The design proposal for the Aurinkokivi School competition in Vantaa, Finland by Rudanko + Kankkunen was recently awarded a purchase prize for its inspiring architecture and child-friendly spaces. The concept is simple yet fresh: traditional gabled building wings meet and form a surprising composition at the heart of the building. The building is mostly on one level and can be realized with repeating construction elements. It is designed to be inexpensive to build, yet highly fresh and inviting. More images and architects’ description after the break.

How do we talk about architecture? Housing? Cities? Culture? Politics? And, equally important, how don’t we talk about them? Comments on Foreclosed, a forthcoming book and online archive of public reactions to Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, a 2012 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that was co-curated by the Buell Center, has been produced to document just this kind of public discussion and the various platforms that shape it.

On February 18th, The Buell Center will mark the completion of the book and website, www.commentsonforeclosed.com, with a public event, “Comments on Comments”. A performance of excerpts from the archive will open a multimedia panel discussion and Q&A. In so doing, certain gaps in the public conversation on American housing and urbanism will be identified, and systemic deficiencies called out.

Taking place this coming Wednesday, February 20th, Winy Maas, a Netherlands-based architect, urbanist and co-founder of the internationally-recognized firm MVRDV, is scheduled to speak at NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) at 9:00am PST on the topic of “What’s Next?”. The free lecture includes a discussion on the recent works of MVRDV and the research institute The Why Factory, a think tank directed by Maas in collaboration with Delft University of Technology that develops scenarios and models of the city of the future. For more information, please visit here.

Designed by ODA, 100 Norfolk Street expresses the unlimited potential and ambition hidden in the New York Block as it stands significantly taller than its neighbors. Located within the Lower east side Manhattan, the design creates a rather unusual condition, a mid-block – freestanding building overlooking the area, offering strong light exposure for the interior residential spaces and direct views of Downtown, Midtown and the Williamsburg Bridge. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Inspired by the textile industry of Southeast Asia, Yann Follain, co-founder of WY-TO Architects, has designed a Floating Skeleton at Art Stage Singapore to greet the fair’s visitors. The wire-framed floating structure will act as a gateway to Asia’s global art fair. The over-sized loom theme follows through into the new VIP area – The Whirl. Follain has deliberately used lines (representing thread), color, light and textures to represent the diverse and differentiating cultural influences on the established textile industry of Southeast Asia. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Initiated by KÉK – Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre in 2007, the 5th Annual Budapest Architecture Film Days will be taking place February 28-March 3. The main intent of the event is to use the medium of film to highlight the most subtle processes in architecture, design and urban development. This year, the 4-day festival proposes the richest and most diverse program of its half-decade existence to those interested in architecture, design and cities. The event opens with a portrait of one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, Oscar Niemeyer. For more information, including a complete program of events, please visit here.

Above is a video created by A4 Studio which features three of their projects located in the shore of the biggest lake of Middle-Europe, Lake Balaton. The Club 218 and Sio Plaza are two of the three projects in the film that have been published on Archdaily. All projects featured here are very modern works and emphasize A4 Studio’s creative design methodology. The architectural gestures of these projects is shown in detail as a child is shown moving in and around the buildings on a scooter.

BAT + Arquitecnica + LaSuma Paisajistas shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the Eco-Zone competition for a center for cultural and linguistic diversity and an energy platform (renewable + energy efficiency technologies), including all their necessary content of museographic character. Their proposal aims to value the pre-existing built and landscape of the estate Zabalegi in San Sebastian. The architects seek to remember through their intervention, raising some core structural sections that are born from the house of the Indian, that the first stone or seed of this project was planted by Mr. Arteaga when he to donated his plot performing an act of social responsibility. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The French Rugby Federation (FFR) recently announced they will use the proposal by Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/ for the design of the Grand Stade. After several months of discussions with three competing groups, the FFR has made its choice of designers and has issued the first computer-rendered images. The FFR Grand Stade will be much more than a stadium; the 82,000 capacity venue will become the ‘national stadium of rugby’. It will host all the French rugby home matches, and also accommodate conventions, shows and a broad range of sporting events thanks to its multi-purpose design. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Exploring the evolving way in which we work, the POP-UP Office is an installation by DUBBELDAM Architecture + Design that uses modular units that can be combined in different ways. The result is a workspace that is simultaneously bare bones and tailored to the individual. This design becomes a great response to the profound shift in the way we work; when all we need is a surface to work on and a place to plug in, the working environment is no longer static. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Upon winning the contract to design the new State Fire Brigade School in Wurzburg, gmp Architekten recently presented their design which involves a new practice hall on the site of the Fire Brigade School in order to meet the changed requirements of the training program. The site is in a very exposed location so that the new practice hall building will be visible from afar, and will clearly mark the position of the State Fire Brigade School within the Zellerau neighborhood. More images and architects’ description after the break.

A join venture between Treurniet Architectuur, Michiel Clercx Architectuur, Addis Mebratu and S7 Architects PLC recently won the international design competition for the new building complex for the Ethiopian Parliament. The project represents the wide variety of 85 million people living across a fascinating landscape of 1,000,000 km2. The new building is of significance for every individual, every ethnic group, its thoughts, its interests and its own way of living. By creating a recognizable shape whith a strong symbolic value, the architects make full use of the site located on the hill in the middle of Addis Abeba. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by Salon2, their ‘Haze’ Pavilion proposal aims to transform Istanbul Modern into a garden of stages while preparing an unexpected architectural condition for the distant relationship of İstanbul and the sea. Through an experiential design, the pavilion shifts the perception of a specific shore condition of the Tophane Pier and creates its own cool microclimate in the warmest days of the year it to accommodates various events. More images and architects’ description after the break.

As part of their Cultural Drivers event series, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. will be presenting the ‘Culture as Catalyst: Past, Present, Future’ event from 6:30pm-8:00pm on February 25th. Cities are increasingly defined by their civic spaces such as museums, theaters, libraries, parks, and cultural districts. Designers, public officials, and non-profit leaders from across the U.S. will share how their cultural facilities and civic spaces are re-energizing neighborhoods, spurring economic development, and responding to the needs of the community. For more information, please visit here.

The first prize winning proposal in the competition to design the masterplan of Padideh Kish, a destination resort in Kish Island, Iran, creates a fantastic and exciting place to improve and deepen the experience of a trip and remain in the mind of any visitor. Designed by Shirdel and Associates Architects, their idea of Padideh is a result of juxtaposition, the interaction and development of concepts where each one is dependent on the architectural achievements and architectural history of Iran. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Elkiær + Ebbeskov Arkitekter shared with us their winning proposal, titled ‘GROW YOUR CITY’, in the Suburb of the Future competition. The idea is not to reinvent the suburbs from scratch, but they believe that if one is able to identify their existing strengths and exceptional features, the areas sometimes referred to as “the fringes” may have the potential to become “the cutting edge”. Their design describes a modern area of suburban cultivation – “the Growth Zone” (Vækstzonen) – as a new residential quarter in the town of Nykøbing Falster. Its underlying notion is based on the broad links sweeping from countryside to seaside and on into the close-grained structure of the Danish fields and farmlands. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Kokkinou – Kourkoulas Architects shared with us their proposal in the competition for the redesign of the existing cereals stock house building facilities (SILO) and its surrounding open space into a Museum for Underwater Antiquities. This also includes the regeneration of part of the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) Coastal Zone – transformation into an open public space for outdoor activities. With their main strategy based on preserving the memory and the effective wealth of the industrial past of the port, their goal is the creation of a cultural center at the western edge of the port amongst the wharfs and other industrial infrastructure. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taking place at 6:00pm PST on Friday, March 1, internationally acclaimed architects Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano will deliver their fourth presentation in the “Placing” lecture series offered by the Department of Architecture at Portland State University, which is free and open to the public. Based in Madrid and Berlin, Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos is known for projects that marry a contemporary architectural language with traditional settings and historic structures. Their work includes the Madinat al Zahra Museum in Córdoba—recipient of a 2010 Aga Kahn Award—and extensions to the Joanneum Museum in Graz. More information after the break.