Architects Mario Corea and Eugenio Tioni of Mario Corea Arquitectura recently won the competition for the design of the New Trade Fair Building in Mendoza, Argentina. Located in Mendoza’s main municipal park, their design is based on the role of the building in the construction of the city, rather than approaching the project as an isolated object in the middle of a green zone. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Claiming to be the most progressive, sustainable, and cost effective courthouse in the nation, NBBJ’s shortlisted proposal for the New Los Angeles Federal Courthouse serves as a model for future GSA development. The contrast between the free and informal spirit of Los Angeles with the formal structure and societal role of the Federal Courts illustrates an important duality that openly coexists throughout their phased design. At a larger scale, the structure becomes a mediator within the skyline, rising to a comfortable 256 feet tall to help transition the steep, urban high-rise topography of Bunker Hill and the mid-rise, ordered context of downtown.

Read the architects’ description after the break to learn more about this high performance, multifaceted design.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced two recipients of the 2013 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture. In category one, the institute recognized Michael Pyatok, FAIA, of Oakland’s Pyatok Architects, as an architect who has dedicated his career to the theory and practice of public housing design. And, in category three, Ginnie Cooper, Chief Librarian and Executive Director of the District of Columbia Public Libraries, has been honored for spearheading the recent renaissance in library construction and renovation in the nation’s capital.

This year’s award recipients will be honored and receive their awards at the 2013 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Denver.

On the advice of English Heritage, architecture minister Ed Vaizey has listed Norman Foster’s first major public building: the 1977 Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, in the United Kingdom. According to BDOnline, the popular public art museum, which houses the collection of Lord and Lady Sainsbury, was granted grade II* protection for its innovative engineering, fine design, historic association, flexibility and group value. Its revolutionary design features an innovative, prefabricated modular structure that is cleverly designed to allow for subsequent extension.

Vaizey described: “Norman Foster’s design for the Sainsbury Centre is recognized around the world as a high point of the British ‘high-tech’ movement and, by any standards, a modern classic.”

Read Foster’s response after the break.

This week we will recommend you a really surrealistic film. ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, directed by Michael Gondry is a movie that takes place in a future where medicine technics allow people to modify and delete some memories. These changes are reflected in the space perception of the characters. The scenes morph and human scale is shrunk, buildings disappear and daylight turns into absolut darkness in seconds.

Enjoy the movie and let us know your comments. Do you think architecture can be described through memories? Any ideas about our memories and space perception?

Designed by People’s Architecture Office (PAO) + People’s Industrial Design Office (PIDO), the Tricycle House and Tricyle Garden was designed to address the theme of the 2012 Get It Louder Exhibition. The inability to own land is a fundamental condition in China unique from many western countries. The Tricycle House suggests a future where the temporary relationship and the public nature between people and the land they occupy is embraced. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Bargellino Plug & Play proposal for the urban regeneration of the Bargellino area acts as a set of management software from which the user can draw upon and benefit from an integrated system of logistics, service and quality. Designed by Ciclostile Architettura, the expression “plug and play” is used in programming language with reference to technologies that can be put into use in an hardware system without any specific installation procedure by the user. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Architectural League of New York and the New York Transit Museum recently announced the winners of a competition to select sketches by contemporary architects for a new Grand Central Terminal sketchbook produced in collaboration with Moleskine. The sketchbook features historical images from the Transit Museum’s collections, along with twenty drawings and sketches by contemporary architects and designers who were invited to “submit a sketch or drawing that captures and/or re-imagines Grand Central, representing or evoking what this iconic building means to you.” More images and information after the break.

Harvard Graduate School of Design recently announced the launch of the Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 traveling fellowship awarded annually to talented early-career architects worldwide proposing exceptional itineraries for research and discovery. With an open application process, the Wheelwright Prize recognizes the importance of field research to professional development, and reinforces Harvard GSD’s dedication to fostering investigative approaches to contemporary design. Online applications will be accepted starting January 10; deadline for submissions is February 28, 2013. For more information, please visit here.

Practitioner, author and celebrated educator Robert Greenstreet, Intl. Assoc. AIA, has been awarded the 2013 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. Greentstreet – one of the longest-serving architecture deans in North America – has influenced countless students and architects throughout his 35-year career. He has taught a five schools of architecture in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as spent 20 years as dean at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).

In March, Greenstreet will be awarded the medallion at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) annual meeting in San Francisco. The AIA will also recognize him at the 2013 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Denver in June.

It’s time for the last Flickr Round Up of the year! Remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The photo above is the unique Guggenheim Museum in New York City designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and was taken by Chimay Bleue. Check the other four after the break.

After months of an “arduous” public reviewing process, BIG’s eye-catching West 57th apartment building in Manhattan has been approved by the City Planning Commission. The atypical design quickly gained international attention with its abruptly sloped, tetrahedral shape that rises from three stories to thirty-eight stories on an awkwardly sized single block site. Cleverly titled W57, the unique project was “born of logic”, as New York Magazine’s Justin Davidson would describe. It features a massive, football-sized courtyard with stunning Hudson River views and outdoor terraces for all 753 residents, along with a vibrant street life and close proximity to the Hudson River Park.

“Our approval will facilitate development of a significant new building with a distinctive pyramid-like shaped design and thoughtful site plan that integrates the full block site into the evolving residential, institutional, and commercial neighborhood surrounding it,” stated City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden before voting in favor of the project.

Find out what it took to get W57 passed, after the break…

The winning proposal for the multi-sports complex in the city of Antony, France responds to the strong political will of a new urban ambition for the neighborhood. The context is heterogeneous linear collective housing on one side and unique botanical heritage of the Park on the other. Designed by Archi5 + Tecnova Architecture, this project includes a theme for each function including gathering, meeting, sports activities, and events. This becomes evident in all aspects of the building at all levels. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by Sparano + Mooney Architecture, they embraced the idea as light as a mediator for the central organizing principle for their proposal. The new Cathedral, a delicate dance between old and new, each contributes to its role in the creation of the new. The act of covering the precious ruins with a diaphanous, copper material creates the new space and form of the Cathedral which emerges as a dialogue between existing remains and new veil. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Hyuntek Yoon and Soobum You of Team Atelier Why shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the Detroit Riverfront competition. Their ‘Forest’ concept, which aims at being a fairy tale between the city and the forest by ‘filling’, is the focus of the urban development. Currently, the site is filled with voids, such as trees and the knoll, but the forest creates rich stories with the city. Providing spaces that are more secure and for smaller activities, people will have the chance to experience nature. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Located in an area of Lviv, Ukraine with unfinished buildings, the proposal for the Green Walking Mall is conceived as an inclusions program for the existing Bazar Quarter into the surrounding urban structures. Designed by Unika Architecture & Urbanism, this is accomplished through the new planning structure that installs broken links with neighboring quarters. Their design adds clarity to complicated pedestrian links and chaotic planning including program for the existing area into the surrounding urban structures. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Watch this video tour of the Bacardi Building in Miami, Florida, by the grandson of the original founder. The building, built in 1962, became the headquarters of the company for fifty years and has become an iconic modernist symbol in the city with an additional building added to the property in 1970. The building is designed by Enrique Guitierrez. The unique facade of the building was designed by ceramic artist Francisco Brennand using 20,000 tiles. The building resonates with Miami’s culture and has become a landmark for nearby residents. Tito Bacardi, who is the tour guide in the video, explains with pride how its the company’s legacy has become intertwined with the architecture – a building that represented Bacardi’s relocation from Cuba to America.

In Bangladesh, where rising sea levels are having profound effects on the landscape, one nonprofit organization called Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha run by architect Mohammed Rezwan is fighting back by adapting, a true quality of resilience. Rising water levels and the tumultuous climate is displacing people by the thousands; a projected 20% of Bangladesh is expected to be covered in water within twenty years. For a country that is one of the densest populated state on the planet, this figure has disastrous consequences for a population that has limited access to fresh water, food, and medicine. In response to these conditions, Shidhulai has focused on providing education, training and care against the odds of climate change by adapting to the altered landscape: moving schools and community centers onto the water – on boats.

To join in on all the holiday cheer, we decided to share with you this architectural funny that depicts the architectural history of the christmas tree. We found the clever illustration by Subtle Design on deviantART – “the world’s largest online art community”. Enjoy!

Installed in Sony Square in Tokyo and on display until January 14, the ‘Crystal Aqua Trees’ is a crystal work of art inspired by the concept of a fountain that can be seen as a spray of water as well as a Christmas tree. Designed by Torafu Architects, the project was inspired by the Trevi fountain in Rome, the “Ai no Izumi” (Fountain of Love) charity drive, which has been held by Sony every year since 1968. For this edition, the architects proposed a new embodiment as an interactive installation. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The competition for the ‘Ito Jakuchu Inspire’ pavilion is focused on the great celebration throughout the world of Ito Jakuchu’s work, a milestone in Japanese art history. Taking on a symbolic meaning, the competition effectively corresponds to a cultural phase of our existence. Designed by architects Đordje Alfirević and Sanja Simonović, this second prize winning proposal creates a dematerialization of boundaries between Ito Jakuchu’s perception of the reality in which he lived and the appearance of our modern world. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Open to all young creative minds from all parts of the world from the ages of 18-33, the Fenn Young Designers Award competition recently announced the judges and winners. Organized by Fenn Designers, based on interpreting “Organic”, they received a total of 280 participants, from 59 countries. The main question was, ‘How do you interpret “Organic” if you are designing a building, a piece of furniture, a fabric, a dress, a painting or any other form of art?’ More images and a complete list of the judges and the winners after the break.