The Siberian Center for Contemporary Art and Siberian Center for the Promotion of Architecture is inviting all to participate in the open international competition for the architectural concept of the symbolic object of city environment dedicated to Russian avant-garde (or to El Lissitzky). In Russia there are no monuments either to the Russian avant-garde movement or to Russian avant-gardist. That is why this project is unique. The realization of this project will be significant for the city and Russia and it will underline the importance of Novosibirsk as one of the centers of Russian constructivist architecture. The deadline to register is October 1 and the deadline for submissions is no later than October 2. For more information, please visit here.

Pracownia Architektoniczna Poznań Projekt, in collaboration with mode:lina Architekci, shared with us their design for the main entrance to the Voivodeship Police Headquarters in Poznań, Poland. The building, which is part of a historic urban structure, aims to adjust the entrance for disabled users as well as set a new standard for Police interiors. More images and architects’ description after the break.

As previously announced, the Portuguese architects behind “OCO – Ocean & Coastline Observatory” have won Habitat for Humanity’s Open Architecture Challenge: RESTRICTED ACCESS 2011. Over 500 teams from 74 countries submitted innovative solutions for the recovery and reuse of disabled and abandoned military sites. These submissions were filtered down to 13 finalists by a jury of 33 esteemed professionals. The Lisbon-based architects of OCO claimed grand prized with their vision to redevelop a desolate military site, that once defended the coast of Trafaria in Portugal, into a civic space that promotes coastal preservation.

Continue after the break for more. 

The Poland Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Biennale will feature a design exploration into the interaction between sound and architecture in creating our environment. The project, by Katarzyna Krakowiak, is a sound sculpture that presents architecture as a primary system of listening. The sculpture collaborates with neighboring pavilions and echos the sounds that reach the Polish Pavilion, highlighting its acoustic qualities. The exhibit will be on view from August 29th through November 29th.

More on the exhibit after the break.

The proposal for the National Library of Israel by ODA takes on special significance as a site where past, present, and future converge. Unlike traditional libraries, often closed fortresses of knowledge, the new library is organized around a variety of platforms of activity that enhance interaction between the users, enabling the library to become a forum for cross-disciplinary conversations. Through the form of a floating monolith that visually connects to the foundations of Parliament, the library underscores the idea that education and learning are the bedrock of democracy. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taking place September 1-2, the two-day ‘PROTO/E/CO/LOGICS 002: The Field is Open’ Symposium, put on by the Mediterranean Laboratory for Architecture and Urban Strategies (MLAUS), is envisioned as an open platform for rethinking increasingly complex landscape of architecture and asymptotic cultures. Through expansion in material science, cloud computing, transformations in constructability and manufacturing (such as ongoing revolution with 3d printing) and internet of things, boundaries of architecture are becoming fuzzy and the Field is increasingly Open. In recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in events and understanding that the agency spawns beyond human, provides a new ground for addressing design ecology. For more information, please visit their official website here.

In conjunction with its current exhibition The Landmarks of New York, the Parrish Art Museum will host an illustrated presentation by multi-talented, award winning architect David Rockwell titled “Untold Stories from an Eclectic, Exceptional Practice.” A brief discussion between Rockwell, who founded Rockwell Group in 1984 to focus on a diverse array of projects that range from hotels to hospitals, restaurants to airport terminals, and Broadway set designs to consumer products, and exhibition curator Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel will follow the talk. The program will take place Thursday, August 23, at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $5 for Parrish members, $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information on the event, please visit here.

The OpenAEC Challenge is an architectural competition where the criteria for winning is based on how well you collaborate with others and not on how well you design in isolation. In that sense, it’s less a competition, and more a challenge. The sole purpose of this Challenge is to abolish a pervasive myth undoubtedly shared by a vast majority of architectural students around the world: That real-world buildings are designed by a sole, mastermind architect, working in isolation. This Challenge will be centered around a real project—a 48 acre (19.5 ha) sustainable, agro-tourism farm, called Flocktown Farm, located an hour outside of New York City. It will be broken down into eight, two-week long phases or charrettes, over the length of the Fall semester, 2012. For more information, please visit their website here.

In January of 1975, Buckminster Fuller sat down to deliver twelve lectures that made up the 42-hour series Everything I Know. The entire event was captured on video, with the most advanced, bluescreen technology of the time. Fuller discusses an array of topics, from “architecture, design, philosophy, education, mathematics, geometry, cartography, economics, history, structure, industry, housing and engineering”, to all his major inventions and discoveries, along with “his own personal history in the context of the history of science and industrialization”.

The embedded video above is recompiled and edited version of the series. You may download the entire 42-hours (for free!) from the Internet Archive. The Buckminster Fuller archive has also made transcripts of Everything I Know - “minimally edited and maximally Fuller” – freely available.

Continue after the break for links to the remaining lectures.

After controversy struck when critics blamed “bad design” for inconvenient ticket refunds, the success of Zaha Hadid’s design for the London Olympic’s Aquatics Center was validated by the overwhelming approval from spectators. According to a survey conducted by the University of Westminster, 95% of the Aquatics Center spectators were satisfied with their experience and 85% thought the venue captured the “true spirit” of the Olympics.

With ‘Revitalizing Cities’ as the theme, New Jersey Institute of Technology will be hosting the upcoming semi-annual AIAS Northeast Fall Quad Conference in Newark. As current architecture students, they have an invested interest in what the world will become in 5, 10, even 20 years from now. It is our mission to showcase the potential of urban environments, like Newark, and look forward to a progressive future.

The proposal for the Chilean Pavilion at Guadalajara’s International Book Fair, designed by DAW, consists in generating a great container that permits a greater presence within the exhibition center and the easy recognition as an icon. As a grand “open house” being the principal concept, the thematic exposition of Chile is prepared in outdoor spaces, consisting primarily in a furnished base and a wooden deck. More images and architects’ description after the break.

This time last year, Bill Gates made a claim. He would give $100,000 to anyone who could reinvent the toilet. 

Designed by Atelier Seraji Architectes & Associés, in collaboration with Mehdi Bakhshizadeh and Tadbir Omran lranian, their questioning started with the debate on what is the most distinguishable aspect of Persian Architecture in trade, bank and stock exchange buildings? The other urgent question was regarding the main difference between western and Persian thought in contemporary cultural debates.

They came to the conclusion that one of the main differences is the description and perception of the idea of complexity and its structure in our culture. The result is a new public space through this new building in Tehran through building an innovative structure that sits intelligently with the site and proves the capacity of Persian engineering. More images and architects’ description after the break.

“Open City: London, 1500-1700″, an exhibit running at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, explores the two hundred year period in which London was transformed from a medieval capital to an early modern metropolis. During this period the city suffered a series of traumatic events including plagues, religious disputes, civil wars, the Great Fire, political instability and economic upheaval. This exhibit allows the audience to witness that despite these drawbacks in its history, London came out on top as the capital of a global empire. Looking at the city as places of gathering: churches, theaters and markets, “Open City” explores ways in which citizens dealt with the changes in their political, economic and social systems. The exhibit is curated by Kathleen Lynch and will be running through September 30th.

More after the break.

Architects: Chiaki Arai Urban and Architecture Design Location: Tama city, Tokyo, Japan Architect In Charge: Chiaki Arai Design Team: Chiaki Arai, Ryoichi Yoshizaki, Tomonori Niimi, Chiaki Hamamatsu Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Taisuke Ogawa

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German-born and Beijing-based architect Ole Scheeren will reconstruct the wooden Archipelago Cinema within the old harbor basin Darsena Grande of the Arsenale, Venice’s historic shipyard, as an official collateral event for the 13th International Architecture Exhibition. This unique, floating architectural experience became wildly popular when it was first conceived for the Film on the Rocks Yao Noi festival in Thailand.

Serving as a mobile stage for public events, the modular outdoor theater will feature a world premiere of the film Against All Rules. Continue after the break to learn more.

Architects: Archi5 Location: Paris, France Project Year: 2011 Project Area: 3,989 sqm Photographs: Thomas Jorio

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One of the main idea’s behind the 2012 Venice Biennale’s “Common Ground” theme, as stated by director David Chipperfield, is “to reinforce our understanding of architectural culture, and to emphasize the philosophical and practical continuities that define it”. With the exhibition “Culture Under Construction | The Collectivity of Cultural Space”, Mexico aims to develop an understanding of the distinct contribution that architecture can make to define the collectivity of cultural spaces while strengthening the connection between existing buildings and emerging architecture.

Mexico will exhibit thirteen projects that reveal the significance of contemporary Mexican culture of architecture in one of the most emblematic buildings in Venice, the Church of San Lorenzo, which they will restore as a contribution to Venice’s built heritage.

Continue reading to learn more.

Pavlo Kryvozub, a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati, was just announced by the SOM Foundation as the winner of the 2012 SOM Prize. He will use the $50,000 award to facilitate travel in Europe and Asia pursuing research on his topic, “Synthesis of Art & Architecture.” Kryvozub says, “The synthesis of the arts within the field of architecture has a long tradition which spans throughout human history…I would like to look for the continuity of development and interaction of architecture with other arts in both historical and contemporary contexts.” More information on the awards after the break.

Architects: Bourne Blue Architecture Location: Seal Rocks, NSW Australia Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Brett Boardman, Richard Birch, Shane Blue

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Nowa Huta of The Future, designed by BudCud, Centrala, and ARUP, is aimed at being a brand new direction of touristic experiences and a recreational map of Krakow. Their strategy has a potential of engaging new groups of potential investors and the residents of whole region. Nowa Huta of The Future is what the city needs to become world class metropolis. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: 01Arq Location: Colina, Chile Design Team: Cristian Winckler, Pablo Saric, Felipe Fritz Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Aryeh Kornfeld, Mauricio Fuertes

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