Designed as a learning space for the future, LAVA‘s design focuses on an environment that is sustainable, integrates with the landscape, connects with the school environment, and is suitable for prefabrication and mass customization. Relocatables are the decades old solution to changing demographics, remote community needs, and natural disasters. Unsightly, they are perceived as cheap and unpleasant spaces. This idea is upturned with spaces that are sustainable, practical, cost effective whilst making learning fun and exciting. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Known for drawing in a diverse background of well-known architects, Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture‘s spring 2012 lecture series began January 23rd with Jesse Seppi and concludes with Tatiana Bilbao on April 23rd. All events will take place at the Carnegie Museum complex and the series is co-sponsored by the Heinz Archiectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art. A schedule of the lecture series can be viewed after the break.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is pleased to announce a “Call for Proposals” for its 2012 International Research Seed Funding initiative – culminating with an award of US$20,000.

In their Europan 11 Proposal, titled ‘Nudge City’, RIO Agency’s main goal was to build on a critical vision of sustainability as it is often promoted today. In their approach, the urban project cannot be a goal in itself. It has to be a frame of incentives, building on the territory’s ability to attract energies, leaning on individual aspirations to create a sustainable city. Nudges are sparks: public interventions which, designing one use, open way for a tree of possibilities. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The first prize proposal in the Europan 11 competition in Hungary, Szeged by AMK+ Studio is before a functional transformation and with the cooperation of the city and the site owner, the integration of the site into the urban tissue is the main goal. Designed by Tamas Kun, Gergely Almos, and Tamas Mezey, their design suggests a kind of framing building line – an ‘intelligent wall’ – which is formed by many aspects. These aspects manage all the mutual reactions between the mainly residential environment and the rehabilited industrial – new ‘city center’ – block. A ‘bridge’ connects the place formally, in scale, by material use and with functionality. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The hotel project by LAN Architecture rapidly became a small city project, a human settlement in which habitat, commerce, education, politics, and culture are combined. To achieve their objective, they set a strategy where each component of the project plays an essential role in the definition of the whole: rooms become a roof, roof is a plaza, the plaza a window, the window a façade, the façade a landscape, etc. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Loïc Brenterc’h (A.B.A agency) + Ewan Marin (COT agency) shared with us their Europan 11 Proposal in Toulouse, France which won the second prize. Titled ‘META – Block: A Toulouse Urban Model’, the purpose of their design is to extend and redefine the historical city way of life. The inhabitant’s habits and living visions have changed but they still need to feel the Toulouse cultural vibes. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Organized by a commission of professors and students from the ULHT’s (Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias) School of Communication, Architecture, Arts and Information Technologies (ECATI), European Workshop of Waterfront and Urban Design Workshop 2012 will take place from March 18-31. Held at ISCAD on Lisbon’s Waterfront, where students can work all day, EWWUD’s previous editions gathered about 80 students from several European and North American universities, who worked together for two weeks. More information on the event after the break.

In addition to solving the functional interrelationships of classrooms, workshops, laboratories, cultural center, administrative center, graduate school, parking and service areas, the proposal for the UTEC University Campus by XTe a+d offers an appropriate corporate image to the institution of national and international prominence. Their design will host and give identity to: the most important private organization in the country engaged in higher technological education, being “avant-garde” and “sustainability” two of the essential concepts to be considered in a 3-phase development process to reach its maximum expansion. More images and architects’ description after the break.

This is the second finalist of the international competition for the Alma Hotel Residence for ESO. The competition was won by Kouvo & Partanen.

The main idea of the proposal for the Alma Hotel Residence by Coz Polidura Volante Architects takes us back to archaic structural typologies inherent to the Atacama culture, easily distinguishable in areas like Turi ruins, Lasana or Pucara de Quitor in San Pedro de Atacama. The layout of the building takes advantage of the program modules of rooms, repeating this form of modular design of fullness and emptiness, which means an operation sensible to light and shadow, as occurs at the site between streams and mountains. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Filipe Magalhaes and Ana Luisa Soares shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the open ideas competition organized by Origami Competitions. The competition focused on an empty plot in Oporto, Portugal, where they were asked to develop a fresh and contemporary residential proposal that could be spread through the city. ‘Polikatoikea’ does just that in seeking a compromise between a greek rule (polikatoika) and a swedish philosophy (ikea). More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal for the international competition for a cyclone shelter in Bangladesh by Lindsay Bremner and Jeremy Voorhees is conceptualized as a boat-building, referencing two local typologies – the boat and the landing ghat. Located in Ranggabali, a small village in the Patuakhali Province, the building is half submerged in water in times of cyclone flooding while beached against a concrete ghat in dry seasons. Sheltering its occupants in the liminal zone between land and water, it makes place by transitioning from depth and section to surface and plan. More images and architects’ descriptions after the break.

Century City Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Century Properties Group Inc. focused on mixed-use developments with high-rise condominiums, recently revealed their architectural design for the Trump Tower in Manila, Philippines. The tower is going to be prominent on the Manila skyline for years to come. It’s a beautiful glass building – very architecturally significant with an incredible spire. Its architecture will be truly iconic. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Kouvo & Partanen was recently announced as the winners of design competition for the Alma Hotel Residence in the Atacama Observatory and Research Center in the desert of northern Chile. The aim of the competition was to find the best solution on a fixed design fee and construction price for the building that offers the astronomers, engineers, and other staff working at the observatory accommodation, restaurant and office services and recreational spaces. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Between 22 July – 05 August 2012, the architects group Krokodil (EM2N, pool, Roger Boltshauser, Frank Zierau, Schweingruber Zulauf) and the Department of Architecture of the ETH Zurich (D-ARCH) will jointly run the International Summer Academy 2012 in Zurich with the title “From Suburb to City”.

Passive House Bulgaria recently launched an International Design Competition for a Passive House near Sofia, Bulgaria. The main goal with this competition is to challenge the architectural community to design a schematic design proposal for an affordable, low energy, single-family houses, to focus the public attention to this new type of energy efficient buildings, and to promote the design and construction of Passive Houses in Bulgaria. Registration is open until the competition deadline on on March 16. For more information, please visit here.

Open to citizens of the Republic of Slovenia or other EU member states and/or competitors who have a place of business in either, the competition of a solution for the National and University Library NUK II must reflect the period of construction and thus express the autonomy of architecture without attempting to exceed the spatial context by design and dimensions.

The master planning of the CBD of Jilin city is a collaborative project by AECOM, a team formed by architects, urban designers, landscape designers and economists. Its collaboration across different disciplines was highly affirmed by the client and the government officials, which led to the project situated in the historical city in northeastern China. Their design is proposed to be the future CBD area by the government and has high-value natural and historical resources like the Songhua River and the Xiaobai Mountain. More images and architects’ description after the break.