Thanks to the courtesy of Cicada Books, we are giving you the chance to win this amazing and entertaining book: Draw Me a House (see our review here). We have 3 copies of the book and all you have to do to participate is become a registered user (if you’re not one already) and answer the following question in our comments:

The Battery Conservancy announced today that it is launching the Americas Design Competition, an open-call opportunity for designers across North, Central and South America and the Caribbean to propose designs for innovative portable outdoor seating for The Battery, the 25-acre green oasis at the southern tip of Manhattan overlooking New York Harbor. The Battery Conservancy will fabricate the winning design for use in its new Battery Green scheduled to open to the public in 2014 adjacent to the park’s Broadway entrance.

Registration for The Battery Conservancy Americas Design Competition 2012: “Draw Up A Chair” opens July 31, 2012, and submissions are due no later than October 30, 2012. All interested designers are directed to The Battery Conservancy website for additional information: http://www.thebattery.org/competition. More information after the break.

L&L Holding Company, LLC, today announced that four of the world’s most acclaimed architecture firms – Foster + Partners (Lord Norman Foster), Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (Lord Richard Rogers), OMA (Rem Koolhaas) and Zaha Hadid Architects – are participating this week in the conceptual design phase of its architectural competition for a new office tower to be constructed at 425 Park Avenue in Manhattan.

In April of this year, L&L Holding invited 11 of the world’s most accomplished architects to express their interest in competing for the commission to design a new tower at 425 Park Avenue. Of those invited, nine firms chose to enter the competition. After careful deliberations, L&L Holding narrowed its list to the four selected firms, each of which is led by a Pritzker Prize-winning architect with extensive international experience and proven expertise in office tower design.

The architects and their teams have prepared and are presenting their conceptual designs this week for a 650,000 square foot tower that will be designed to high L.E.E.D. sustainability standards.

Last week, thanks to the courtesy of NAi Publishers, we gave you the chance to win 10 copies of: How to Make a Japanese House. To participate, we asked you to answer the following question:

Back in 2010, we featured the Aquatic Centre for the Southamerican Games designed by LCLAOFFICE + Edgar Mazo + Sebastián Mejia (former Paisajes Emergentes). Today, we have an amazing video of the Aquatic Centre that Cristobal Palma shared with us.

You can check some more videos by Cristobal Palma at ArchDaily:

Matthias Kisch from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Amy Linford from Newcastle University have won first and special awards respectively in this year’s Troldtekt Award just announced. Architectural and design students from 23 countries entered the concept competition, submitting an extensive array of creative and original ideas about how Troldtekt’s traditional acoustic panels can be used. More information on the winners, images and videos after the break.

Thanks to the courtesy of NAi Publishers, we are giving you the chance to win this great book: How to Make a Japanese House (see our review here). We have 10 copies of the book and all you have to do to participate is become a registered user (if you’re not one already) and answer the following question in our comments: