The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the shortlist of six projects competing for the 2017 Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for architecture, given to the building “that has made the biggest contribution to the evolution of architecture in a given year.” Selected from the list of national award winners, the finalist buildings range from an elegantly detailed photographer’s studio in west London, to an immense new campus for the City of Glasgow College.

“This year’s shortlisted schemes show exceptionally creative, beautifully considered and carefully detailed buildings that have made every single penny count,” said RIBA President Jane Duncan. “Commissioned at the end of the recession, they are an accolade to a creative profession at the top of its game. Each of these outstanding projects has transformed their local area and delights those who are lucky enough to visit, live, study or work in them.

“This year’s shortlist typifies everything that is special about UK architecture: this is not just a collection of exceptionally well designed buildings but spaces and places of pure beauty, surprise and delight.”

The winner of the Stirling Prize will be announced on October 31st.

One of Louis Kahn’s most unique and lesser-known projects, the floating concert hall known as Point Counterpoint II, is at risk of demolition, reports the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Built from 1964 to ’67 as part of celebrations for the American Bicentennial, the 195-foot-long vessel has since been used as the waterborne home of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (AWSO), allowing the group to take their own venue places as far away as Paris, France and St. Petersburg, Russia. Along with circular doorways and portholes, the structure features a 75-foot-wide stage that can be opened and closed using a hydraulic lift system.

Studio Gang has unveiled plans for the revitalization of the Mississippi River waterfront in Memphis, Tennessee. Spanning a 6-mile stretch along a historic section of the river, the masterplan was developed in response to more than 4,500 survey responses and several public events, ensuring that the concept offers transformative ideas that relate to the entire Memphis community.

"The concept offers a series of actionable ideas meant to help the Riverfront achieve its potential as a shared, connected civic space for all Memphians to enjoy,” said Gia Biagi, principal of urbanism and civic impact at Studio Gang.

Pritzker Prize winning architect Shigeru Ban has signed an agreement with UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency tasked with guiding sustainable development, to design up to 20,000 new homes for refugees in Kenya’s Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement. Currently home to more than 37,000 refugees, the settlement is quickly outgrowing its original capacity of 45,000 – over 17,000 have arrived this year alone, with numbers expected to continue to increase.

“The key thing will be to design and construct shelter where no or little technical supervision is required, and use materials that are locally available and eco-friendly. It’s important that the houses can be easily maintained by inhabitants.”

NY YIMBY has unearthed plans for a new mixed-use development at 540-544 Hudson in New York’s West Village. Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, renderings show a brick building with a contemporary reimagining of the historic cornices found throughout the neighborhood.

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At the D23 Expo this past weekend, Disney announced plans for a new Star Wars hotel and resort at the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and revealed an animation of the upcoming Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park that will bring the beloved galaxy into the present and not-so-far-away.

The revolutionary hotel has been envisioned as a completely “immersive” experience – visitors will each be given their own “story line” complete with “secret missions,” interacting with a full in-costume and in-character hotel staff. Early concepts for the resort show starship-themed spaces throughout, from the lobby to hotel rooms each featuring “a view into space.”

In this video, drone Videographer Azeez Bakare takes us through BIG's recently-completed Grove at Grand Bay, a residential complex in South Miami featuring two twisting 20-story towers and a lush tropical landscape terrace designed by landscape architect Raymond Jungles.

Commissioned for the project by BIG, the video shows how the building transforms throughout the day: standing out as stark white sculptures during the day before turning an orange glow as the glass balconies reflect back the setting sun, and finally, lit up at night against the Miami skyline.

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Hyperloop One is taking strides towards reality, as the company has unveiled a full-scale prototype of the passenger pods that would be propelled through the vacuum-tube system. The company also announced a successful real-world test of the technology, which transported a test sled along the test track for the first time in vacuum conditions.

MVDRV and SDK Vastgoed (VolkerWessels) have been selected as winners in a competition to design a “progressive residential development” in inner-city Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Known as “Nieuw Bergen”, the complex will offer high-quality, sustainable residences along Deken van Someren Street, helping to establish a “visible sustainability ethos” in the neighborhood of Bergen.

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Technology company Pavegen has unveiled the world’s first “Smart Street” in London’s West End that utilizes the company’s unique kinetic paving slabs to generate energy from pedestrians’ footsteps. But unlike earlier Pavegen installations deployed in cities like Washington DC and Rio de Janeiro (which uses the panels as the foundation for a soccer field), the London Smart Street comes with its very own app – giving visitors precise information about the power they are generating, and encouraging use by offering up store vouchers in return for steps.

New renderings and details have been revealed of Studio Libeskind’s competition-winning mixed-use tower development located in the downtown business district of Vilnius, Lithuania as the project has secured funding. Located at the intersection of the White Bridge, the Neris River and Old Town, the 20,000 square meter (215,000 square foot) complex will be home to a class-A business center and the region’s first Radisson RED-branded luxury hotel, along will an array of restaurants, shops and public amenities.

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MVRDV has been selected as the winner of a competition for The Sax, a 51-story mixed-use tower in Rotterdam’s Wilhelminapier port development. The building will add a total of 82,000 square meters (882,000 square feet) of residences, retail spaces and commercial facilities across two towers, the Philadelphia & the Havana, connected halfway up by a bridge containing a 150-room hotel.

Located on the south side of Wilhelminapier, the Sax will become one of the last residential buildings to rise within a new development on the historic harbor, one of the city’s most popular areas. The building’s recognizable pixelated silhouette and waterfront siting will give the building an immediate presence on the Rotterdam skyline, recently coined the “Manhattan On the Maas.”

Six internationally-acclaimed teams have been selected as finalists in a competition to design a new home for London Symphony Orchestra and Guildhall School of Music & Drama to be known as the Centre for Music London.

Planned to contain a world-class concert hall, education, training and digital spaces, top-grade facilities for audiences and performers, and a number of supporting commercial areas, the Centre for Music building will become a new landmark within the heart of London, aimed at becoming “a place of welcome, participation, discovery and learning fit for the digital age.”

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Hive, Studio Gang’s 2017 Summer Block Party installation, has opened to the public at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Constructed from 2,551 silver-and-magenta wound paper tubes, Hive invites visitors to explore their senses in a series of dome-shaped chambers, each scaled to reflect a unique sound signature.

Utilizing structural paper tubes commonly used in construction as concrete formwork, Hive takes its form from the catenary physics that have inspired some of the world’s great structures such as the the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Brunelleschi’s Dome at the Florence Cathedral in Italy, and vernacular buildings such as Musgum mud huts in Cameroon.

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London’s Royal Academy of Arts has announced plans for a new permanent architecture-specific gallery and the creation of two new international architecture awards as part of the RA’s mission to “garner a wider appreciation and understanding of architecture, bringing to the fore its vital relationship to culture and society.”

The new architecture space, along with a cafe, will be housed within the Dorfman Senate Rooms in Burlington Gardens, allowing the academy to show architectural exhibition year-round. The architecture rooms join wider renovation plans led by David Chipperfield Architects that will also include a new naturally-lit theater.

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Facebook has announced plans for a new mixed-use neighborhood adjoining their existing headquarters in Menlo Park, California to be led by the New York office of OMA and Partner Shohei Shigematsu. Known as Willow Campus, the campus masterplan seeks to further invest in Facebook’s home community, joining the original campus designed by Frank Gehry.

“It’s exciting to collaborate with Facebook, whose innovation in networking and social media extends to urban ambitions for connectivity in the Bay Area,” commented Shigematsu. “The Willow Campus masterplan creates a sense of place with diverse programming that responds to the needs of the Menlo Park community. The site has the potential to impact the future of regional transportation, housing, and environment.”

Plans for Apple’s next flagship store, to be located within the historic Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square in Washington, D.C, have been approved by the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB).

The project comprises both an interior/exterior restoration and renovation of the 63,000-square-foot Beaux Arts library, which was constructed in 1903 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. The plan will allow the library to be shared by Apple and the building’s existing tenant, The Historical Society of Washington. The 2-story Apple store will be located on the first floor and basement levels of the building, and will be designed by Foster + Partners, continuing their collaboration with the tech giant.