The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) has announced the launch of SCI-Arc Mexico, to begin in mid-March 2016. Located in the Barragán Foundation in Mexico City, SCI-Arc Mexico will feature international studios, exhibitions, conferences and symposia, furthering SCI-Arc’s global presence by complementing SCI-Arc Shanghai as well as bolstering further development into South America and Europe.

The Curonian Spit in Lithuania contains six main villages: Smiltynė, Alksnynė, Juodkrantė, Pervalka, Preila and Nida, all connected by a single narrow road surrounded by water on both sides. As such, buses are the only public transportation that can connect all six villages. As part of an annual seminar to elevate the architecture of the Curonian Spit, a series of 5 bus stops, within the Neringa region of the spit, have been planned for construction. Specifically chosen to improve the cultural and social function of a typical piece of infrastructure, each bus stop uniquely elevates the qualities of the village it will be built for. See the five planned stops after the break.

In this video by the AIA, Marlon Blackwell, one of Arkansas’ foremost architects, speaks on the importance of small projects in an architect's career. “I only really worked on small projects at the beginning…that was doing everything…The scale of the site, the scale of the model, the scale of the hand…the beauty of the small project is that you can work at all of those many scales," says Blackwell. “The smaller projects are the beginning of the development of a language in architecture. I see it not as a benign or banal thing but as the beginning of taking yourself from where you are to where you want to be.”

Kulapat Yantrasast is one of the founding partners and current Creative Director of wHY (Workshop Hakomori Yantrasast): a multi-disciplinary firm that works with designed objects, architecture and ideas. Yantrasast values humanist design, focusing on the way architecture directly relates to its human inhabitants. The firm has a diverse portfolio, with much of their work focusing on the relationship of public spaces to the city. They have been shortlisted to revitalize Los Angeles’ oldest park, selected to design the performance spaces for Chicago’s re-designed Jackson Park, and designed and built the “Art Bridge” – a cultural piece of infrastructure – over the Los Angeles river.

Parisian architect Clément Blanchet of cBA has revealed his shortlisted proposal for the Pershing site in the Réinventer.paris competition. The competition sought designs to revive 23 sites throughout the city of Paris, giving designers the power to rethink and reshape the way Parisians live, work and play. All 23 winning projects were announced last week, with a design by Sou Fujimoto selected for the Pershing plot.

The overall strategy of the Pershing area involves linking La Défense with the central business district of Greater Paris, utilizing the under-used space between Porte Maillot and the Porte des Ternes next to the Palais des Congrès de Paris. cBA’s proposal involves covering the Parisian ring, creating a metropolitan space next to the convention centre at Pershing Square. The proposal, titled “Re-Invention”, creates urbanity, using the project’s size to reveal and discover the layers of history present in the city. From this history, the city is reborn, creating a new “cultural center of production”.

“In “réinventer paris” I was thinking about reinventing something which has vanished,” said Clément Blanchet.

Lateral Office’s work follows its namesake, looking horizontally at problems and solutions across various fields. Exploring the intersections of systems, environment and architecture, the Canadian firm often situates its projects in unusual climatic and topographic conditions, finding ways to consolidate multi-disciplinary problems with multi-disciplinary solutions.

Lateral Office’s exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, “Making Camp” looks at strategies of city planning and adapts them to the wilderness, forming new typologies of the traditional campsite. Like their previous project, Arctic Adaptations (special mention at the Venice Biennale), “Making Camp” explores the way architecture can respond to, and take advantage of nature, simultaneously preserving and using the natural environment.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected Hans Butzer as the recipient of the 2016 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture. The award recognizes excellence in architectural advocacy and achievement in the public realm. Learn more about Butzer, after the break.

Grace Farms by SANAA perfectly illustrates the firm’s sinuous, elegant style, combining their understanding of glass and structure to create spaces so fluid that they’re hard to believe from just a photo. A new time lapse by Work Zone Cam shows the construction of this project in HD, capturing a period between September 2013 and October 2015. Work Zone Cam worked with Project Manager, Paratus Group, to document Grace Farms’ construction, including its central piece “The River”: a ribbon-like roof that blends seamlessly with the landscape. Watch the entire construction of the project in just 180 seconds after the break.

The AIA has selected George Smart as the winner of the 2016 Collaborative Achievement Award for his work with North Carolina Modernist Houses (NCMH), which creates “fresh awareness” of modern architecture through its mission to "document, preserve, and promote modernist architecture" across the US. The award, to be presented at the 2016 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Philadelphia, recognizes and encourages distinguished achievements of allied professionals, clients, organizations, architect teams, knowledge communities, and others who have had a beneficial influence on or advanced the architectural profession.

Ever present in the forum of architectural discourse, WORKac is known not only for their playful and well-developed projects, but also for their exhibits, installations and publications that all have a message: architecture has the power to change the way we live. Most recently, they’ve participated in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, re-producing famous speculative drawings by Antfarm to illustrate alternative ways of living. Even before that however, WORKac has been shifting its focus on the impact of architecture on the environment, looking at the way city planning and housing could improve to lessen our damage to the earth. Their book, 49 cities, explores the plans and strategies of its namesake to speculate on how we can begin to improve our own, current cities, while their exhibit at the MoMA PS1 event, “Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream” advertised a potential “Nature City” that could change the way we live.

A design for a pavilion constructed out of recycled clothes hangers has been selected as the winner of the sixth annual City of Dreams Pavilion Competition. The temporary structure will be built on Governors Island and available to the public for summer 2016, pending final approval and fundraising.

Hosted by FIGMENT, the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY), the competition speculates on possible futures with solutions to the current strain on economic and natural resources. Designers are required to consider their materials from sourcing to disposal, or ideally, reuse, promoting sustainable thinking.

Over 100 design proposals were submitted, and the jury selected four finalists who were each given a month to further develop their designs in response to jury comments. See the winning design and the three finalists after the break.

As of June 29, 2016, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB)’s Intern Development Program will be renamed the “Architectural Experience Program," or AXP. Part of a wider change in the industry to retire the term “intern,” the decision was made after years of research and outreach by various committees, as well as feedback from “state licensing boards, industry leaders and emerging professionals.”

The program, developed by the NCARB, is meant to guide aspiring architects through their early career, helping them earn their license and practice independently. NCARB will continue referring to those working toward licensure as “aspiring architects” or “exam candidates.”

Chicago is one of the most architecturally rich cities in the world with the history of modernism embedded in its skyline. From the Willis Tower to the Aqua Tower, the skyscrapers of Chicago have led the development of tall buildings, the city becoming a breeding ground for innovations in structure and design. The Windy City has solidified itself among other metropolitan giants like New York and London as having one of the most recognizable skylines in the world.

This new infographic by Chicago Line Cruises offers a look at some of the most visible figures in Chicago’s skyline, with embedded information on each of the buildings. View the infographic after the break.

Following the recent trend of luxury pre-fabricated structures like Muji’s recent three huts, Robbie Antonio’s “Revolution Pre-Crafted” is a collection of pre-fabricated pavilions by 30 top designers and architects, including Zaha Hadid, Sou Fujimoto, Daniel Libeskind and Gluckman Tang. Some have already been built, being exhibited at Design Miami, while others are planned for the future.

With recent advancements in building technology, Revolution Pre-Crafted hopes to democratize the design of pre-fab structures, offering a line of products that incorporate the distinct spatial and social brands of the designers. See a selection of the Revolution Precraft line after the break.

Designer William McDonough has unveiled the next step in cradle-to-cradle manufacturing: The Innovation for the Circular Economy house (ICEhouse) in Davos, Switzerland. The ICEhouse aims to show the “positive design framework described in the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, and the reuse of resources implicit in the circular economy."

The house was used as a place of gathering and discussion for the World Economic Forum annual meeting. After being used for the week, the building will be disassembled and reconstructed elsewhere.

On January 15, 2015, Allan Teramura, FRAIC, was named the 77^th President of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). The Ottawa architect is a principal at Watson MacEwen Teramura Architects, and has advocated for healthier, sustainable Aboriginal communities in Canada.