MAD’s first residential project in Europe was revealed by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo earlier today. The building, called UNIC, will be located in the newly developed neighborhood of Clichy-Batignolles, a former brownfield site in the northeast of the seventeenth arrondissement, covering over fifty hectares. The tower will be adjacent to Martin Luther King Park and a courthouse by Renzo Piano that is currently under construction. MAD was awarded the design through an international competition, and the project is being developed in collaboration with Biecher Architectes.

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Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has been awarded first prize in the competition to design the Student Center and Library for the Wenzhou-Kean University in Wenzhou, China. Set on 500 acres of land in a rural mountainous region, the 25,000 square meter project will provide learning and living space for 8,500 students.

Wenzhou-Kean University is cooperatively run by Wenzhou University, in China, and Kean University, in New Jersey, USA, and aims to merge Chinese and American teaching methodologies. Thus, the new Student Center and Library is focused on embracing diversity, interaction, and the sharing of knowledge.

After a competition between over 100 firms, AGi Architects and Shift Process Practice have received 2nd prize for their proposal for a mixed-use city complex in Mashhad, Iran. The design includes commercial and residential units, in addition to a clinic, an aparthotel and various public spaces. The proposal breaks the mold of large retail centers that blunt street culture and have large carbon footprints by diversifying the building uses at street level.

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Rothelowman, in conjunction with KPDO, has revealed plans for 88 Melbourne, a $100 million, 55-story tower in the Australian city’s Southbank Entertainment Precinct. According to developers New Sky Group, the audience for this project is “downsizers who don’t wish to downgrade” and “[the project is] designed to cater [to] those upgrading their lifestyle, when trading in the family home.” The tower’s design is inspired by the facets of jewels and the art of origami, creating diamond patterns on the exterior that will glisten during the day and light up at night.

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We Like Today has released its bid-winning plan for a mixed-use leisure destination on the Brighton and Hove seafront, endorsed by the City Council. Wanting to reviving this part of the English coast as a destination for recreation and swimming, the proposal includes a 50 meter open air heated pool, lifeguard facilities, changing facilities, cafes and restaurants, yoga and exercise studios, indoor training facilities, therapy rooms, a boardwalk allowing disabled access to the beach, retail spaces, pop-up shops, conference facilities, and offices.

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Ennead Architects have unveiled their proposed design for the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts campus expansion, master planning and architectural design competition. “This campus expansion and re-envisioning positions Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts—one of China’s top schools of fine art—as an Academy in the Park,” inspired by nature and an oasis destination within the dense urban fabric of Tianjin, write the architects.

Aedas has unveiled the design for Abdul Latif Jameel's Corporate Headquarters in the port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Currently under construction, the open plan office will provide a centralized facility for 2,500 employees for Abdul Latif Jameel, the largest independently owned Toyota distributor in the world. Designed by Andrew Bromberg of Aedas, the Abdul Latif Jameel headquarters will be on a site north of Al-Balad, Jeddah's historic center, near the airport and the Prince Majid Road, a north to south thoroughfare. The headquarters project will be adjacent to existing Abdul Latif Jameel facilities including a Vehicle Service Center, workshop space, offices, a training center, and vehicle stockyard.

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Dublin-based McCullough Mulvin Architects has released the plans for their first project outside of Ireland, a large-scale extension and modernization of Thapar University in Patiala, Punjab, India. Located in a fertile area, the project seeks to consider the University as a holistic landscape, "evoking and extending nature to form rocky heights and shaded valleys."

The project consists of the construction of two main building groups: The Learning Center, which is approximately 60,000 square meters; and the Student Accommodation, which is approximately 30,000 square meters. These new facilities will be connected with existing ones by a covered and planted walkway, which allows students and staff to walk through campus in contact with nature, while screened from the weather.

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Zaha Hadid Architects has begun construction on the NürnbergMesse Hall 3C for international exhibition and congress company NürnbergMesse, in Nuremberg, Germany. The design for Hall 3C is a continuation of the design principles from Hall 3A, which was built by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2014.

As a part of the NürnbergMesse exhibition company, Hall 3A connects existing hexagonal grid halls from the 1970s to the rectangular halls at Grosse Strasse. Hall 3C will be modeled in a similar fashion, featuring a trapezoid-shaped and spaning 10,000 square meters.

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ingenhoven architects has released its design for the Toranomon Project, a new business and lifestyle development that will include a 175,000-square-meter office tower and a 122,000-square-meter residential tower, which will become Tokyo’s highest residential building at approximately 220 meters tall.

Located in the Toranomon area of Tokyo, the project will be built around the existing Toranomon Hills Mori Tower, with respect for the existing structure, but with its own identity as a set of nodes in the larger urban green network.

Architecture firm GRAFT has won first place in the competition to design the new Rose Square in Tbisili, Georgia.

Located in front of the Radisson Blu Hotel, which GRAFT renovated in 2009, the site will be transformed into a leisure area with various seating options, and a parking lot underneath.

RDH Architects has unveiled the plans for its Old Post Office Idea Exchange, a restoration project in Cambridge, Canada. The post office project will completely restore the existing historic building and transform it into a new space through the use of new glass additions that will increase usable space and improve accessibility.

Atkins has been selected to design a transit-oriented development (TOD) master-plan along the new Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail (HSR) corridor, the first HSR project in Indonesia. Set for completion by 2019, the corridor will extend 142.3km, stimulating economic growth along the corridor while re-allocating traffic to de-congest the region.

The TOD masterplan will integrate smart planning, land value capture and development/station integration, with Atkins specifically covering "masterplanning, transit oriented development, architecture and urban design, landscape design and station integration for Halim and Manggarai areas."

French architect David Tajchman has envisioned a new skyscraper for Tel Aviv, Israel. The conceptual project, "Gran Mediterraneo" offers a mix of programs including apartments, a hotel, an automated car park, public charging station, farming and public gardens, co-working spaces, spas and more - all "wrapped in mirrored glass" and white concrete.

Construction has begun on the Quadram Institute, a new innovation hub for the advancement of food and heath research in Norfolk, in the United Kingdom. Designed by the London office of NBBJ, the 13,900 square meter center will bring scientists, clinical researchers, and a healthcare clinic together under one roof.

The team of Peter Bus, Tomas Vlasak, Vaclav Petrus, and Petr Bouril has received an honorable mention for their proposal for the Tokyo Pop Lab Competition, which recently announced its winners. The proposal, entitled "At The Crossroads of Ideas," is designed as a “three-dimensional representation of history and development of pop culture.”

Separated into three parts, one below ground, one above ground, and one in-between, the design is interconnected via cylindrical concrete towers, which act as the main structural support of the building.

CREO ARKITEKTER A/S and JAJA architects have won a competition to design a new home for Children with Autism near Hareskoven, one of the large forests near Copenhagen. The project will be the future home for eighteen children, ranging in age up to 18 years old.

"The proposal creates an inviting and intimate atmosphere that makes it feel like home... It fulfills all our aspirations in creating a model of future homes for children with special needs," commented the jury.

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects is part of the winning SPARK consortium to design the new educational facility for the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht in the Netherlands. The new educational facility completes the existing ‘Kasbah’ master plan and will provide space for over 6,500 students, staff and visitors, as well as house seven institutes.

"It forms a strong and clear mark on the site, where it will activate and support the dynamic life on the campus," says the architects.

Camden Council has approved a new project in the effort to preserve and revive St Giles Circus in London, a proposal which includes a grassroots music venue alongside the preservation of significant historic buildings in Denmark Place and Denmark Street.

Designed by Orms in “close consultation” with Historic England, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Music Venues Trust, the new scheme comprises a music venue with a capacity of 280 people, adding to the previously-approved 800-person music venue in the wider St. Giles Circus scheme. The new design will include a basement underneath the Smithy that currently occupies 22 Denmark Place, with the Smithy preserved by being carefully moved off-site and returned to its position upon completion of the venue.

SO/AP Architectes has released its proposal for the Tokyo Pop Lab competition, which recently announced its winners. Based on the duality of environmental vulnerability and the omnipresence of numeric technology, the 3,500 square meter design focuses on the battle between mankind and nature.

SADAR+VUGA, HHF architekten, and local consultant Archicon have received first prize in the competition for the adaptation and reconstruction of the Dom Revolucije (Home of Revolution) in Nikšić, Montenegro.

The existing structure, built by Slovenian architect Marko Mušič, was originally intended to represent the socio-political structure of Nikšić, Montenegro and Yugoslavia as a whole. Construction began on the building in 1978, and after eleven years, work was suspended, leaving the site uncompleted in the middle of the city for 27 years.

The new proposal will transform the Home of Revolution by utilizing the existing built structure—mainly a shell—and inserting minimal interventions to create a new type of urban space.

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has won the international competition to design a new mixed-use development in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden: Hästen 21. The new development will comprise retail, office and residential spaces, creating a “central artery” for the area with a strong visual presence adapted to the history and skyline of the existing city.

A proposal by Miba Architects and Calderon‐Folch‐Sarsanedas Architects has received 2nd prize in an international competition to design the new medical school for the University of Cyprus. The project proposes a “campus within a campus,” combining the strict bio-climatic regulations of a research lab with a social space for learning. Read more after the break.