When Ben van Berkel of UNStudio first unveiled his vision for Five Franklin Place, the elaborate façade of layered strips offered a dynamic picture of what TriBeCa’s newest architectural creation could be. A contemporary take of the area’s traditional metal facades of the 19th century, the 20 story residential tower incorporated a series of metal bans that became the building’s trademark. The black undulating lines served more than a mere aesthetic as they branched from the building’s vertical plane to become spatial entities – providing balconies for residents, and even dual functioning as sun screens. Yet, as Liana Grey shared with ArchRecord, van Berkel’s artistic vision may quickly be coming to a hault.

More about the status of the project after the break.

A few days ago, we shared Visiondivision’s Nature’s Choice – a series of vacation homes that attempt to blend into their unique site placement. The firm just shared their latest competition entry for a hotel room atop a cloud. Presented in a comic strip, the proposal delivers a temporary hotel room to accommodate visitors of the 2012 London Olympic games.

More about the hotel room after the break.

Check out Reiser + Umemoto’s latest win for the Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center in southern Taiwan. Working with Taipei-based Fei and Cheng and Associates, New York-based Ysrael A. Seinuk, PC and Hong-Kong based Arup, the new development exploits its waterfront placement as tumbling organic wave-like volumes cascade out toward the waves.

More about the winning proposal after the break.

Thanks to our reader, Norman Li, we came across Daihai Fei’s dwelling place – a bamboo “egg” smallHouse. The tiny enclosure measuring 2 meters tall is outfitted insulation, a waterproof membrane beneath a skin of sacks filled with sawdust and grass seed. In the spring, the seeds will begin to germinate and the hut will be covered in grass. And, the hut is placed on wheels, allowing Fei to transport the small residence whenever and wherever he sees fit.

More images and more about the residence after the break.

For Jun Igarashi Architects latest residence, the Japanese firm designed a light yet dynamic house nestled east of Hokkaido. Fit for a family of four, the two story 150 square meter house bundles the necessities into zones located in the front of the residence, so the remaining floor area becomes a flexible and open living space. Within this broader space, long layered slices of the floor plan define different programmatic elements, such as the sun room and dining room, visually separating the spaces. With these slices, the residence becomes a linear compilation that is literally layered from one end to the other.

More about the residence after the break.

Our friends from Visiondivision shared their latest vacation home for two families in Sweden with us. The coastal site, which has been included on the world heritage list due to its outstanding land uplift geology, has two different levels – an upper level of untouched wood and a lower one of a rocky meadow. The project draws inspiration from the site as its unique arrangement beckons any built structure to blend into its environment. As the site incorporates two very different areas, the architects saw three potential alternatives for the site: either a wooden house set amidst the forest level, a stone house that lies in close connection with the rock outcrops, or, the more challenging alternative of how to appeal to both types of nature present on the site.

More about the project after the break.

Athens based Point Supreme Architects were recently awarded an honorary mention for their Theater Square proposal. The competition asked participants to rethink the idea of an urban square, as the site is surrounded by buildings which makes the small space seemingly negligible in the broad sense of the context. For their proposal, the architects dedicated the square to the magic of nature by making an urban room realized as a ‘secret garden’.

More about the proposal after the break.

We’re happy to share JAJA Architcts’ lastest project – a proposal for a moon bridge that intends to unify the waterfront city of Kaohsiung for their Maritime and Culture Center. For the competition, the architects focused on the city’s love of the river, creating a form that gracefully sweeps across the Love River adding programmatic activities and a programmed landscape to the riverfront.

More about the bridge after the break.

Berlin base Pfeiffer Architekten have designed a simplistic, yet elegant, weekend house on a waterfront site on Arendsee in Saxony-Anhalt. Constructed using humble materials that allow the built to seamlessly become integrated with the natural, the residence takes advantage of its setting by offering great views of the wooded forests. The residence’s dominate pitch roof finds inspiration in the traditional cottages of the 1930s and gives the home a strong identity.

More images and more about the house after the break.

For this temporary hotel, IAA Architects created a shelter where the occupants become a form of entertainment to passersby. Designed in collaboration with artists and Aneta Grzeszykowska Jan Smaga, the hotel is part of a temporary installation and envisioned as a piece of art. With five screened bedrooms, a shared gardens and common facilities, the hotel offers an inexpensive place to lodge and creates a simple aesthetic for the Grenswerk Festival of Arts.

More images and more about the project after the break.

Designed as a temporary residence for an oyster farmer, French firm Raum Architects have created a simplistic structure based upon an acute attention to detailing and material selection. Located in the countryside of Bretagne, the residence reflects the nature of the site through the large glazing and movable partitions that open the residence to the outdoors. The house is composed of two main areas; a hangar and an office/lounge space that includes a kitchen, dining room and seating area. A patio, which can either be open or closed off, offers the transitional space between the two. The inner patio allows light to permeate through the different interior areas, even when these interior spaces are closed off from the exterior with the large sliding doors. The hangar, an open work space for the oyster farmer, is articulated by its exposed wooden frame. A translucent plastic SITS behind the house’s vertical slatted skin, allowing diffused light into the space. While this component is set aside as a separate ‘wing’ to the dwelling, the space can easily be integrated both visually and physically by opening up the patio area.

More images after the break.

This just in from UNStudio, Ben van Berkel, in collaboration with DP Architects, has been chosen to design the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Selected from a shortlist of five practices, UNStudio + DP Architects have created a proposal that reflects the university’s curriculum by “using the creative enterprise of the school to facilitate a cross-disciplinary interface; interaction is established between the professional world, the campus, and the community at large.”

More images and more about the proposal after the break.

We’ve featured a few projects by Nicolas Dorval-Bory, such as his extension for an artist residency and a sustainable house for winter sports; and now, he and Raphaël Bétillon have shared their latest conceptual project focusing on re-thinking Parisian bistros. A strong cultural component of Paris, the bistro offered a place of intense life and intellectual dynamism, with its typically noisy ambiance and chattering clients. However, recently, Dorval-Bory and Bétillon have felt that the bistro has slowly begun to loose its sense of vitality, as bistros are becoming “often disappointing, stuck up in ornaments of another century, mimicking with decors for tourists times when the lively creative atmosphere filled the place alone.” So, the pair decided to explore the atmosphere of such bistros in an effort to improve the quality of this traditional space. This approach has created a bistro that literally responds to the people occupying the space, leading to some interesting scenarios on an experiential level. ”Our intervention would then be about the control and expression of these atmospheric bodies, a contemporary way to celebrate climate as the primary user’s envelope. Architecture would split into two : on one hand, a built layout designed as a structuring machine, a back frame controlling, on the other hand, flows, phenomenons and invisible particles,” explained the architects.

More images and more about the project after the break.

Check out this project by London based firm, Haworth Tompkins. The firm renovated a dilapidated old building situated on the Dovecote Studio campus – an internationally renowned music campus at Snape Maltings, founded by Benjamin Britten which is currently undergoing an expansion. Nestleed within the shell of an abandoned building, the firm responded to the existing conditions with a touch of sensitivity, uniting the old structure with the new aesthetic.

More about the project, including more images after the break.

The latest project from Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas features a dramatic tower shaped by bold diagonal cuts. The proposal was awarded first prized for the competition to design Shenzhen’s Guosen Securities tower, and, typical of the Fuksas pair, the schematic design carries a strong presence with the shear mass of the volume broken down into a more manageable scale thanks to the three-dimensional voids. The tower will be the first ecological tall building to be built in Shenzhen.

More images and more about the tower after the break.

A few months ago, we first introduced Farshid Moussavi’s design for the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland. This past week, the museum’s board voted to approve the project – a decision that will allow Moussavi and the London office of Foreign Office Architect to jumpstart their first US structure. The new museum, a strong geometric volume dramatically sloping upward, will provide a much needed permanent home for Cleveland’s contemporary art. Moussavi also revealed more details of her design at Hunter College recently, which has developed to include a plaza designed by Field Operations, a cobalt blue inner skin beneath the black stainless steel structure and a ceremonial entry stair.

More about the updated design after the break.

Check out this tower proposal designed by Portugal-based OODA Architecture in collaboration with the Spanish and American studio OOIIO for the City of Taichung. The proposal received a merit award from the Taiwan tower competition, which asked participants to developed a conceptual vision for a landmark tower to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of Taiwan, R.O.C. and to celebrate the merger between Taichung County and Taichung City.

More images and more about the tower after the break.

Greek architect Aristide Antonas shared his latest project,a bridge that responds to the urban level and the expansions of the city center toward Drava. Intending to produce a new urban situation, the project is seen as an expanding element of the city. The proposed bridge sits closely to an existing one – a move Antonas that explains adds another possibility to the developing riversides. ”We have to imagine a possible constitution of the two sides in order to propose a possible link…We are supposed to think through the perspective of the coming years: how could we create the conditions for an animated area in the place where now lay two more or less neglected riversides?”

More about the project, including more images, after the break.