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Reporting from the Front: 6 Months in 5 Minutes

This week the 2016 Venice Architecture BiennaleReporting From the Front—will close. Six months have passed and hundreds of thousands of architects, urbanists, designers and tourists have perused both the National Participations (of which more were represented this year than ever before) and the central exhibition curated by Alejandro Aravena – the first South American to direct the most prestigious event on the architectural calendar. ArchDaily has compiled our most extensive coverage of the event and, as the 15th incarnation of Biennale shuts its gates for the last time, our collection of articles, interviews and publication excerpts remains permanently accessible.

OMA Announced as "Creative Mediators" for Manifesta 12 in Palermo

OMA, led by partner Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, have been chosen as the "Creative Mediators" for the 12th edition of Manifesta, which will be held in Palermo in 2018. The practice will assemble an interdisciplinary team to investigate the role of governance in the Italian city, and address how contemporary urban centers are affected by tourism, gentrification, migration and climate change. They will also work "with specialists from the fields of contemporary art, sociology, music, cinema and architecture" to develop a series of "interactive, interdisciplinary, performative and artistic interventions."

What's the Difference Between a Road, a Street and an Avenue?

What's the difference between a "road", a "drive" and a "way"? Or between a "street", a "boulevard" and an "avenue"? The naming conventions that we attribute to the networks that we use to move about are, in fact, a little more complex than you might imagine. In this film by Phil Edwards for Vox, the intricate world of road classification and definition is given a (long overdue) explanation – and one which might help you think a little deeper about urban mobility.

Grafton Architect's "Modern Day Machu Picchu" Wins Inaugural RIBA International Prize

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) have revealed the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC), located in Lima and designed by Dublin-based practice Grafton Architects, as the winner of the inaugural RIBA International Prize. A longlist of thirty projects, published in May of this year, was narrowed down to six in October before a grand jury—chaired by Richard Rogers—selected the scheme as "an exceptional example of civil architecture."

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Monument to Privacy: Is This Manhattan Skyscraper a NSA Listening Post?

Many have walked by and wondered what purpose this vast, windowless skyscraper in the heart of Manhattan serves. 33 Thomas Street, also known as the "Long Lines Building" (LLB), is an impenetrable monolithic fortress amid canyons of glass and steel. Ostensibly an AT&T telecoms building, the New York Times have recently reported (based on investigative work by The Intercept) that this "blank face[d] monument to privacy" may in fact be a NSA (National Security Agency) listening post, hidden in plain sight.

6 Ways BIM Can Make Your Architecture Firm More Competitive

Starting an architecture firm may sprout from one’s love for and interest in the discipline, but running a competitive business requires more than just a tendency to enjoy the work. BIM could be the edge a firm needs in order to stand out from the crowd. There are many ways a firm can make use of BIM to become more profitable on their projects and successful in winning those projects in the first place; read on to find out more about six of them.

Christ & Gantenbein’s Kunstmuseum Basel Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu

In another photoset from his latest Switzerland trip, photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu takes us inside Christ & Gantenbein’s recently-opened addition to the Kunstmuseum Basel. The design, winner in an international competition in 2009, sought to create a “contemporary brother” to the original museum, opening up to the street through its angled form. The monochromatic brick facade also responds to its context and historic neighbor, while hiding a wraparound LED screen beneath to create a frieze with a technological twist.

Check out the full series of shots, after the break.

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The Architectural Integrity of Josef Frank's Villa Beer May Be Irrevocably Lost

The Villa Beer (1929-1930) is considered to be one of Josef Frank's—the great Austro-Swedish architect—most important built projects. As reported by DisegnoDaily, the architectural integrity of the house—which was originally commissioned by the industrialist Julius Beer and built in the Viennese suburb of Hietzing—is now under threat despite being proposed for protection by the Austrian government as a historic site in 2007.

Robert Konieczny + KWK Promes' National Museum in Szczecin Named World Building of the Year 2016

Robert Konieczny + KWK Promes' National Museum in Szczecin - Dialogue Centre Przełomy has been named the World Building of the Year 2016 as the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Berlin comes to a close. The project consists of an atmospheric underground museum below an expansive, undulating public plaza, adjacent to Barozzi Veiga's Mies van der Rohe Award-winning Philharmonic Hall Szczecin.

The National Museum in Szczecin - Dialogue Centre Przelomy is now the ninth project to hold the World Building of the Year title. Last year, the award was given to "The Interlace" by OMA and Buro Ole Scheeren.

Winners of the year's Future Project, Landscape, and Small Project awards were also announced. Read on to see the winning projects with comments from the jury. 

Hangzhou AN Interior's Black Cant System Named World's Best Interior of 2016

Hangzhou AN Interior Design's design for the retail brand Heike has been named the world's best interior of 2016. Announced at the INSIDE World Festival of Interiors in Berlin, which took place alongside the World Architecture Festival, the winner of the prize was selected from among 9 category winners, which in turn were picked out of a shortlist totaling 62 projects. The Black Cant System was also the winner of the retail category.

Described by the designers as a "glum interior" with a "futuristic melancholy atmosphere" for the retail brand, the centerpiece of the design is a large, dark wedge housing many of the store's functional components such as fitting rooms and staircases.

Read on for more images of, and for the full list of category winners.

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Lisbon Architecture Triennale: Open for Construction Works - Lisbon Cruise Terminal

Adults and Young People, Cycle of Commented Visits: A cycle of three visits to building sites in Lisbon. In the selection of projects are included public and private buildings of different scales, phases and typologies.

Study John Pawson's Interiors of the New London Design Museum

This month London's Design Museum will officially open its new home on Kensington High Street. The project, which has been redeveloped and designed in collaboration with Rotterdam-based practice OMA and London-based studio Allies & Morrison, has seen a Grade II* Listed Modernist monument sensitively restored into contemporary galleries. For John Pawson—who has been commissioned to create "a series of calm, atmospheric spaces" ordered around a large, oak-lined atrium—this scheme marks his first major public work.

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ARCHIFUTURES VOL. 1: The Museum, A Field Guide to the Future of Architecture

Archifutures Vol. 1: The Museum presents the last chapter of the first Future Architecture cycle and is the first part of a new three-volume field guide to the future of architecture. The collection maps contemporary architectural practice and urban planning, presented through the words and ideas of some of its key players and change-makers. From institutions, activists, thinkers, curators and architects to urban bloggers, polemicists, critics and publishers, these are the people shaping tomorrow’s architecture and cities – and thereby helping to shape our societies of the future as well.

Winners of Day 1 World Architecture Festival Awards 2016 Announced

Fourteen projects have been announced as category winners of the The World Architecture Festival’s (WAF) 2016 awards on Day 1 of the festival. Winners in 32 categories will be named over the first two days of the conference, and will then go on to compete for the title of the World Building of the Year 2016, to be announced on Friday.

The world’s largest architectural awards program, the 2016 WAF Awards consisted of 343 projects from 58 countries around the world. Finalists projects will be invited to present their project live at the festival to a "super jury" that includes Kai-Uwe Bergmann (BIG), Louisa Hutton (Sauerbruch Hutton), David Chipperfield, Ole Scheeren, and ArchDaily's co-founder and Editor-in-Chief David Basulto, who will determine the grand prize winner.

You can check out the full shortlist here, and see which built and future projects took home awards after the break.

John Pawson Narrates a Tour Through London's New Design Museum

This edition of Section D, Monocle 24's weekly review of design, architecture and craft, explores London's new Design Museum – a significant expansion for the institution at an entirely new location in West London. The interior spaces of the former Commonwealth Institute Building in Kensington, which is Grade II-listed, have been renovated by John Pawson. Alongside the museum’s Deputy Director, Alice Black, the Monocle team investigate the thinking behind the relaunch and how the spaces are designed to accommodate a shifting audience.

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BIG Transitlager in Switzerland Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu

In this latest photoset, photographer Laurian Ghinitiou gives us a first look at BIG’s Transitlager, a new mixed-use arts complex located within and around an existing warehouse building in Basel, Switzerland. Now nearing completion, the renovation and expansion is characterized by its reaction to the existing geometries of the nearby industrial infrastructure, taking the form of two distinct buildings, one placed on top of the other. The complex will contain a series of multifunctional floors for art, commerce, working and living in becoming the center of the new arts district of Dreispitz.

Check out the full series, below.

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Project of the Month: Casino and Hotel Ovalle

Geography and climate are two important conditions that determine how people can live in a certain environment. When we add to this the cultural characteristics of a region, what appears, as Carl Sauer would say, is a "cultural landscape," a result of humankind’s settlement and adaptation to the territory. When architecture adopts a sensitivity to these conditions, and concerns itself with what the environment offers, living conditions take on a quality of lasting comfort.

For October’s Project of the Month we want to highlight the Casino and Hotel Ovalle by Turner Arquitectos, which adopts an aesthetic pertinent to the geography and cultural landscape of its location. ArchDaily en Español spoke with the project’s architects to find out more about their design.

CEMEX Announces Winners of 2016 Building Awards

CEMEX has announced the international and national winners of the 25th anniversary edition of their CEMEX Building Awards at a ceremony in Mexico City. The CEMEX Building Award recognizes the best projects in Mexico and the rest of the world in five categories and with four special prizes. This year, the award received 480 entries in the Mexican Edition and 62 entries in the International Edition, including buildings constructed in 20 different countries.

The 2016 Awards honor the best architecture and construction projects built during 2015 that use concrete technologies in creative and innovative ways with a focus on sustainability and social well-being. Winners were selected based on the criteria of construction process, structural and architectural solutions, integral sustainability, and value creation for users and communities.