After receiving applications from 42 teams to pre-qualify for participation in a competition to design the new Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, three teams have been selected: Lacaton & Vassal, along with Powerhouse and Kristine Jensens Tegnestue; SANAA, along with B+G Ingenieure and Sasaki and Partners; and BIG along with Transform, Rambøll and SLA.

Underway for 19 years, the UNStudio-designed Arnhem Central Station in The Netherlands will officially open to the public tomorrow. Carried out in collaboration with engineering firm Arup, the project has been underway since 1996, when UNStudio was awarded the contract for the Arnhem Central masterplan, which includes the development of office space, shops, housing units, a new station hall, a railway platform and underpass, a car tunnel, bicycle storage and a large parking garage.

Collective-LOK’s design for a circular pavilion made up of giant mirrored hearts has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Times Square Valentine Heart installation. Their "Heart of Hearts" proposal features a faceted ring made up of nine mirrored, golden hearts that will “create an alternative pavilion that reflects and multiplies the pulsating activity of Times Square.” Spaces within each heart will form “kissing booths where couples will find their activities mirrored, allowing both privacy and publicity.”

The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has selected the architectural programs at Mississippi State University, Philadelphia University and the University of Florida as the recipients of the 2015 NCARB Award for the Integration of Practice and Education. The Award helps the selected universities develop "innovative curricula that merge practice and education." This year over $99,000 was awarded to the three programs to develop their proposed initiatives.

“What makes the NCARB Award different from other awards is that it is focused on fostering collaboration between the academy and practice,” said NCARB President Dennis S. Ward, AIA, NCARB in a press release. “This year’s proposals all go further to give students, practitioners, and others within the profession meaningful interactions that will raise awareness for the architect’s role and address issues that are central to practice.”

Learn more about three proposals after the break. 

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has selected Stefano Boeri’s Bosco Verticale as the Best Tall Building Worldwide 2015 for “its extraordinary implementation of vegetation at such scale and height," according to a press release. The tower was selected from a shortlist of four buildings, which included SOM’s One World Trade Center, Toyo Ito and RSP Architects’ CapitaGreen and Foster + Partners’ Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower.

The David Adjaye-designed Aishti Foundation in Beirut, Lebanon is nearing completion. Located in central Beirut, the building replaces former warehouses, housing both an art gallery and retail space. This unique “juxtaposition of art and shopping” inspired Adjaye and Associates “to create a design for an entirely new typology that would integrate two, often conflicting, worlds,” write the architects in a press release.

+ 15

CEMEX has announced both the international and national winners of its XXIV Building Awards during a ceremony held in Mexico City. A total of 637 projects competed in the National Edition across 13 categories, while 36 projects competing across five categories participated in the international awards.

This year’s Building Awards honor the best architecture and construction projects built during 2014 that use concrete technologies in creative and innovative ways with a focus on sustainability and social well-being.

In addition to honoring the best projects each year, CEMEX also recognizes an architect or engineer “whose contributions in the world of construction have been valuable and left great lessons to society” through the Lorenzo H. Zambrano Lifetime Achievement Award. This year Rafael Moneo was selected as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for “his invaluable architectural expressions and his contribution to education and construction both in Spain and abroad.”

View the 2015 Building Award Winners after the break. 

The second group of winners of the World Architecture Festival’s (WAF) 2015 category awards have been announced today with BIG’s future Vancouver House in Canada and People's Architecture Office’s The Courtyard House Plugin in China among the awarded projects.

The 14 winners from day two of the festival will go on to compete against the winners of day one to receive the title World Building of the Year. The projects will be presented in front of a Super Jury, which includes Manuelle Gautrand, Sou Fujimoto and Peter Cook.

Check out the Day 1 winners here and view the Day 2 winners after the break.

Celebrated in Mexico on November 1st and 2nd, Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) honors the deceased. This video, made by Charles and Ray Eames in 1957, looks at the philosophy and origins of the Mexican holiday, presenting the folk objects and rituals associated with the celebration. Watch the short film above to learn more.

Long touted for its strength and versatility, concrete has had an integral role in construction and design as far back as the Roman times. And in recent years, concrete’s potential has reached new heights, with many companies developing innovative uses and applications for the material, ranging from concrete reinforced with bamboo to ultra-porous concrete and concrete cloth.

Held annually, the CEMEX Building Awards recognize architecture and construction projects from around the world that use concrete technologies in creative and innovative ways, with a focus on sustainable design and social well-being. We spoke with three of the architecture firms behind winning designs of the 2014 CEMEX Building Awards to see how concrete influenced their design and why they believe concrete to be an important construction material.

In this interview with the Louisiana Channel, José Selgas of Spanish architecture firm SelgasCano discusses his design philosophy, emphasizing the importance of connecting a building with its surroundings through the use of color and light materials. “Every relation with architecture I’ve had was a relation with nature,” he says.

Gallaudet University, the world’s only university for deaf and hard of hearing students, has shortlisted four teams in a competition to redesign its new campus in Washington DC and redefine “the university’s urban edge as a vibrant, mixed-use, creative and cultural district.”

A total of 51 teams, consisting of 320 architectural practices, responded to the call for submissions, and 13 semi-finalist teams were highly commended for their designs. The four shortlisted firms will participate in a design forum at the university next week and will submit their final concept designs by January 2016.

View the shortlisted teams after the break.

The V-A-C Foundation has selected Renzo Piano Building Workshop to re-develop a two-hectare area in Moscow, converting a former power station into a center for contemporary arts and culture. Located on the Moskva river in the city’s Red October district, the GES2 power station was built in the early 1900s and once supplied energy to the city. The project envisions the recuperation of the power station’s original form as well as the reconfiguration of the entire site into a 150 meter by 150 meter square.

Gmp Architekten has won a competition to design the masterplan and architectural concept for the National Exhibition and Trade Fair Center in Hanoi, Vietnam. The firm’s lotus-inspired plan was one of nine competing international designs.

On the northern bank of Portugal’s Tagus River lies Miguel Arruda Arquitectos Associados’ Vila Franca de Xira Municipal Library. Dubbed the “Factory of Words” because of its location on the site of a former rice mill, the white building is marked by a triangular slit that runs through its floors. This video, by Sara Nunes from Building Pictures, features different perspectives of the library juxtaposed with an interview with the architect, where he explains the building’s connection with the city and the river as well as how they sought to create a library program that incorporates a broader use of the public space.