Immersive Kinematics, a new research group at the University of Pennsylvania, shared with us their newly launch website. The research agenda expands the roles of architecture and engineering focusing on integrating robotics, interaction, and embedded intelligence in our buildings, cities, and cultures.

KKA (Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture) designed a new office building for the steel manufacturer, Lecor. The building is situated in Kungälv, Sweden which is 10 kilometers north of Gothenburg. Lecor builds advanced steel constructions and of course they like to show their skills in their own building. This combined with the opportunity of creating a landmark building visible for the nearby highway has been the starting points of KKA’s design process. Building is planned to commence during 2011. More images and project description after the break.

Fibre Composite Adaptive Systems is a thesis project as part of the master program, Emergent Technologies and Design, at the Architectural Association in London by Maria Mingallon, Sakthivel Ramaswamy and Konstantinos Karatzas. The thesis developed a material system capable of emulating self-organization which is then extended into an architectural application. More images and project description after the break.

Double Infinity is a collaborative exhibition by HHD_FUN in collaboration with Holland Van Abbe Museum and Arthub, commissioned by Holland Art Center. It’s opening coincides with the opening of the Shanghai World Expo and is aimed at connecting these two countries, China and Holland, and two cities – Shanghai and Eindhoven. The aim is to conduct an impressive virtual dialogue by sharing the respective daily conditions and spatial features. More images and exhibition description after the break.

AllesWirdGut Architects won the international architectural competition for residential estate in Luxembourg. The project is part of the Quartier du Grünewald masterplan which, in the course of the development of the Kirchberg Plateau, 700 residential units are to be constructed in 21 buildings. The design of the 56 apartments includes doctors’ offices and a kindergarten. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Fargo 365 was one of three entries into the Downtown Fargo: an Urban In-fill Competition from Philadelphia-based design firm Wallace Roberts and Todd, the design team of David Witham, Douglas Meehan, Anna Ishii, and Hannah Mattheus-Kairy. Their entry was selected as one of two first prize winners. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Rocker-Lange architects shared with us the release of their research project, Serial Architecture – Systems of Multiplicities, which was also part of the exhibit “Quotidian Architectures” in the Hong Kong Pavillion at the Venice Biennale 2010. The project, accompanied by a 400+ book, rethinks quotidian architecture in Hong Kong, a city with an average density of over 6,300 people per square kilometer. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Alexander Remizov, architect for Remistudio, shared with us his project, “The Ark”, which is designed as a bioclimatic building with independent life-support systems that can be built on land or sea. Remizov envisioned this project as the house for the future which can be constructed quickly and withstand environmental disasters through its structural integrity. More images and architect’s description after the break.

In the public competition for the preliminary design of the Simon Bolivar International Complex for Social Action through Music and its surrounding urban area, ADJKM shared with us their first prize proposal which is scheduled to be construction this year and finished by 2016 in Caracas, Venezuela. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Kristina Karlsson and Pauliina Koskinen Tonboe received a shared first prize in the idea competition for the development of Åndalsnes in Rauma, Norway. Amongst 40 proposals from all over Scandinavia, their “Come to Åndalsnes” proposal stood out with the “best masterplan concept” . The jury highlights the value of the proposal treating ideas and solutions for the entire village even outside the competition area. More images and architects’ description after the break.

With the design challenge of housing 150,000 people for a new city near Moscow, b4 Architects shared with us their proposal for the A101 Urban Block Competition where they have focused on a thoughtful making of spaces while being sensitive to the context conditions of the city. More images and architect’s description after the break.

As part of his series dealing with forgotten monuments from the communist era in Bulgaria, Nikola Mihov has shared with us his story and photos of the many iconic communist era monuments in Bulgaria that were dismantled after the fall of the totalitarian regime in 1989. Nevertheless, more than one hundred important monuments built between 1945 and 1989 remain standing. The majority of these sites are not recognized by the state and they remain ownerless. Their exact number is unknown and it is difficult to find information about their authors and their history. More images and his story after the break.

The German magazine AIT invited 100 selected architecture and interior design offices across Europe to redesign the ‘ONO’ chair produced by the Dietiker company. The newly designed chairs will be exhibited in the context of a road show in the AIT-Architektur Salons Hamburg, Munich, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Stuttgart. The main auction of the chairs will talk place in spring 2010. The revenues generated through this auction will support the Langa Township in Cape Town, South Africa. Hofman Dujardin shared with us their entry into the competition, their OYES chair, as an urban charity for city. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Moderated by Joseph Grima (Domus), all are invited to the free Critical Futures event starting at 6:30pm on January 13th, which will focus on a debate on the future of architecture criticism followed by complimentary drinks and further discussion after the talk. Participants include Charles Holland (author, Fantastic Journal), Peter Kelly (Blueprint), Kieran Long (architecture critic, Evening Standard), Geoff Manaugh (author, BLDGBLOG), and Beatrice Galilee (writer, curator, DomusWeb, The Gopher Hole). The event is located at The Gopher Hole, 350-354 Old Street, London, EC1V 9NQ. More event description after the break.

The Architectural Association (AA) visiting school Mittelmeerland, a program of AA’s School of Architecture, is seeking architecture students and young professionals to participate in the 10-day architectural research workshop in Dubrovnik, Croatia from January 31st – February 10th. Mittelmeerland will investigate the future of the Mediterranean as a territory and sustainable waterfronts.

The deadline for application is January 10th 2011.

More information after the break.

Earlier in the week, we featured the winning entry for the international architectural competition for the Centre for Promotion of Science. Now, Blok39 Organization has shared with us the remaining winners for the 2010 competition for Belgrade, Serbia. More images and descriptions on the winners after the break.

A couple days ago, we featured Wolfgang Tschapeller‘s entry for the international competition initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. Now, Milos Zivkovic, Nebojsa Stevanovic, Janko Tadic, Aleksandar Gusic and Slobodanka Tadic have teamed up for this competition and shared with us their entry for The Center for Promotion of Science where they aim to mitigate the many problems New Belgrade creates for its citizens by creating different environments through a continuous movement within the space. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Design Initiatives, an innovative, award-winning architecture practice based in Los Angeles, California and Sofia, Bulgaria, shared with us their proposal for A Room for London, a competition for a temporary demountable hotel room for up to two guests on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London during the Olympic year of 2012. Designed as a boundary structure floating in space between ground and sky, their proposal employs the dialectical contrast of active OR passive. More images and architect’s description after the break.