In 1945, the United States dropped 2 nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the act devastated and destroyed these two Japanese towns, it also created an entirely new political climate, one based on apocalyptic fears. As tensions with Soviet Russia heightened, and the United States entered an age of potential nuclear destruction, the landscape itself adapted in response - becoming littered with bunkers and fallout shelters, the “concrete responses to the political social and existential anxieties of the atomic age.”

Fast-forward nearly seventy years, and we’re currently faced with a new apocalyptic scenario of our own. Assuming you’re reading this, we have all survived the Mayan Apocalypse. Congratulations. However, that’s not to say that out apocalyptic fears - and its resultant architecture - has come and gone. Our apocalypse is more based on the fear of natural disaster - hurricane, tornado, viral disease, even infected-zombie-people - than nuclear attack; and our apocalyptic architecture is less of the bunker variety, and more of the vertical farm/fortress - let’s call it ESD: Extremely Sustainable Design.

More on apocalyptic architecture of the 21st century, after the break...

Architecture for Humanity has had a busy year. From continuing efforts in Haiti and Japan to their Post-Sandy initiative to open two new offices in New York and New Jersey, they could use a little help to get to their annual goal.

So they're auctioning off 7 sketches from famous architects - from Steven Holl to Renzo Piano to Frank Gehry. Everyday this week (starting today!), they will announce which architect's sketch is the piece of the day on their web site. The first $5K donation before 12pm PST gets the artwork.

Check out which other famous architects have contributed their sketches, after the break...

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As Europe recovered from the death and destruction of World War II, countries got back to the business of rebuilding their communities and, of course, their churches. The need to make sense of the madness of the War was palpable - as was the need to express this modern-day spirituality in a form that broke from the past and embraced this new world.

The result was a bevy of European churches that - although often misunderstood by practitioners - represent some of our best-preserved examples of Modernist architecture. Photographer Fabrice Fouillet made it his mission to photograph these beauties in a series he calls "Corpus Christi." You can see the images - as well as Fouillet's description of the work - after the break...

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The New York Public Library has a plan to save millions of dollars, improve efficiency, and reverse the cutbacks that have been plaguing it. How? By sending little-used resources off-site (after all, most people use the library for its online resources these days), the Library will consolidate three libraries into one Mid-Manhattan branch, renovating the building with a streamlined, efficient design - courtesy of Foster + Partners - to create "the largest combined research and circulating library in the country."

It sounds like a wonderful, modern solution. Ms. Alda Louis Huxtable would beg to differ.

The former New York Times architecture critic and current critic for the Wall Street Journal has come out swinging against the plan. First, she builds on the critique that others have made, that by moving volumes off-site (to New Jersey, or "Siberia, as she puts it) to make room for more modern amenities, the library will devalue its primary purpose (making resources readily accessible). To put it another way, as Scott Sherman did in his article for The Nation, it would turn the library into “a glorified internet café.” Then, Huxtable makes her own argument: that removing the current, intricate system of stacks would be an enormously complex, expensive, and hopelessly misguided structural challenge.

But, ultimately Ms. Huxtable’s argument comes down to the intrinsic architectural and cultural value of this Beaux Arts Masterpiece: “You don't "update" a masterpiece.” 

More on the Ms. Huxtable incendiary critique of The New York Public Library’s Central Plan, after the break...

Today would have been Oscar Niemeyer's 105th birthday. The Pritzker-Prize winning, Brazilian master died last Thursday, December 6th, due to complications from a previous kidney condition.

In November, the 6 shortlisted firms for the Flinders Street Station competition each received a letter. The letter, written by Major Projects Victoria, a division of the Victoria city government, warned them of a certain act that would not only result in their disqualification, but would also bring the entire competition into "disrepute."

What potential act could deserve such a warning? Attending an exhibit of the rejected design entries. 

On November 22nd, Fitzroy-based architecture firm Edwards Moore organized the "Long-Listers" exhibit to build on the public excitement for the competition, using the momentum to generate more conversation and debate about the project. As architect and organiser Juliet Moore put it: "We wanted peer collaboration . . . too often these things are done behind closed doors. By the time the designs are revealed [a year later] the moment has passed."

More after the break...

Images of the transformation of the Shell Centre Campus, which include 8 towers to be designed by six different architects in London's South Bank, have been released and submitted for approval by the local authority, Lambeth Council.

The project, under a Masterplan by Squire and Partners and co-developed by Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar, is a 5.25-acre mixed-use scheme between Waterloo Station and Hungerford Bridge. While the famous 27-story Shell Tower will be preserved, the plans show eight new residential and office buildings will be constructed by six architectural firms: an office and two residential towers by Squire and Partners, one office tower by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF); a residential block by Patel Taylor; another by Stanton Williams; and two more residential towers by GRID Architecture.

In total, about 800,000 sq ft of office space, 800,000 sq ft of residential space (translating to 790 new homes, including affordable housing), and 80,000 sq ft of new retail units/restaurants/cafés will be created. As Michael Squire of Squire and Partners told The Architect's Journal: "We make no apology, this is a dense development, it sits next to one of the busiest train stations in Europe. This is a massive sustainable move that will allow people to live and work in the same area."

More on the proposed plan for London's South Bank, after the break...

After two years in waiting, Porta Volta, the project by Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron to redevelop Milan's north-western Spanish gate, has finally broken ground. The project, which spurred some controversy when architect and critic Vittorio Gregotti accused the Swiss-led project of being an act of “architectural colonialism,” is nevertheless scheduled to be completed in 2015.

The MAXXI Museum in Rome has announced the five young designers who will compete for the opportunity to design and build a space for live summer events in the large courtyard of the MoMA PS1 in NY, the MAXXI Plaza in Rome, and - for the first time - at Turkey's Istanbul Modern.

Each of the finalist's projects will also be displayed as exhibitions at the four institutions participating in the Young Architects Program (YAP): the MAXXI, the MoMA PS1, Constructo (a Chilean cultural institution), and Istanbul Modern.

The five finalists have until January 2013 to submit their proposals. The chosen project will be constructed and inaugurated in June. 

More information of the five finalists, after the break...

As we shared with you earlier last month, Danish architectural firm, CEBRA, in partnership with Ski Travel Agency Danski, is working on a new project of epic proportions: the world's largest Skidome. Skidome Denmark will be shaped rather like a snow-flake, with three 700m, criss-crossing arches (the tallest one reaching 110 m high). While a structure that size is hard to wrap one's head around, this cool new video gives a great idea of the Skidome's awesome scale.

More info and images of the World's Largest Skidome, after the break...

The GSA has announced that Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill have been selected as the architects of the new Los Angeles Federal Courthouse, which will house the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The architects beat out 3 other shortlisted teams to win the $318 million project.

According to the GSA, "The new 550,000-square-foot building will be a sustainable, cost-effective, state-of-the-art court facility that includes security upgrades that are not available in the current 312 North Spring Street courthouse."

The site, located at 107 South Broadway (down the street from Morphosis’ Caltrans building, LA’s City Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall) has been dormant since 2007; although a $1.1 billion design by Perkins + Will was selected soon after, it was abandoned when Congress slashed the GSA's construction budget. The GSA considers the approval of the new redevelopment plan a "major milestone."

More info and images, after the break...

The Melnikov House, the unusual, cylindrical classic of Constructivism which was Konstantin Melnikov’s residence and studio, is on the brink of collapse.

The Independent reports that nearby construction (which visibly moves the ground the building sits on) has weakened the 83-year-old foundations dangerously. Konstantin Melnikov’s grand-daughter (and current resident of the house), Ekaterina Karinskaya, further told The Independent that, due to broken heating pipes, the wooden house spent more than 50 days without heating in what were often sub-zero temperatures.

Although there have been interests expressed to turn the house into a museum, a tense legal debate between Ms. Karinskaya and a developer has put any plans on stand-still. Meanwhile, time is running out for the architectural icon.

More on the Melnikov House debate, after the break...

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Sure, you could just go for the old, reliable "black turtleneck" again this year, but where's the fun in that? This year, why not get the Architects in your life a gift we know they'll love? We've culled the "For Architects" page of our Pinterest to bring you the 10 most pinned products - chosen by architects, for architects - that are guaranteed to please.

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Australian firm HASSELL Studio, OMA and Populous have been announced as the winners for the redevelopment of Sydney’s new convention, exhibition and entertainment precinct (SICEEP) at Darling Harbour.

The 20-hectare, billion (Australian) dollar project, which will stretch from Cockle Bay to Haymarket and Ultimo, will include Australia's largest convention and exhibition facilities, Sydney’s largest red carpet entertainment venue,  a hotel complex with up to 900 rooms, and a new urban neighborhood in Haymarket.

More on this project, after the break...

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ArchDaily is in need of a select group of awesome, architecture-obsessed Interns to join our team for Spring 2013 (January 14th - May 14th)! If you want to spend your days researching/writing about the best architecture around the globe - and find out what it takes to work for the world's most visited architecture website - then read on after the break...

As we reported earlier today, Bing Thom Architects and Ronald Lu & Partners are the winners of the competition to design the Xiqu Center, what will be the first of 17 core arts and cultural venues to be opened at the West Kowloon Cultural District.

The Hong-Kong born pair, who have significant experience designing Chinese cultural centers, won out the Master-planners of the District themselves, Foster + Partners, with a design that embraces traditional Chinese motifs. As the District's first landmark building, the Xiqu Center, scheduled for commissioning in 2016, will also be the “gateway of access” to the district.

Mrs Carrie Lam, Chairman of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) Board, noted that the Center's unique positioning ("Occupying a prime site of 13,800 square metres at the eastern edge of the District on the corner of Canton Road and Austin Road West") "will enable multi-disciplinary dialogue and interaction between Xiqu and other performing arts. By building this cultural hub, we are investing both in our future and our heritage, to celebrate Hong Kong's unique cultural identity."

Check out more info and images of the winning Xiqu Center design, after the break...