Alfonso Architects have been awarded the building project for the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (MAACM) in St. Petersburg, Florida. Hundreds of objects from the early 20th century movement - including furniture, pottery and paintings - have been offered by the museum's patron, art collector Rudy Ciccarello, in collaboration with the Two Red Roses Foundation.

Galleries and exhibit spaces, says lead architect Alberto Alfonso, are inspired by the "detailing and customization of materials and joinery" characteristic of the era. The four-story, 90,000 square-foot museum "is a tremendous gift by Mr. Ciccarello for the city of St. Petersburg and our state," adds Alfonso.

The AIA just released its third quarter Design Trends Survey for 2013. Key findings have been made since the previous survey, specifically on neighborhood and community trends.

German architecture firm, GRAFT, has been selected as the winner of the "Apassionata" competition. Tasked with designing a temporary structure for the exhibition of horses, GRAFT proposed a complete wooden building that could be assembled, dismounted and reassembled at the convenience of the company.

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Form4 Architecture has been awarded first place in the 2013 WAN Civic Buildings Competition for a proposal that promises to be a "catalyst for metropolitan living" in Taichung, Taiwan. The new city center, titled "Luminous Moon-Gate," was selected out of 46 entries in the "Future Schemes" category.

UPDATE: Congrats to Susana Duarte of Portugal, winner of the "Lina Bo Bardi" giveaway! Thank you to all those who participated. Keep your eyes peeled for another fantastic giveaway, courtesy of Yale University Press, in the coming weeks.

HAO, together with community group, Williamsburg Independent People, hope to save the historic Domino Sugar Factory site and halt the current masterplan by SHoP Architects which proposes an additional 2,200 luxury apartments along the East River waterfront in Brooklyn, New York.

HAO's counter proposal seeks to adaptively reuse the existing factory buildings, including the iconic Civil War-era Domino Sugar Refinery — which has defiantly held its ground amidst heavy redevelopment in surrounding areas. Not unlike SHoP's proposal, HAO aims to regenerate these spaces into a "world-class cultural destination" that combines public and private programs.

"As Autumn Leaves" (AAL) is a spatial installation designed and built by students of the Laboratory for Computational Design (LCD) for Beijing's 2013 Design Week. Located in a historic hutong district in Beijing, AAL highlights the existing entrance to Dashilar Factory where emerging creatives exhibit their design. The concept is based on ephermerality of nature. As temperatures change, autumn turns to winter, and trees shed their leaves, AAL recalls the passage of time through changing seasons.

Cities are diverse places, home to a rich spectrum of people and lifestyles. Chris Downey, however, believes that there are only two types of people, "those with disabilities and those that haven't quite found theirs yet." Downey, a distinguished architect of over twenty years, lost his eyesight four years ago and found a new way of seeing the world. "If you design for the blind in mind, you get a city that is robust, accessible, well-connected...a more inclusive, more equitable city for all." Hear his story, contrasting his daily life before and after this newly found "outsight."

Seoul-based architectural firms, PWFERRETTO + UTOP, were recently selected winners of a competition commissioning a new pottery museum in the Goheung region of South Korea. The winning entry extends the museum experience throughout the 97,000 square meter site and is organized around four concepts, "genius loci, traditional village, landmark roof and nature journey."

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After months of design refinement and engineering, Synthesis Design + Architecture (SDA), winners of the "Switch to Pure Volvo" architecture competition, have launched a free-standing mobile pavilion capable of harnessing solar energy to power the new Volvo V60, the world's first diesel plug-in hybrid car. The 'Pure Tension' Pavilion was birthed by SDA's extensive research on dynamic mesh relaxation, utilizing bendable, lightweight aluminum structures with flexible fabrics that can be stored in the trunk of the car and easily mounted within one hour, similar to a tent.

TEX-FAB Digital Fabrication Alliance’s 2013 international digital fabrication competition titled - SKIN is announcing the overall winner: 3xLP.

A total of 68 entries from across the globe representing 14 countries on 5 continents were narrowed down to 4 finalists and 4 honorable mentions in July by the First Round jury consisting of Phil Anzalone, Maria Mingallon, Gregg Pasquarelli, Randy Stratman, and Skylar Tibbits. The Second Round juried by James Carpenter, Neil Denari, Mic Patterson and William Zahner conferred and selected from the finalists 3xLP. All four finalists were exhibited at the ACADIA Adaptive Architecture Conference at the University of Waterloo in October, 2013.

The Wall Street Journal has announced David Adjaye as "Architecture Innovator" for 2013. The 47-year old Tanzanian-born and British-educated architect, whose current projects span from affordable housing apartments in Harlem to the African American History and Culture Museum in Washington D.C., "has the unique ability to speak to experiences and to people outside the norms of his profession," delivering his message across cultural boundaries.