CO Architects, specialists in architecture for education and healthcare, along with the office of Ayers Saint Gross, associate and master plan architect, shared with us their award-winning design that exemplifies new, interdisciplinary teaching and research.

The physical manifestation of a new, interdisciplinary approach to health sciences education and research is rising from the flat pans of downtown Phoenix, AZ in the form of an architecturally expressive, world-class, sustainable educational facility. Currently under construction, the project recently won a 2010 NEXT LA Citation Award given to “on-the-boards” projects by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). More images and project description after the break.

Ioana Mihaela Agachi, Octav S. Olanescu, Anamaria C. Popa and Vlad S. Rusu shared with us their first prize entry for the Transylvania Cultural Center. The competition was initiated by the Cluj-Napoca’s city administration to determine the best solution for the design theme for a new Cultural Center which is based on the city’s Cultural Developement Strategy. The new Cultural Center was designed to host a new Philharmonic Hall, offices, restaurants, spaces for performing artists, a building for restoration facilities and different exhibition spaces. More images and their description after the break.

The bi-coastal urban and landscape design team TLS/KVA-Tom Leader Studio (Berkeley) and Kennedy and Violich Architecture (Boston)-were named the winning design team of the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition just last week. RIVERFIRST stood out as particularly well suited to the Upper Riverfront in Minneapolis. The team grounded their proposal in proactive outreach to the community, demonstrated extensive research, and posited several multi-­layered solutions unique to these 11 miles of riverfront and the habitat, communities, businesses, infrastructure, and culture intrinsic to the region. More images and project description after the break.

Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects shared with us their proposal for the Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural and Popular Music Center, an international competition that finds its inspiration in the vibrancy of Kaohsiung City and its maritime culture, and in the energy and phenomenon of popular music. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Eero Saarinen’s decommissioned TWA Terminal has been slated for conversion into a boutique hotel. It seems as though the Port Authority’s plan is to use the landmark terminal as the gateway to a separate hotel building that will be squeezed into the crescent of space between Saarinen’s building and JetBlue’s Terminal 5. Along with this proposal, some might think that creating a boutique out of a classic could contradict what Saarinen had in mind. Many design challenges can arise from a simple, yet complex transformation. More on the news after the break.

The 5th IABR calls for submissions of projects that advance innovative responses to today’s most pressing urban challenges. Municipal, metropolitan and national governments, cultural organizations, researchers, designers, and other parties are invited to submit design projects that rethink the existing interaction between politics, planning and design.

Evgeny Didorenko shared with us his project whose aim of a landmark was not to create a monument to the power of the industrial age and conquest of nature, but rather a monument to nature. Doing so would acknowledge the generous gifts nature has given us that was produced centuries and even millenniums ago. Brown coal – one of it’s gifts. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Yushang Zhang, Rajiv Sewtahal, Riemer Postma and Qianqian Cai (with studio tutor Alexander Sverdlov, at The Why Factory of professor Winy Maas (MVRDV) at the TU Delft) shared with us their project, “Vertical Village: A Sustainable Way of Village-style Living”, which was awarded the first prize in the d3 Housing Tomorrow 2011 Competition. The competition called for transformative solutions that advanced sustainable thought, building performance, and social interaction through the study of intrinsic environmental geometries, social behaviors, urban implications, and programmatic flows.

The d3 Housing Tomorrow competition assumes that architecture does not simply form, but rather perform various functions beyond those conventionally associated with residential buildings. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Chicago Architectural Club is pleased to announce the 2011 Burnham Prize Competition. This year’s competition is co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects Chicago and Landmarks Illinois. The competition is intended to examine the controversial legacy and questionable future of the McCormick Place East Building, the 1971 modernist convention hall designed by Gene Summers of C.F. Murphy Associates which is sited on the lakefront in Burnham Park. Registration for the 2011 Burnham Prize Competition has been open since 1 February 2011. Submissions are due 4 April 2011. More competition information after the break.

Atelier Zündel & Cristea architects shared with us their Grenelle Tower in Paris France, which has been commended by the Mipim AR FUTURE awards. At a time when Paris is reviewing its ambitions of ‘greatness’, the richness of the city’s diversity is transposed vertically into towers of shifting density. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Cite’ de l’architecture et du Patrimoine: Architecture for Children in Paris, France, in collaboration with Eduardo Benamor Duarte, is hosting an event showing two projects: Onion Pinch and Napping Pod which started December 8th, 2010 and runs until February 27th.

Onion Pinch is a cork installation originally conceived in occasion of the Digital Primitive Event proposed as a parallel event of the Lisbon Biennial Experimental Design.

The design is a Babies and Adult Rest Station designed for the Cais du Sodre Lisbon Subway Station.

Napping pod is a proposal for boarding schools and collective napping spaces. Imagine a branching tree, a babies tree, babies growing in the space like flowers and fruits. More images and project descriptions after the break.

The collaboration of Studio Arco -scape architects with Michael Gruber and Kulapat Yantrasast shared with us their project, Museo Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah, for an international competition open to the European community. Upon believing that a museum is an object for the city, the MEIS is a Memorial, as well as a place where one can experience the presence of Jewish culture in Italy. At the same time, it is a symbol: the symbol of the city, of an historically involved territory, but also a testimony of common cultural roots, becoming a monument recognized by any citizen and religious community. More images and architects’ description after the break.

STL Architects shared with us their UNO Master Plan in the Gage Park community on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois. This Master Plan not only offers an opportunity to revitalize the existing neighborhood and make it more vibrant and pedestrian oriented, but it also acts as a catalyst by attracting new business and investments such as educational facilities, a civic center and open green space. More images and architects’ description after the break.

A+D, The Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles, presents Souper Green, an exhibition of new architectural work that offers a compelling alternative to the conventional idea of “being green” starting February 12th from 6pm-9pm to April 14th.

Highlighting the fact that technology is a key factor in the environmental crisis—to some a main cause, to others the best answer—this work questions the corresponding ways “green technology” is normally cast as a form of penance, and asked to “solve the problem” (as in “please-make-it-go-away-I-don’t-want-to-hear-about-it”). Instead, these five projects promote an attitude that looks at technology as a uniquely human means of expression, through which the “natural”—in its broadest sense—can be engaged and made more visible. More event description after the break.

The open international ideas competition, hosted by suckerPUNCH, is for a new, larger home for the museum of cartoon and comic art . The museum was established in 2001 and currently is based in the Soho area of Manhattan in New York City. The main goal of the museum is to educate the public about comic and cartoon art, how it is crafted, and how it reflects history. More images and descriptions of winning entries after the break.

Maxwan shared with us their master plan design for the transformation of the Leiden Central Station and its quarter in Leiden City, Netherlands. From a neglected station area into a vibrant new high-density neighborhood, their design strengthens the connection between the historic center in the south and Leiden’s Bio-Science District in the north. More images and architect’s description after the break.

The Aquilialberg project, the Brixen Public Library for an international architectural competition, has the aim to become a new gathering location for the population. Following this line, the project is designed to assure wide spaces for socialization, both interior and exterior, to accommodate public manifestations and cultural encounters. It is a place to spread knowledge, in which citizen could feel themselves at ease and spend spare time constructively.

Interiors volumes are designed on the base of the educational vocation of a Library. Reading rooms with double height are connected between each other at different levels. In these spaces of interconnection, natural light filtrate smoothly from skylights and narrow windows cut in the external walls. On the other hand, areas for socialization and gathering are overflowed by the light coming from full high windows. More images and architect’s description after the break.

University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design is putting on their Bulthaup Spring 2011 Lecture Series which will feature several well-renowned architects beginning at 6:30pm on February 3rd and ending on March 22nd. The lectures will be held at the University’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design in room 103 at 230 College Street, Toronto ON M5T 1R2. Below are the dates of the lectures: