Germany

3XN just won the first prize in the international competition for their design of the new building for the technical faculty of the German university Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW). With their vision to create an open, inspiring and social learning environment, the building is to be a lighthouse project for academic learning - an innovative and productive learning environment in which students, teachers and industry representatives can meet. More images and architects' description after the break.

Text description provided by the architects. Over the years, furniture company Vitra has made a name for itself as one of the most architecturally-enlightened companies in the world, with their renowned campus featuring buildings by Nicholas Grimshaw, Frank Gehry, Alvaro Siza, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron and SANAA.

Now, Vitra has announced a collaboration with Renzo Piano that will bridge the gap between their sought-after furniture and their bespoke campus. Diogene, a self contained minimal living space with a floor area of just 2.5 x 3.0 meters, is billed as "Vitra's smallest building - but largest product".

More about the design of Diogene after the break

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A gigantic installation work by Tomás Saraceno, entitled “in orbit,” was just assembled last week in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany. At a height of more than 20 meters above the piazza of the K21 Ständehaus, Saraceno has suspended a net construction within which visitors can move, apparently weightlessly. Saraceno’s net construction, which is accessible on three levels, resembles a cloud landscape: those bold enough to clamber high into the web set beneath the glass cupola perceive the museum visitors far below them from the lofty heights as tiny figures in a model world. The installation will be up until September 7th. More images and architects' description after the break.

Henn recently won the architectural competition for the gas and steam power plant in Wedel, Germany. The new power station is positioned to the north of the river bank to allow the uninterrupted riverside promenade passage open to the public. While the majority of the existing station has been demolished, individually striking industrial relics and architecturally significant elements, such as the listed machine hall, are retained and put to cultural use. More images and architects' description after the break.

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Organized by ETH Zurich Department of Architecture and Urban Design, with Alfredo Billembroug & Hubert Klumpner of Urban-Think Tank, the 'Torre David - Informal Vertical Communities' exhibition is an adaptation and evolution of the installation on Torre David that was presented at the 2012 Biennale di Venezia, where it was awarded the Golden Lion. Taking place at Aedes Berlin from July 12-August 29, the Torre David project will be presented in an extended format and will include new research on the intersection between verticality and informal communities. More information on the exhibition after the break.

For the second time, the Berlin Senate Department of Urban Development and the Environment is opening a Europe-wide call for projects for the Urban Intervention Award Berlin. For the first time, this prize is being offered in collaboration with Deutsche Wohnen AG and will for this reason be expanded to include the new Urban Living Award. Deutsche Wohnen AG will award prize money in the amount of €3,000 to the winners of the two categories in the Urban Intervention Award Berlin, ‘Build’ and ‘Temporary’, as well as the winner of the Urban Living Award. Interested architects can submit their work by August 24. For more information, please visit here.

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