German architecture firms Johannes Kappler Architektur und Städtebau, Super Future Collective, and Topotek 1 Architektur have released images of a competition-winning design for a new Concert Hall in Nuremberg. Designed as an addition to the ensemble of the Meistersingerhalle, the hall engages the existing infrastructure and context to create a connection between the present landscape and public space.

The combination of the existing building and the new translucent exterior envelope provide "a house with four fronts" that engages the surrounding landscape on all sides.

Sketchfab, the powerful architectural visualization software and database, is more convenient than ever thanks to a new extension for Revit developed by Emanuel Favreau of Montreal firm Larose McCallum Architects. Adding Revit to Sketchfab's extensive list of software add-ons is a big win for the Building Information Modeling (BIM) community. The new extension will allow Revit users to export models and scenes directly to Sketchfab, where they can be viewed in 3D and virtual reality from any device simply by following a link.

Last spring, the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services tested a new, creative approach to combat the rising temperatures in the city center. The pilot project covered one neighborhood street in each of the LA's 15 council districts with CoolSeal, a more reflective asphalt-based coating developed by California-based company GuardTop. After seeing a difference of 11-13 degrees Fahrenheit on the coated streets, Los Angeles and other cities plan on implementing more reflective roofs and pavements to reduce the side effects of "heat islands."

More on the CoolSeal coating and the fight against heat island effect after the break.

Architecture requires patience. Seeing a building through from initial sketches to the first occupant is a process that in most cases takes years, sometimes decades. The various details required throughout the building process at times can be stressful, but the end result is nearly always worth the struggle. The finished form reflects the decisions made throughout the process, and thus becomes a contributing member to the surrounding environment.

If you are at the point in the process where you need a quick destresser, take a moment and watch land artist Pontus Jansson work his magic. The Swedish artist uses boulders and the surrounding nature to create balancing works of art.

Nearly a year after opening its "Xiamen Bicycle Skyway," DISSING+WEITLING Architecture has won another major infrastructure project in the Chinese city. The winning design, "Xiamen Footpaths," is set to be a 21-kilometer network of paths and bridges creating a large-scale network connecting the surrounding nature and the budding metropolis of Xiamen.

Much like DISSING+WEITLING's "Bicycle Snake" did for bicycles in Copenhagen, the "Xiamen Footpaths" will improve the traveling conditions and city experience for pedestrians in the bustling city of Xiamen.

Cape Town native Alexis Christodoulou is a winemaker by day but also dabbles in the art of 3D visualization. His Instagram (@teaaalexis) is a striking composition of intricate spaces rich with color, light, and materiality. Crafted entirely from scratch, each of Christodoulou's digital worlds appears to be influenced by many of the modernist masters. In a recent interview with Curbed, Christodoulou lists Aldo Rossi, David Chipperfield and Le Corbusier among his inspirations.

Much has been said about the new "Instagram aesthetic." Put that together with the emerging role of Instagram and other social media platforms in the design process, and the result is a new type of digital art form. Christodoulou's page is the creative collection of a year-long personal challenge to regularly create and publish images of his own fantasy worlds, which has resulted in a community of nearly 20K followers.

Get lost in more of the images below.

Mountain shelters serve as protection for climbers during severe weather conditions. However, a Bulgarian design team discovered that many shelters have been destroyed, putting mountaineers at risk. As the winning proposal for the competition "Architecture of 2050," this innovative building addresses this critical problem through a combination of sustainability, materiality and technology.

The shortlisted schemes for the RIBA Competition to design the new Innovative Nature and Wellbeing Center, located in Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, are now on display to the public. The competition launched last October by Kent Wildlife Trust, in partnership with The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), as an open design competition "seeking worldwide architects and teams to put forward designs that promote learning, wellbeing, curiosity and nature" for a new visitor center at Sevenoaks.

Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects (MBB) has recently revealed its competition-winning design for the final phase of Garitage Park, a 41-acre complex in a growing district of Sofia, Bulgaria. The extensive mixed-use development by Garitage Investment Management, among several other major multinational companies developing nearby, will provide residences, a school, office, commercial, retail and event spaces to a large international population of residents.

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Dubai Nhabitat, a mixed-use tower proposed by Ankara-based firm rgg Architects, utilizes its own unique formal system to create "permeability through different materials and building tectonics." The tower is an aggregate of individual modules that can be enlarged or shrunk by an "8mx8m grid" based on programmatic needs, creating views and outdoor spaces unique to each spatial arrangement.

The great #BVDoshi at #sangath. @pritzkerarchitectureprize 2018 laureate.

A post shared by Iwan Baan (@iwanbaan) on Apr 5, 2018 at 7:20pm PDT

Architectural photographer Iwan Baan recently honored 2018 Pritzker Prize Laureate Balkrishna (B.V.) Doshi. It has been a little over a month since the Pritzker jury selected the Indian architect as the latest winner, and his work still remains popular within the online world. The genuine materiality and intricate spatial experience associated with Doshi's work are captured by Baan in multiple projects across India. Baan's Instagram (@iwanbaan), which has nearly 120K followers, acts as "a diary of travels with the iPhone."

Read on to see some of Baan's images (some posts have multiple images, so be sure and use the left and right arrows to see the full set of pictures). 

Kaunas City Municipality has announced SMAR Architecture Studio as the winners of the Science Island International Design Contest for Lithuania's new National Science and Innovation Center. SMAR's design was the highest ranked of three winners in the Design Contest, which was the most popular in Lithuania's history attracting 144 teams from 44 countries.

MADWORKSHOP Fellows Jeremy Carman and Jayson Champlain have designed a unique approach to emergency post-disaster shelters. The 2017 Fellows of the MADWORKSHOP Foundation created "Shelter Squared" as a response to "the current scarcity of design-oriented solutions to emergencies."

Overall, the design utilizes cost-effective, recyclable materials to provide a meaningful alternative to the current standard of post-disaster shelters, described the architects. 

The Bank of Canada has recently unveiled a new $10 banknote featuring Viola Desmond, a black Nova-Scotian businesswoman who challenged racial segregation in 1946 by refusing to vacate a "whites-only" area of a theater. To reinforce this pro-human rights message, the reverse side of the bill will feature an image of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, designed by Antoine Predock and completed in 2014.

Perhaps as a form of "abstract urbanism," artist Benjamin Sack uses pen and paper to build cities and worlds that come to life as he draws. Towers and low-rise buildings merge together to form familiar yet unimaginably intricate cityscapes with complex spatial arrangements, and, in some cases, in human form. This brand of "abstract urbanism" introduces a provocative perspective on urban context and its relation to those who inhabit it.

Bee Breeders has announced the winners of the recent Sydney Affordable Housing Challenge. The international architecture competition asked entrants to address the growing affordable housing crisis in Sydney. The challenge aimed at "garnering global attention to the important issue of housing in Sydney, Australia, where the economy is strong but the residential market is among the least affordable, according to surveys of major metropolitan markets."

Since the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, the people of London have been searching for an answer to the exact cause of the fire that killed 71 people. Now Forensic Architecture—the Goldsmiths, University of London-based research group headed by Eyal Weizman—seeks to aid in the search for answers with their new Grenfell Media Archive. This online crowdsourcing database intended to collect people's first-person accounts in order to map them onto a 3D model of the tower and analyze exactly what happened to the tower.

The development company Fisher Brothers' "Beyond the Centerline" competition was launched in October 2017 as an open call to "enliven and activate the medians for a new generation of New Yorkers." The competition addresses the Park Avenue commercial district, which sits between 46th and 57th Streets.

Out of nearly 150 submissions, an eight-person jury narrowed the field down to 17 finalists, details of which can be found here. Two designs have since been selected as winners, with "Park Park" by Maison winning the jury selection, and "Park River" by Local Architects winning the popular vote.

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