The second prize winning design by Perspektywa for the Kwidzyn Old Town Housing Units in Poland answers to the competition challenge with their modern architecture with classic elements. Doing so provides a dialogue between the historical surroundings and creating a new image of Kwidzyn city. They achieved that aim by analyzing the existing and historical urban grid of the city, archival documentation, using proper scale, proportions and characteristic triple axis facades. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Opening September 12, the Design Exchange in Downtown Toronto will be the site of the newest exhibit titled “Considering the Quake | Seismic Design on the Edge,” curated by Dr. Effie Bouras, postdoctoral fellow and Professor Ghyslaine McClure, P.Eng of the McGill University Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics. The exhibit, which runs through to November 9, will feature recent cutting edge building projects from some of the most innovative architects and engineers, as seen through the lens of earthquake engineering. More information on the exhibition after the break.

Celebrating Australia’s best residential architecture, excellence has been rewarded by ‘House Awards’, an annual program, in eight categories, with the best architecturally designed house receiving the premier award of ‘Australian House of the Year’. Set within a historic farming property in Tasmania, Shearer’s Quarters by John Wardle Architects, won the house of the year award which is both a working farm and a place of retreat. ‘This deft touch has created a house that is an exemplar for contemporary residential architecture, simultaneously functional and beautiful. This apparently simple house has an effortless relationship to the built, cultivated and natural landscape.’ (House Awards Jury) More information on the awards after the break.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is inviting developers to submit proposals for a new construction project in Kips Bay, Manhattan. Developing housing that meets the needs of how New Yorkers live today is critical to the City’s future economic success. Currently, the City’s housing stock is misaligned with the changing demographics of its population. There are 1.8 million one- and two-person households (more than 60 percent of New York City households) and only one million studios and one-bedrooms to meet this housing demand. According to the 2010 Census, the growth rates of the one- and two-person household populations exceed the growth rate of households with three or more people. adAPT NYC seeks to create additional choice within New York City’s housing market. Submissions are due no later than September 14 with a pre-submission conference to be held on July 31. To register and for more information, please visit here.

Alfonso Architects, along with The Beck Group, have been awarded $17 million to design-build the expansion of the Tampa International Airport in Florida. The existing complex will be expanded with an additional 30,000 square feet and will include the renovation of 40,000 sq ft of existing space at Airside F. Project. The terminal, which originally opened in 1987, handles most of the international flights including daily non-stop service to London and four weekly flights to Cuba. The first phase will begin this month and be completed by the end of 2012 with an ultimate completion date of August 2013.

Follow us after the break for more.

After practicing for over fifty years as one of the world’s most preeminent architects, Robert Venturi, FAIA, has retired. The Philadelphia-based, American architect became known as the father of postmodernism and, together with his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown, FAIA, he changed how the world perceives architecture with his maxim, “Less is a bore.”

Now, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, which Venturi co-founded with his wife, has relaunched as VSBA under the new leadership of president and principal Daniel K. McCoubrey, AIA. Together with principal Nancy Rogo Trainer, FAIA, McCoubrey will continue to build under the founders’ values – “bringing creative design, thoughtful analysis, and responsive service” to each client. Meanwhile, Scott Brown will continue publishing and presenting her work.

Continue after the break for more details.

With ArchDaily serving as a media partner and as part of the jury, we are excited to present to you the 301 projects that have been shortlisted for the 2012 World Architecture Festival (WAF) awards – the world’s biggest architectural awards programme! Now in its fifth year, the three day festival will kick off October 3rd at a new venue in Singapore. This new location has prompted an increased level of participation from from Asia, particularly Australia and Singapore, but also from China, India and Japan. This year, more than 500 entries from almost 50 countries were submitted.

The projects shortlisted reflect the festival’s theme of ‘Rethink and Renew’, highlighting the need for innovative and creative approaches to existing buildings and areas, while posing the question of whether or not architecture is fulfilling the role that it should and delivering for those it serves. Each practice will be judged as equals as they present their designs live to an international judging panel and festival delegates. The awards are divided into three main sections: Completed Buildings, Landscape Architecture and Future Projects, with various award sub-categories.

Continue after the break to review the complete shortlist!

70.8% of the earth’s surface is water and Shanghai is approaching a point of overflow. Future development will require the inhabitation of this surface area. In addition to a fascinating physical property caused by the surface tension of water, the meniscus is a strikingly relevant metaphor for the urban predicament of contemporary. As an urban metaphor, the meniscus is associated with periphery, threshold, development, and tension.

In 1953, six years before the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened to the public, two of his structures—a pavilion and model Usonian house—were built on the future site of the museum to house a temporary exhibition displaying the architect’s lifelong work. From July 27, 2012, to February 13, 2013, the Sackler Center for Arts Education at the Guggenheim Museum will present A Long-Awaited Tribute: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian House and Pavilion, an exhibition comprised of selected materials from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, highlighting the first Wright buildings erected in New York City. Text Courtesy of: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (SRGF). More information on the exhibition after the break.

Located along the Loire riverfront in the center of the city of Nantes, this memorial, designed by Wodiczko + Bonder, is a metaphorical and emotional evocation of the struggle for the abolition of slavery. With the aim of being above all historic, the project still continues into the present and proposes a physical transformation and symbolic reinforcement of 350 meters of the coast of the Loire along Quai de la Fosse. This working memorial includes the adaptation of a pre-existing underground residual space, a product of the construction of the Loire embankments and port during the XVIII, XIX, and XX Centuries. It provides space and means for remembering and thinking about slavery and the slave trade; commemorating resistance and the abolitionist struggle; celebrating the historic act of abolition; and for bringing the visitor closer to the continuing struggle against present-day forms of slavery. More images and architects’ description after the break.

HDR was recently chosen by Nanjing University to provide conceptual and schematic design services, as well as a masterplan, for its new College of Engineering and Applied Sciences building. The facility will house four academic departments (material science and engineering; quantum electronics and optical engineering; biomedical engineering; and energy science and engineering), six interdisciplinary research centers, a state-of-the-art conference center, as well as common areas for student and faculty gatherings. The building, which is expected to be completed in 2014, will be over 650,000 square feet and accommodate more than 1,600 students and faculty on a daily basis. More architects’ description after the break.

Located in Portland, Oregon, the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Support Facility will provide offices for the Bureau of Environmental Services engineering and construction management staff. Designed by Skylab Architecture with the intent of fostering collaboration, the new 11,490 square-foot building will blend open office and shared workspaces with small meeting spaces and large conference rooms, video conference areas, and a training facility. The building is designed to be certified at the LEED Gold level, a result in part due to the City of Portland’s Green Building Policy. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The London Festival of Architecture hosted its first photographic exhibition called “The Architect’s Eye”, featuring winners and finalists from the Architect’s Eye Photography Competition that we previously mentioned here on ArchDaily. On the exhibition’s opening night, nearly one-hundred people attended a panel discussion that focused on the relationship between architecture and photography within Zaha Hadid’s ROCA London Gallery. The panel, chaired by Amanda Baillieu from Building Magazine, was formed by Moderator Alex Health, Jack Pringle of Pringle Brandon Architects, Simon Allford of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects, Architectural Photographer Nick Guttridge and Architectural Photographer Grant Smith. Roca London Gallery has provided us with the clip above. Check it out and follow us after the break key points from the discussion.

The Hegeman, designed by Cook + Fox Architects, is a residential community in Brownsville, Brooklyn that provides housing for low-income and formerly homeless individuals. Developed by Common Ground Community – an innovative non-profit whose mission is to end homelessness – the Hegeman Residence will also provide a range of on-site social services in a model known as supportive housing. For a little bit of context, Brownsville has the highest concentration of NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) developments in New York City. A wave of arson in the 1970s destroyed most of the residential structures; Brownsville is just one of the many neighborhoods that were affected. The urban renewal that followed rebuilt many homes and designated them as low-income housing. The community has had many problems since associated with poverty, including crime and drug addiction, as well as low test scores and high truancy rates in the education system.

More after the break.

Designed by MAD Architects, Destination Forus is intended to be a clear, robust and effective masterplan to become an exclusive commercial district, both in form and function, which radically differentiates itself from the surrounding building fabric. Increased density and urbanity on one side is juxtaposed against the openness of Forus Park on the other. This sustainable commercial development includes good housing areas, an efficient infrastructure, an abundance of wildlife and agricultural areas, and forests and green fields. They are creating a place that is worthy of a strong identity. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architect: CEBRA Client: KildebjergRy, Skanderborg Municipality Location: Ry, Denmark Project Year: 2011-2012 Size: 24.057 ft²

CEBRA’s latest landscape project situated in Kildebjerg Ry near Arhus, Denmark, is a bit out of the ordinary. Moving beyond providing flora, walkways and simple playground amenities, the Pulse Park will feature three distinct activity zones that will provide a place for fitness, meditation and play to benefit the residential and business areas nearby. These zones create an activating framework for physical activities and exercise while forming an integrated part of the surrounding landscape.

More about the park after the break. 

The first prize winning proposal for the CYC Students Residence University by EKKY Studio is an affordable student housing complex close to the university of Cyprus, in the Aglantzia area of Nicosia. Through their research, a new building typology was explored which can house 70-76 students and can potentially create public facilities for the students of the neighboring properties, aiming at creating a contemporary student housing hub. More images and architects’ description after the break.

In cooperation with BET architects from Ethiopia, Söhne & Partner shared with us their winning proposal in the international design competition for Ethiopian Airlines New Headquarters in Addis Ababa. Their design is intended to address the need of the airline’s growth, dynamic operation and attaining its Vision-2025. The landscape, being an important part of the interior design, is flowing through and underneath the building. The office blocks are cantilevered above the street level as a floating form to represent the mountains, canyons or rocks. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed and constructed by Like Architects for the 2012 Oporto Show, the Chromatic Screen installation is an intervention representative of their ephemeral work that lies on the border between architecture, design, urban installation and art. The installation is designed using about 2,000 hangers for children’s clothes from IKEA – ‘Bagis’ -, in four different colors – blue, green, pink and orange – that merge into multiple tonalities. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Koyaanisqatsi is the first from a saga of three films directed by Godfrey Reggio. Followed by Powaqqatsi (Life in Transformation) and Naqoyqatsi (Life as War), Koyaanisqatsi got the subtitle of “Life Out of Balance”, showing us only through impressive images the confrontation between natural and human development processes.

The film frames urban landscapes in their different types, commercial, residential, industrial, or infrastructural, as an infinite repetition against nature. Talking somehow, already in the ’80, about the environmental issues that the development model represents in the way it was deployed at that moment.

What do you think about the current development model, have this changed from the last decades or still breaking the balance with nature?

The Phoenix Central Library stands as an iconic structure that straddles Interstate 10 as it passes through the Margaret T. Hance Deck Park Tunnel in Phoenix, Arizona. Designed by bruderDWLarchitects, the contract was awarded in 1989 and the project completed in 1995 to house an expansive volume collection of 1,000,000 within 280,000 square feet, it has also served as a catalyst to the local community and fostered a sense of pride. It features numerous details that enhance the overall user experience and incorporates strategic building tactics that respond to the harsh Sonoran Desert. More details after the break.

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This year’s Venice Biennale will kick off on August 29th and run through November 25th and will feature a pavilion from Israel called “Aircraft Carrier”. The collected work confronts the dramatic changes in Israeli architecture since 1973, and the American influences that made them possible. The curators of the exhibit, Erez Ella, Milana Gitzin-Adiram and Dan Handel defined four major architectural phenomena that epitomize these changes: Signals, Emporiums, Allies and Flotillas. The curators invited five leading Israeli and international artists and architectural photographers to reflect on these ideas. Participants include Assaf Evron, Fernando Guerra, Florian Holzherr, Nira Pereg, and Jan Tichy and product designer Tal Erez.

Stop by after the break to see some of the work to be featured as part of “Aircraft Carrier”.