At the gardens of the Arsenale designed by Piet Oudolf, a small pavilion, the Casa Scaffali, encloses a fantastic world of smells, textures and artifacts, a Wunderkammer (wonder-room) curated by NY-based Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

A special group of architects and artists from around the world were invited to share the artifacts that inspire them, shipped in boxes to the Biennale.

We had the chance to interview Tod Williams and Billie Tsien during the opening of Wunderkammer, and we also got a chance to see them both and their team setting up the installation during the previous days, a special atmosphere as they were opening these boxes now turned into chests full of surprises.

The group includes Anthony Ames, Marwan Al Sayed, Matthew Baird, Shigeru Ban, Marlon Blackwell, Will Bruder, Wendell Burnette, Johan Celsing, Taryn Christoff and Martin Finio, Annie Chu and Rick Gooding, W.G. Clark, Brad Cloepfil, Chen Chen and Kai Williams, Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio and Charles Renfro, Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, Stephen Iino, Toyo Ito, Bijoy Jain, Claudy Jongstra, Diébédo Francis Kéré, Jennifer Luce, Thom Mayne, Richard Meier, Murray Moss, Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin, Enrique Norten, Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, Juhani Pallasmaa, Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe, Karen Stein, Elias Torres and José Antonio Martínez Lapeña, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, and Peter Zumthor.

Text from the architects after the break:

During the 13th Venice Biennale we had the chance to interview Spanish architect Juan Herreros, founder of Herreros Arquitectos (full interview in a following post).

The exhibit Dialogue Architecture aims to expose the complex relations that happen behind the scenes of a project, part of the technical aspects of architecture from where innovation informs the creative side of it.

More about the exhibit after the break.

Designed by Jae K. Kim of CoDeAU, the Form of Public Control project is aimed at being the 20th century’s notion of a skyscraper in Manhattan. As a symbolic individual in the city, it should be redefined due to the reinterpretation of the grid to accommodate more public amenities and facilitate the cultural contexts of Manhattan. Currently, the project is exhibited for the collateral event of the Venice Architecture Biennale, at Palazzo Bembo, which was invited from the Global Art Affairs Foundation. More images and architect’s description after the break.

The main challenge in the design for the Wine Museum in Lavaux was to generate a large-scale cultural attraction non-existent today. Designed by Mauro Turin Architectes, their proposal creates a wine museum that shows and tells the whole heritage richness of the wine-growing area since the Middle Ages seams relevant, but not sufficient to attract people from around the world. The museum wants to be a small iconic object in a great iconic landscape; without being in competition but rather feeding each other. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Amidst the longstanding, heated battled to save Bertrand Goldberg’s iconic Prentice Woman’s Hospital, the results of the 2012 Chicago Prize Competition: Future Prentice have been announced! Presented by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, in collaboration with Chicago Architectural Club and the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the international competition intended to act as a platform for public debate about the future of the controversial Chicago landmark.

More information and the winning proposals after the break…

We are near to the 105,000 photos in our Flickr Pool, so keep them coming! Remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The photo above was taken by Thierry Lechanteur in Liège, Belgium. Check the other four after the break.

UPDATE: The lists have been updated from showing the Top 5 Schools in each category, to the Top 20. 

James Cramer and the Greenway Group have released the 14th edition of DesignIntelligence, a compilation of different rankings for accredited architecture schools in the United States. The report attempts to create a level playing ground upon which to rank the universities by polling thousands of students, talking to deans and administrators, interviewing successful designers in private practices, and visiting each university campus. While the findings may raise some debate, overall, the report creates a dialogue as to how, and to what extent, higher education responds to the changing demands of our profession.

Although design education is generally well respected, several of the educators, students and practitioners interviewed this year were critical of its current state, believing that it is simply not good enough. As Cramer describes, “Respect for design education is high – and can grow further. This will require that there be a deep understanding of the dimensions of the trends in the design profession. When schools and practitioners are in harmony on these dimensions of change, they can reinforce and enhance each other. In this there is art and science. Leadership is at issue. The big shifts can be signs of new strength in a time of flux.”

A closer look after the break…

Billings at architecture firms accelerated to their strongest pace of growth since December 2010. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the October ABI score was 52.8, up from the mark of 51.6 in September. This score reflects an increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 59.4, compared to a mark of 57.3 the previous month.

“With three straight monthly gains – and the past two being quite strong – it’s beginning to look like demand for design services has turned the corner,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “With 2012 winding down on an upnote, and with the national elections finally behind us, there is a general sense of optimism. However, this is balanced by a tremendous amount of anxiety and uncertainty in the marketplace, which likely means that we’ll have a few more bumps before we enter a full-blown expansion.”

If you’re in the South Bend, Indiana, area, mark your calendars! A week from today, the famed architect and designer Michael Graves will present his lecture “A Grand Tour” at the University of Notre Dame. The lecture will recount his journey, once considered obligatory for a young architect, exploring the great monuments of Europe. As a recipient of the prestigious Prix de Rome, Graves traveled through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, England, Germany, and France, studying and recording the masterworks of both ancient and modern architecture.

This year, the University of Notre Dame awarded Graves with the Richard H. Driehaus Prize, honoring his lifetime contributions to classical and traditional architecture in the modern world. Read all about his nomination here and watch an exclusive ArchDaily interview with the legend here.

Located in Zhengzhou’s rapidly developing Zhengdong New District, the proposed office tower by AUA (Atelier of Urban Architecture) is an iconic building that sets a precedent for the area. Derived from a series of indexical and analytical drawings, the design is a direct response to the existing site geometry. More images and architects’ description after the break.

We had the chance to interview Catalonian architect Jordi Badia at the Vogadors: Architectural Rowers exhibit at the 13th Venice Biennale.

The 13th Venice Biennale, which closes its doors on November 27th, sparked an interesting debate during its opening given the highly political focus of some of the exhibitions, which for some diverged from architecture itself and entered on a discussion on its own.

In this context we find Vogadors: Architectural Rowers, the Catalan and Balearic Islands Pavilion curated by Jordi Badia and Félix Arranz, an exhibit that focused on the built project which uses the common ground theme to define the new generation of Catalonian architects: David Sebastian and Gerard Puig, SMS arquitectos, Arquitecturia, Jaime Ferrer, Meritxell Inaraja, Blancafort Reus Arquitectura, Núria Salvadó and David Tapias, Francisco Cifuentes and Bosch.Capdeferro Arquitectures (more details about the projects).

In the exhibit, nine projects from this generation are displayed in high detail, including extensive drawings, textures, constructive systems, videos of the buildings in use, and other forms of representation that put the visitors closer to the origins of the project, the relation with the site and the inhabitants, the research and most specially, the tradition.

And tradition is what closes the exhibit, presenting the works of the masters of Catalonian architecture such as Enric Miralles, as their influence is the common ground that the new generation shares. Looking back to understand the present and the future, as a rower who advances looking backwards reflected on Jorge Oteiza’s quote “He who forges ahead creating something new does so like an oarsman, moving forward but back-paddling, looking behind him, towards the past, towards what exists, so as to be able to reinvent its underpinnings.”

The exhibit, taking place at the Isola San Pietro between the Arsenale and the Giardini, extends its reach and presence thanks to a joint venture with Spanish publishing house Gustavo Gili, with the digital editions of the Vogadors catalog available at the iBook Store or at the GG website.

More fromt he curators after the break:

Designed by Mateo Arquitectura, the proposal for the Lascaux IV: International Cave Painting Center competition speaks to us of its history and woven of enigmas that humankind seeks to solve. It tells us that there are individuals who think, who prove, who suppose and interpret. Right beside, their virtual doubles welcome us in small theatres sunk into the ground, facing the hill. The gentle slope of the entryway leads you to a space of darkness, which awakens a unique experience. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taking place at Cooper Union in New York, the Steven Holl: ‘Scale’ lecture focuses on the firm’s current work in exploring new ways of integrating an organizing idea with the programmatic and functional essence of a building, “always using the unique character of a program and a site as the starting point for an architectural idea.” Steven Holl was the recipient of the 2012 AIA Gold Medal. His firm has been honored with many awards, publications, and exhibitions for excellence in design, most recently, their Cité de l’Océan et du Surf Museum (pictured in the slideshow above) won the Emirates Glass Leaf Award, the Annual Design Review, and the American Architecture Award. In 2001, Holl was named America’s Best Architect by Time. The event is co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union as part of the program put on by the Architectural League, and takes place Wednesday, November 28th at 7:00pm. For more information, please visit here.

Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi were recently announced by the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee as the recipients of the 2013 Urban Edge Award. This biennial award honors an internationally recognized designer or firm whose work brings innovative thinking and effective strategies to transform the realm of urban design. As award recipients, Weiss and Manfredi will curate the Urban Edge Symposium, Evolutionary Infrastructure, at the UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning in April 2013.

The Save the Prentice Wrecking Ball: The Monument to Bruce, designed by Design With Company, is a response to the situation of the Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago which aims at creating a new narrative for the building’s afterlife. By combining literary and architectural narrative strategies, their design tries to recapture the narrative and produce the universe we need to steer us toward the conversations we want to have. This story is not a means to an end, it is the ends. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The design by Spark Architects for the Ikon Connaught seeks to create a lifestyle destination on an intimate neighborhood scale with the level of quality, impact and vibrancy of a city centre destination. Located at the heart of Cheras in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the project will provide space for more than 100 boutique shops and restaurants over five storeys with five levels of office above. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: Jordi Farrando Location: Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Cataluña, Spain Architect: Jordi Farrando Project Year: 2007 Photographs: Adrià Goula

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Architects: Archi5 Location: Belfort, France Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Fabien Terreaux and Amoor Maadi

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MVRDV, in collaboration with The Jerde Partnership, ARUP, and developer Wijaya Karya – Benhil Property, have unveiled plans to create a new landmark in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dubbed Peruri 88, the 400 meter tall vertical city integrates retail, offices, housing, a luxury hotel, four levels of parking, a wedding house, a mosque, an imax theater and an outdoor amphitheater, with an extensive amount of green space.

The team presented the plans to city and site owner, Peruri, as part of a developer’s bid competition for the prominent site.

All the details after the break…

Results from the Transforming the Bridge Competition for Cleveland, Ohio, are in. The competition called for an innovative solution for the redevelopment and repurposing of the abandoned Detroit-Superior Bridge. The brief called for a variety of uses, dedicated pedestrian and bike paths, performance spaces, and landscaping solutions. Nine projects made the cut…