The Steel Structures Education Foundation organized a competition designed for students to fuse their conceptual ideas with the reality of physical structure. With the program and scale left to the discretion of the designer, the proposal had to emphasize the “essential relationship” between the exploration of form and material, with regards to surfaces, members and connections. As an academic project, students also had to use their details to communicate with the steel fabrication industry as a way to expose ”the opportunities and restraints inherent in realizing conceptual design.” “It is important for students of architecture to grasp the fact that structural design lies not just in the realm of the engineer, but can be a means for architects of arriving at a meaningful realization of architectural ideas,” explained the SSEF. The winner, student Matt Schmid from the University of Waterloo, designed a bird sanctuary in Niagara Gorge in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

More about the winning entry after the break.

Located in Phuket, Thailand, Paul Studio Architects‘ Bluepoint Sales Pavilion provides a space for potential clients to enjoy the surrounding views. The elegant wooden structure gracefully compliments the landscape by “responding to the powerful contextual site conditions.”

More about the residence after the break.

The Sage Residence in Eugene, Oregon was both designed and built by Arbor South Architecture. The residence, designed as “a super efficient demonstration house” illustrates the firm’s green abilities. In addition to receiving an impressive score of 110 in the LEED rating, the home includes beautiful exteriors and interiors.

More about the home after the break.

A few weeks ago, we shared the Bering Strait Project which asked participants to create a massive spanning element connecting Russia to America. The design would physically join the world together and could potentially promote world unity and peace. Paris-based OFF Architecture‘s team of Manal Rachdi, Tanguy Vermet, Mathieu Michel, Takanao Todo, and Lily Nourmansouri was awarded second place in the professional category of the competition. Their project “does not simply concern itself with the construction of a commercial or railway link, nor a bridge connecting one continent to another. The amplitude, siting, geopolitical context as well as the global ecological conscience entails a proposal far more audacious, an active project sensitive to the conditions of the site.”

More about the proposal after the break.

Culver City, California based firm, SPF Architects recently presented their design concept for the Cantos National Music Center for Calgary. The project is “seen by many as one of the country’s most ambitious and important urban-design projects.” Located in the center of Calgary, the new music center will not only focus on performance areas but will become more of a cultural space as it will be “part museum and part education.”

More about the Music Center after the break.

Located in Singapore, Telok Blangah Hill Park‘s newest addition includes “a fly-over-like infrastructure” that reaches 120 feet above the forest floor. The walkways are a respectful way to view nature as they provide a place for viewers to unobtrusively admire the landscape.

More images and more about the walkways after the break.

Chaired by Arata Isozaki, the jury unanimously chose Steven Holl Architects as the winning firm for the design of the Shenzhen master plan (We recently shared Morphosis’ proposal earlier on AD). Holl’s concept is based on tropical skyscrapers as “Shade Machines with a Social Bracket” which connect the towers and the street level using a horizontal structure containing public programs and a rooftop water garden.

More about the winning proposal after the break.

When we shared our interview with Stanley Saitowitz, design principle of Natoma Architects Inc., earlier this week on AD, we promised to share his latest works. For his Pine Mountain Road weekend residence, Saitowitz creates “an elemental architecture of column and roof, a man made grove of habitation.”

The Hudson River Park Trust has recently announced the winning design for New York City’s Pier 57, a long floating pier built on concrete caissons in 1952. The pier, located in Chelsea at West 15th Street and West Street on the western edge of the Meat Packing District, is part of the Hudson River Park development. New York firm Lot-EK with developer Young Woo & Associates are set to design a rooftop park crowning a small shopping center of local artisan stores built with recycled shipping containers. The center will also include a contemporary culture center with spaces for exhibitions, galleries, auctions and entertainment.

More about Pier 57 after the break.

TWS & Partners named their latest work Studio 2 in 1, as it accommodates the function of a home and a studio within one place. The studio is located in the urban setting of Jakarta, amidst the semi-detached housing units that are typical of the area. With a small site measuring 10 meter by 20 meter, the project aims to “elaborate the tropical, shaded, natural illuminated, and cross ventilation, breathing space regardless all the limitation of space.”

More images and further project description after the break.

Morphosis just shared with us their proposal for the Four Towers in One Competition. The competition (which Steven Holl Architects ultimately won) asked participants to design an office tower complex for the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters in the Futian commercial business district. The area was in need of a unified urban plan that would include the Headquarters for the new office towers of Shenzhen Media Group, China Construction Bank, China Insurance Group, and Southern & Bosera Funds. For Morphosis’ proposal, rather than creating various disconnected vertical skyscrapers, the project aims to create one “cohesive, interwoven district.” By conceiving the sites as 3-dimensional envelopes rather than flat 2-dimensional footprints, the buildings can be interwoven to “facilitate a network of interlocking forms reminiscent of the venerated Chinese puzzle.”

More images and further project description after the break.

GAZ Arquitectos were recently announced as the winners of the headquarters design for the Higher School of Music in Basque Country in San Sebastián, Spain. The proposal, entitled Muskiene, compiles a dense program in a relatively small site, causing the volumes to almost exceed local regulations.

More about Muskiene and more images after the break.

During an election year in Sweden, public squares are filled with temporary bases to display the political parties. Although only temporary structures, these “huts” play a vital role in the political networking system of the country. Such structures allow the politicians to meet and interact with the voters, answer any political questions and spread information, or even debate with those in neighbouring huts with different political ideas. “In the best case, such a structure is a manifestation of a parties’ political identity and priorities. It is therefore ironic that campaign-structures are similar, independent of what party they represent,” explained Antman Gorsetman Architects. In an effort to redesign the huts and allow each structure to embody their individual parties’ ideals, Antman Gorsetman Architects approached the political parties during the election year of 2006. The FI Party, the Feminist Initiative, was campaigning for the first time and decided to work with the architects to solidify their image in the public squares.

More about the election pavilion after the break.

Design Studio 4of7 in conjunction with the University of Belgrade’s Graduate Program has spent a year exploring alternatives for the Port of Belgrade, a 110 hectare site on the river Danube bank in Southeast Europe. The port belongs to the central zone of the city and currently, the former industrial riverfront has attracted developers, city authorities, architects and planners to design its future potential. Over the last two academic terms, the Graduate Program has had the opportunity to work with the actual redevelopment of the site and exchange ideas with Daniel Libeskind Studio and Gehl Architects who are both working on the master plan.

More about the design after the break.

We recently shared Albert McDonald’s winning entry for the COD competition, and now SO Architecture just shared their proposal with us. The proposal entitled “Free Plan (T)” incorporates the free plan of Le Corbusier in an effort to leave the inner organization undisturbed. Yet, the free plans also means “no walls shall disturb one to live among nature”. Taking inspiration from Raymond’s work and incorpation of nature, the firm proposes to “take the house into the landscape”.

More about SO Architecture’s proposal after the break.

Cannon Design shared with us their latest mental health center for Pima County. The project creates a “holistic healing campus” to serve various facets of behavioral medicine. By integrating the architectural design with the raw beauty of the Sonora Desert, the project “balances the challenges of a complex interdisciplinary program, unique environmental conditions, and a lean construction budget.”

More about the health center and more images after the break.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro‘s Creative Arts Center for the Brown University campus is slated for completion in 2010. The new 36,000 square foot center will include a 200 seat recital hall, 35mm screening facility, recording studio, multimedia lab, gallery space and large multi-purpose production studios.

More about the Arts Center and more images after the break.

The Re: Vision Dallas competition named three winners, two of which we previously featured on AD (DB + P and Atelier Data + Moov). The third winner is Little, a studio based in North Carolina, with their Entangled Bank proposal. “Entangled Bank combines heavy duty technological prowess with artistic integration of systems. The building is designed as a holistic, integrated design…The Entangled Bank entry materials was incredibly impressive… Each unit type was designed, completed with suggested sale price and amount of energy consumption. A wide array of green collar job programs were provided that work with the design of the building to engage residents and educate visitors. All of the jurors were struck by the thorough and joyous submission of Entangled Bank,” explained juror Eric Corey Freed.

More about the project (including a great video) after the break.