-use building along the Rruga Durresit, the main road into Tirana, Albania. Breaking with the traditional box-like shapes, they filled out the space set by the urban regulations, and subsequently hollowed out this shape until the maximum allowed volume was reached. In doing so, the strong, recognisable outer shape, is contrasted by beautiful open inner spaces and at the same time the proposed shape allows for a flexible development in program between shopping, offices and housing. More information and images after the break.

Hungarian architects Tamás Szentirmai and János Vági designed an exhibition in Budapest called “Over the Counter”, for which they mostly used rented wooden pallets. You can see more images and architect’s description after the break.

Back in May, we told you about the Sukkah City Competition, which asked architects to reimagine the sukkah, a temporary structure built to celebrate the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Tesseract is a collective of architecture students from RGU in Aberdeen, Scotland, who came together under the common ambition of using our creativity for humanity. They are now traveling to Delhi, India to work with local NGO Anusaran in the construction of a new hostel that will provide accommodation for children, young women and visiting volunteers, as well as classrooms, meeting and dining areas.

It’s been almost 6 months since our latest public facilities Round Up. And with amazing projects from France, Spain, Brazil, Sweden and Portugal, we had the need to bring you our 4th selection. Check it after the break.

Community Center Valley of Herault / N+B Architectes Located at the entrance of the town of Gignac, the stake of project consisted in positioning on this parcel more than a simple building, a real urban unit, a village around a place. Thus each batch has an independent access onto the garden, giving each entity its autonomy and identity. Circulations of vehicles are channelled and rejected to the periphery of the site thus releasing the very heart dedicated to the pedestrians (read more…)

JA Joubert Architecture, a Rotterdam-based architectural office, has won first prize in an international competition for a new neighbourhood in Tirana, Albania. Invited by a private developer, they decided to break with standard sub-urban development by proposing an integral solution for building and parking, directly linking them to the terrain conditions, thus creating a new community for different (age) groups, with sports and health facilities, set within a continuous green park with beautiful views to the city and Tirana lake. More information and images after the break.

The competition seeks out fresh and inventive designs that will help promote downtown not only as a transportation hub, but a gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Christopher Morgan, architecture student from Virginia Tech won an international competition to design Yéle Music Studio in the Cité Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The competition was launched before the terrible earthquake of January 12, and architecture students from all over the world were invited to participate. The Royal Institute of British Architects, along with architecture firm John McAslan + Partners and developer Allied London, sponsored the competition on behalf of Yéle Haiti, a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 by Haiti-born musician Wyclef Jean.

The brief asked entrants to design a 1,000-square-foot music studio that would contain recording and radio-production facilities, while also offering space for vocational training for at-risk youth in Cité Soleil, a poor and crime-ridden district. You can see more images of the winning design after the break. Seen at Architectural Record.

AIA Utah announces the 2010 design/build competition Ballet West: Fluid Adagio Installation (BWFAI), a first-time-ever joint competition initiated by AIA Utah’s Young Architects Forum.