The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office are opening the “Hong Kong at 15: Redefining the Public Realm” exhibition this Monday, December 10th at 7:00pm and will be on exhibit until January 23rd. Taking place at the Center for Architecture in New York, the exhibit features architectural projects built in Hong Kong designed by New York architects, and highlights the 15 year milestone of Hong Kong’s transfer of sovereignty and highlights the contribution of New York architects to the design of Hong Kong. Fueled by a famously free economy, and reputation as a gateway to China, Hong Kong has continued to grow over the past 15 years with the city’s architects and engineers producing highly sophisticated solutions to the challenged faced in the city. For more information about the event, please visit here.

Organized as part of the launch of IE University’s Master in Work Space Design, which will receive its first intake next February, the school organized a workshop focused on What’s Next in Workspaces? Designing with Change. Distinguished panelists shared their vision on changing forces and trends in work space design, and how it is creating new and exciting working environments. The new program combines modules in Madrid and London with online periods, and is run in collaboration with strategic partner the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art. Experts agreed that the work place has made a shift in the last years, due to flexibility, mobility and generation gap within the work forces. The role of office designers will become in the future more about facilitation and that simplicity will prevail in office space of the future. For more information on their new, upcoming program, please visit here.

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates recently announced the launch of their KPF DesignCloud, the first global design charrette involving all 6 of the firm’s offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, and Abu Dhabi. The web-based vehicle for interaction amongst designers is intended for the exchange of ideas, observations, and questions. This is done quarterly to frame a specific problem to be solved. Their first charratte focuses on “Rest, Relieve, Relax, Repose” where KPF staff members were given one week to come up with a design concept, after which the jurors and designers were able to review and comment through the KPF DesignCloud website. For more information, please visit here. A video of their last charrette can be viewed after the break.

Aiming to provide a meeting place for information, knowledge, skills, and stories, the proposal by Marc Anton Dahmen | Studio DMTW for the Helsinki Central Library competition reflects the creativity, innovation and interaction for the people of Helsinki. Resulting in the sculptural massing of the building, their design derives from the creation of an vertical circulation element, connecting the building by transiting from one function to another throughout the entire collection area. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by AAIMM, the project of the Solar Towers is based on the analysis of the urban fabric of the city Sabadell, Barcelona. A medium-scale, self-sufficient and productive infrastructure promoting energy production from renewable and clean sources, the project also intends to promote the enhancement of healthy mobility through electric bicycles and electric cars, and to generate productive urban farming spaces and social community spaces for elderly, temporarily unemployed, or displaced inhabitans; all in one single infrastructure. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Bjarke Ingels, who heads up the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), was in Sydney recently and did a talk at the Australian Institute of Architects, which was sponsored and organized by HASSELL. With the common design values and easy fit between BIG and HASSELL, they make a powerful team. So BIG, whose projects we have published here, visited Sydney to explore the potential for future project collaborations. More information and a video after the break.

The Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), whose mission is to provide safe, secure and functional facilities that represent the U.S. Government in U.S. foreign policy objectives, has shortlisted eleven design firms for the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Worldwide New Construction A/E (Architecture/Engineering) Design Services solicitation. The shortlist of firms, selected out of 88 prospective offers, presented projects that were “well conceived and executed, displayed innovation, and showed strength in identity and public image.” A complete list of the shortlisted teams are listed after the break.

PRAUD shared with us their concept proposal, titled ‘The Heart of the Metropolis’ for the Helsinki Central Library competition. With the intent for a building that serves a larger civic function by creating a space for congregation at an urban scale, their library design aims at becoming a ‘Living Room’ for the city. The result is a true metropolitan building that not only creates a dialogue with the city, but one within the architectural language, making it timeless and essential for Helsinki. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The aim of the competition for the Freedom Square And Zdunski Market Place was to select the best urban and architectural design in Kutno, Poland. Such features as spatial development, functionality and practicability were taken into consideration. In the second prize winning proposal by Mado Architekci, they combine the current appearance with the original to create a hybrid square. The hybrid would combine the features of a pro-community, commonly accessible square without any motor traffic, with a square that would satisfy the needs of a modern city. More images and architects’ description after the break.

An industrial and harbor city divided in the north and south by the river Göta, Gothenburg is currently lacking a coherent relationship between the city and the river. The great differences between the north and south sides of the Göta River are in scale, function, and density. The project, proposed by JAPA, Javier Ponce Architects, re-introduces the Göta river to the citizens by means of a urban re-generation; the river seen as a green system connected with the existing landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Architectural League and Socrates Sculpture Park is currently inviting architects to submit proposals for the 2013 Folly Competition, a design/build studio residency, and chance to build an installation at Socrates Sculpture Park, a unique urban waterfront park in Queens, NY. Socrates and the League welcome proposals from all emerging architects and designers for large-scale projects and installations that explore contemporary interpretations of the architectural folly. The deadline for submissions is January 7. For more information, please visit here.

The University of California Davis (UCD) has selected three pairings of architects and contractors to compete to design a $30-million art museum, expected to be completed in 2016. The university has decided against a traditional competition in favor of a design-build competition, requesting that each of the prospective architects - WorkAC, SO-IL (working with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, of Apple store fame), and Henning Larsen Architects - work with specific contractors in order to develop holistically conceived museum schemes. More information after the break.

Six firms, Agence Ter (France), Burns + Nice (UK), Gustafson Porter (UK), James Corner Field Operations (USA), jmarchitects (UK), and John McAslan & Partners (UK), were recently shortlisted in the project for a major redevelopment of George Square in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland. The 13 statues and monuments that stand in the square are to be moved to other sites in the city while the area is given a makeover ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Planned to submit their plans by the new year, the six designs submitted to Glasgow City Council will be put on public display at the Lighthouse in early January. The design competition winner will then have the prestigious task of redeveloping the square to further enhance Glasgow’s reputation as an international city.

The “Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society” installation by architect Andrés Jaque will be on display from December 13th until February 28th at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. Presented by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the Banco Sabadell Foundation, the installation hopes to bring the figure of the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the most important icons of the modernist movement, back into the public eye by using objects, elements and materials that will rebuild and bring recognition to Mies’ historical importance. More information after the break.

Located at the Poznań Plaza mall in Poland, mode:lina architekci accepted a challenge to create a temporary store for Swedish watch brand TRIWA. Their goals included using renewable materials, low cost, speed of constructing, and most importantly, to further increase global brand awareness. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The main purpose of the design for the Istanbul Camlica Mosque, which won the second prize in the architectural competition, was to create the largest worship place that has ever been designed, and cover it with one single roof. SN Architects successfully did this by using the load bearing properties of one of the traditional systems that often used “vault systems” and using contemporary architectural and engineering facilities. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Just this past Monday, gmp Architekten was awarded the contract to design the new Kunsthalle Mannheim, a decision made by the Kunsthalle‘s jury. Their winning design portrays a symbolic identity, both on the outside and on the inside. The idea was to create a place that is easily remembered, and which appeals with its functional and urban quality. Analogous to the chess board type layout of Mannheim’s inner city, the design is a composition of several cubes, the regularity of which is however broken by an offset arrangement in terms of height and width, and also by the arrangement of squares within the development. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Michael Maltzan, an award winning American architect and founder and principal of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc., was recently selected to design the Inuit Art and Learning Centre at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The selection committee was unanimous in choosing Michael Maltzan as the winning architect from 65 prospective teams from 15 countries. This recommendation subsequently received overwhelming approval from the WAG Board of Governors. The Centre houses one of the largest and most celebrated collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world; it’s also home to Studio Art and Learning programs. More information after the break.