Chika Kijima Architect’s Office + O.F.D.A. transformed a cluster of three existing homes into this work/live haven for a pair of musicians. The naturally lit interiors of the single-story Overlapped House features a studio, kitchen, hall, ample amounts of storage and a well-buffered sleeping quarters.

Rio de Janeiro-based writer Robert Landon has shared with us his experience exploring Zaha Hadid’s newly completed Eli and Edythe Broad Museum in Michigan.

As you approach Zaha Hadid’s new Eli and Edythe Broad Museum in East Lansing, Michigan, it is the complex, light-catching carapace that first reels in the eye — a fine shock after the brick, neo-Gothic buildings that define the rest of the Michigan State University campus. Draw closer and its undulating fins, opening and closing in rhythmic asymmetries, begin to seduce the mind. In some places scrunched up into sharp angles and in others allowed to breathe for longer stretches across the low-slung facade, the fins seem to be the expression of some higher, grid-bending equation.

In a half-conscious attempt to solve the math, you begin to circle the building. At certain points, the fins spread wide enough for generous glimpses inside, but as you move keep moving, the inner secrets vanish again behind the metal lattice. In the same way, the relentlessly kinetic carapace tantalizes with, but ultimately eludes, any logical or definitive summing up. What is certain, though, is that, by the time you’ve come full circle, you’ll have grown quite curious to see what is going on inside.

More after the break…

The proposal for an urban itinerary, designed by Comac Architects, presents an urban path to extend “Marseilles 2013″ European Capital of Culture throughout the entire city. A total of 13 key-districts will be connected by the path and interspersed with urban pavilions, each focused on a famous artist from Marseilles. Each unit will offer a certain perspective of Marseilles, and will offer tourists a new way to discover our city and its emblematic districts. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects shared with us their design for the streetscape masterplan for Hudson Square in Manhattan, New York. Designed to transform the district’s public realm into a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable neighborhood, the project will serve area workers and, eventually, residents. The masterplan creates a pedestrian-focused district accessible from all directions and adjacent neighborhoods—including SoHo, TriBeCa, and Greenwich Village—that coordinates the needs of the Holland Tunnel, a regional transportation facility, with those of the re-imagined neighborhood. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Expected to be completed in September 2013, the Durham College Centre for Food will distinguish itself in the highly competitive field of culinary education by taking advantage of its rural setting on a large suburban campus in Whitby Ontario to narrate a story about the process of making a meal from “field to fork”. Designed by Gow Hastings Architects, students and visitors will journey through the inner workings of the school, showcasing food distribution rooms, a 150-seat lecture theatre, change rooms, faculty offices, classrooms and an array of hospitality and culinary labs that will circle a central atrium. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Located in the heart of Gorssel, in the east of the Netherlands, the new Museum for Realistic Art for Hans Melchers by Hans van Heeswijk Architects will be housed in the former town hall of Gorssel. The museum will be a pavilion-like building of two floors with strategic vistas to the park-like environment in which it is located. Besides exhibiting the permanent collection, the building will also house temporary exhibitions. Construction will start in the spring of 2013 and the museum is expected to open in the spring of 2015. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Glass House just concluded their second annual Conversations in Context, which presents visitors with the opportunity to join in a weekly evening tour and intimate conversation with industry leaders, including Robert A.M. Stern, Michael Graves, and more.

Since the 1940s, The Glass House has served as a place of inspiration, education and conversation across creative disciplines. Its 49-acre landscape, 14 architectural structures and world-class art collection continue to draw members of an international creative community to participate in its rich story. Conversations in Context continues Philip Johnson’s legacy of using the Glass House as a place to conduct ongoing seminars with architecture students and present emerging and established architects the opportunity to discuss the current state of the industry.

The video above features Architect, critic, and historian Kenneth Frampton, along with Dean Mark Wigley from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Follow us after the break for a few of our favorite conversations from this year’s series.

Designed by Jackson Architecture, their proposal for the Japan National Stadium is a new stadium in a park, where nature is apparent and can be integrated. Car parking, buses, community and service facilities exist below the park: neighborhood recreation and health areas contribute to the excitement and atmosphere, inhabited every day. The first impression is of a large park, within which a large “ellipsoidal object is placed. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by PMG Architects, their second prize winning proposal for the sustainable market square competition in Casablanca lets itself be admired, but only reveals itself partially and gradually in using a variety of different architectural elements. Beneath the immense arched galleries, as airy as they are luminous, the architects try to grasp the thousands of riches of this place, so many vibrant fragrances and unknown colors, enticing flavors, and colorful spices. From one arc to another, from one vendor to his counterpart, from one ambiance to its contrary. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Bukit Panjang Hawker Center proposal by Materium, which was announced as one of the finalists in the international competition, manifests and promotes the food culture of Singapore. Composed of a unique program, the project is a humble social and communal space despite the cosmopolitan nature of the society. Its unassuming nature allows people from all walks of life to enjoy their meal in their most relaxed and comfortable state. Simple, casual and informal: being relaxed allows one to be social. More images and architects’ description after the break.

On display until February 3rd at the HangarBicocca in Milan, the ‘On Space Time Foam’ suspended art exhibit by Studio Tomas Saraceno is composed of a transparent surface accessible to visitors, hanging at a height of 20 metres and covering 400 square metres on three layers, for a total of 1,200 square metres. Known for his surprising structures that draw the public into extraordinary spatial and emotional experiences, the large soft and floating film welcomes visitors who will thus find themselves moving mid-air between the floor and the ceiling, earth and sky, and it compels them to lose their spatial coordinates. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Last year, Gensler‘s LA Office researched how they could turn an existing building into more useful and sustainable structures. By highlighting the architectural phrase of ‘hacking the planet’, they even envisioned a plan to hack the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, DC (and LA’s Union Bank) by adding residences, big box retailers and a rooftop soccer field. As part of the NAIOP (Commercial Real Estate Development Association) competition, their vision for the office building of the future focused on how offices could become obsolete unless we turn them into useful spaces that improve the overall urban fabric.

More images and architects’ description after the break.

Experts from all continents will meet in Mumbai at the 4th International Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction – April 11-13, 2013. The conference for academics and professionals from architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, natural and social sciences will advance concepts on how construction needs to be re-invented and aligned with principles of sustainable development.

The focus of the three-day conference will be on the ongoing economic challenges in many parts of the industrialized world driving a paradigm shift. Governments, companies and individuals are all becoming aware that although sustainable development incurs costs, it also offers considerable economic potential. The Holcim Forum includes workshops and site visits and will be hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay), and chaired by architect Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, USA, together with co-chair, engineer Battula K. Chakravarthy, IIT Bombay.

Sponsored by Holcim Foundation

This interview with professor and author Tom Fisher, Dean of University of Minnesota, is part of a documentary series called “Things May Happen”, in which he describes the dangers of Fracture-Critical Design. This topic is also the subject of his recent book, Designing to Avoid Disaster: The Nature of Fracture-Critical Design. Fisher discusses examples in which our systems, whether they be architectural, structural or even social and financial, fail with disastrous consequences. In a TEDxUMN talk at the University of Minnesota, Fisher spoke about the 1-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007, the failure of New Orleans’ levees during Hurricane Katrina, the BP Oil Spill on the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street investment bank failures, the housing foreclosure crisis and now the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy. Covering a whole spectrum of “when things go wrong” scenarios, Fisher illuminates the failed foresight in designing systems that are resilient to disaster.

San Francisco has recently approved legislation that will change the city building code to allow for “micro-unit apartments” that includes only 220 square feet of living space. These spaces aim at providing affordable options for singles to live in densely populated urban areas without having to live in the outskirts of the city. Although more of a craze in NY, San Francisco has actually surpassed New York as the most expensive rental market in the country. More information after the break.

The Shell.ter pavilion, a temporary installation for the Cerveira Creative Camp, is built from monoblock chairs in the gardens of a natural park in the north of Portugal, during a short summer workshop by LIKE Architects. Resembling the most advanced digital formalizations of parametric design, the pavilion is actually set by the association of arches formed by ordinary chairs, which, rather than serving to seat, serve as shadow and backrest and create new frameworks that enhance the surrounding nature. More images and architects’ description after the break.

During the 13th Venice Biennale we had the chance to interview the team behind San Rocco: Matteo Ghidoni, Giovanni Piovene and Pier Paolo Tamburelli.

TomDavid Architects shared with us their first prize winning proposal for the Sustainable Market Square competition in Casablanca. In their proposal, they successfully combine indigenous techniques for shelter and heat control, the accountability of it’s residence, and innovative low-maintenance materials. In doing so, they create an efficient and pragmatic icon for the next generation market which serves as a catalyst for improvement. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Media Architecture ‘Oscars’ were recently awarded for the first time at an internationally well attended ceremony in Aarhus, Denmark on November 16. Common features of the six awarded projects, which are very different winning projects, are their ability to integrate media and architecture – and the profound impact on their urban surroundings. More images and descriptions of the winning projects after the break.

Architects: Metropolis Location: Lima, Peru Architect in Charge: José Orrego Project Area: 569 sqm Photographs: Juan Solano

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Hosted by the Architectural League and co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union, Steven Holl will lecture in the Great Hall at The Cooper Union on November 28 at 7:00pm. Holl’s architecture and writing has undergone a shift in emphasis, from his earlier concern with typology to his current interest in phenomenology. This “Time Light” lecture is dedicated to Lebbeus Woods and will show both early and recent works by Steven Holl Architects. Following the lecture, Steven Holl will be joined in conversation by Sanford Kwinter. For more information on the event, please visit here.

Sunny & Mild Media presents Part 2 of its Googie Architecture Series, presenting design work at the cusp of technological innovations of the 1950s. Emerging out of an obsession with the fast new world of cars, planes and rockets, Googie Architecture became an ultramodern style that sought to encapsulate the spirit of the 21st century. The new forms – sweeping, cantilevered roofs, starbursts, and flowing forms – became a form of advertisement that caught the attention of motorists, for its vibrance along the stretches of highways and for its distinctive style.

This installment features a closer look at the diners and restaurants that thrived in the ’50s and were designed with the Googie style. Even the one of the first McDonald’s restaurants adapted the style to work with its logo. Many of these buildings stand in ruin now, but the style was used in all kinds of building typologies – most of which emphasized the car: drive-thru’s, drive-in’s, car washes, diners, and gas stations. Even Las Vegas, and our associations with the its architecture today, are a reflection of that style.