Over the weekend I took some time to assemble my LEGO Sears Tower, the legendary skyscraper located in Chicago designed by SOM.

This LEGO set was designed by Adam Reed Tucker, who has also put out more complex sets such as the Guggenheim Museum and the Fallingwater House.

Since its beginnings, photography quickly became the principal architectural media tool. Now, with all the possibilities given by the new technology, specially new media, it seemed that video was supposed to be the natural evolution. However, only a few have been able to evolve from a fixed frame into a video proposal that can transmit the qualities of a building in motion, with most being just a slideshow with background music or a collage of different shots, which can’t tell more than a fixed photo.

Last year, BIG completed Mountain Dwellings (winner of the Building of the Year 2009 Award under the Housing category), showing us new approaches to a complex typology.

Along this line of innovation in housing, we now present you a sneak peek of the soon to be completed 8 House a 62,000sqm project located in Copenhagen with an interesting approach to mixed use. Over 540 units for different configurations (single or family, young and elders, growing or shrinking families) are placed around a bow in the shape of an 8, mixed with commerce and community facilities, which Bjarke Ingels explain on the above video with a simplicity that has become BIG’s signature when it comes to project presentation.

More photos of the construction process after the break:

A month and a half ago we presented you Roadmap 2050, a proposal to set in motion an invisible revolution in the energy sector which would stabilize the Earths climate.

I am very interested on the relation between architecture and weather. That’s why On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time by Moshen Mostafavi has a special place on my bookshelf.

That’s why enjoyed Arium so much.

Arium is the result of a studio led by Jürgen Mayer with Neeraj Bhatia at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. The book moves between a series of analytical articles on the relationship between weather and architecture, ranging from tourism to shopping. These concepts are then tested by the studio over the Victory Soya Mills Silos, a massive concrete structure sitting silent along Toronto’s waterfront, the perfect lab for a weatherized intervention: the Ariums (Algarium, Fogarium, Thermarium, etc).

The balance between weather analysis and the studio projects make this book a good reference on the subject, and not just a mere compilation of student’s work.

A few days ago we showed you a series of screenshoots of the first Autodesk Autocad for Mac Beta (codename Sledgehammer), a preview of the UI improvements that we are going to see for this platform.

Almost a year ago we told you of a survey Autodesk was conducting regarding the UI and printing capabilities of Autocad with Mac users, the first confirmation of Autodesk finally working on a version for this platform.

Federico Viticci from Macstories posted several screen shoots of Sledgehammer, the first Beta of Autocad for Mac OSX, running on a 64-bit machine. The UI presents several changes from what we were used to on the Windows version, and I´m happy to see mouse gestures (supported by Macbook’s touchpad and the Magic Mouse).

Not much details out there, but we do have a meeting with an Autodesk rep in the following weeks, when we will try to get you more details.

In the meanwhile, take a look at the following screen shoots and tell us what you think: Is Autodesk going in a good direction with this new version (more than an adaptation) of Autocad for Mac? Does the UI seem usable for you? What would you add?

This has been reflected trough several initiatives, such as the White House Redux Competition (2008), Pike Loop (Gramazio & Kohler, 2009), the Reef (Urbana + Radical Craft, 2009), the itinerary Spacebuster (Raumlabor, 2009), and editing publications such as “49 Cities” by Work AC and Storefront Newsprints.

A few weeks ago, William O’brien Jr. shared with us his latest project: the Allandale House. When I opened the “photos” I was intrigued on how fast he came up with this house. But then I noticed they were renders, by one of the best digital artists out there: Peter Guthrie (who is also a reader of ArchDaily!).

In my opinion, Herzog & de Meuron has been one of the few practices pushing new forms on architecture. They always start with something vernacular, extracting its inner essence and materializing it into something new that you will immediately understand by looking at the building (or the renders). A dialog between art and the current state of our society, embodied on industrial facilities, residential projects, mixed use complexes.

Their book “Herzog & de Meuron: Natural History” is a must.

We now bring you a special on Herzog & de Meuron, with photos by Barcelona-based photographer Duccio Malagamba (previously featured on our AD Photographers section).

An existing building block from the communist era in Budapest gets extruded and converted into the tallest building on Earth, short by Aron Lorincz.

Interesting video by Rob Carter:

AMO is a design and research studio inside OMA, a think tank operating on the boundaries of architecture: media, politics, sociology, sustainability, technology, fashion, curating, publishing and graphic design. Some of their works include the barcode flag for the EU and a study for Wired magazine.

And while OMA covers sustainable strategies on a building or master plan scale, AMO is approaching it on en European scale as one of the five consultants conducting technical, economic and policy analyses for Roadmap 2050, an initiative by the European Climate Foundation which looks to chart a policy roadmap for the next 5-10 years based on the European leaders’ commitment to an 80-95% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. You can download a brief of Roadmap 2050 in PDF.

The goal is to achieve a 2% energy efficiency saving per year in order to meet this goal, with power and vehicle transportation being the most important areas.

Through the complete integration and synchronization of the EU’s energy infrastructure, Europe can take maximum advantage of its geographical diversity. The report’s findings show that by 2050, the simultaneous presence of various renewable energy sources within the EU can create a complementary system of energy provision ensuring energy security for future generations.

AMO’s work focuses on the production of a graphic narrative which conceptualizes and visualizes the geographic, political, and cultural implications of the integrated, decarbonized European power sector.

On their study you can find an interesting approach to a diverse european energy grid, including energy trade and the use of new non-traditional sources.

The image of “Eneropa” appears as a new continent based on its energy production: Biomassburg, Geothermalia, Solaria, the Tidal States… are part of this new territory. Other branding concepts are introduced on the study, creating a tangible image of this ambitious plan, which reminds the powerful (yet simple) idea behind the barcode flag.

You can download the full study in PDF format at the Roadmap 2050 website.

More after the break:

Amazing video by Patrick Jean, produced by OneMoreProd. New York turns into a pixelated video game. Love the Tetris buildings.

An impressive visual performance by label Anti VJ , over the facade of a recent building in the new Songdo city, South Korea.

In Zaandam, the city of the first European McDonalds, we find the Inntel Hotel designed by dutch architects WAM.

OMA has been announced as the winner of the international competition for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) expansion. The CAD$90 million project was also consulted with local residents, with an 82% of approval.

A series of stacked boxes remind the programatic relations of Seattle’s Library, while generating an interesting grand hall facing the street with urban qualities.

The three stacked galleries vary in size, as you can see on the axo and models included below: contemporary exhibitions (50m x 50m), the permanent contemporary collection (45m x 35m) and design / Inuit exhibits (42.5m x 25m). The cantilever over the street creates the grand hall, a 14m tall transparent space connected to the park, starting point of an ascending path trough the boxes.

“Our ambition is to create a dramatic new presence for the city, while maintaining a respectful, even stealthy approach to the museum’s neighbors and the existing museum. The resulting form of cascading gallery boxes enhances the museum experience by creating a clarity in circulation and curation while allowing abundant natural light into the galleries.”

- Shohei Shigematsu

The other four finalists of the competition were Barkow Leibinger (Germany) + Imrey Culbert (US), Allied Works (US) + Fichten Soiferman et Associés (Canada), Nieto Sobejano (Spain) + Brière, Gilbert et Associés (Canada) and David Chipperfield (UK) + Groupe Arcop (Canada).

The project is led by partners Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu (who we interviewed before), and will be executed by OMA NY in collaboration with Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes. Construction is expected to be completed in fall 2013.

More images after the break:

A tilt-shift video documenting a day around Zaha Hadid’s CMA CGM Tower in Marseilles, France. The project is expected to be completed during the second half of 2010.