Earlier this month, after viewing the contenders in the US World War I Centennial Commission’s competition to redesign the National World War I Memorial in Washington DC, organizations like The Cultural Landscape Foundation began to began to voice their opinion regarding the reach of the competition. With the cultural importance of the site in mind, such organizations had hoped that the redesign would maintain the existing Pershing Park, but were disappointed to discover that the majority of the competition’s design proposals seek to demolish the existing landscape.

Although left off of the competition’s shortlist, KAMJZ Architects’ proposal for the World War I memorial addresses these concerns by leaving Pershing Park almost completely intact. Leaving alone the park’s seating areas, agora, and landscaping, the design proposal unifies the park by adding an outer ring of trees “along the borders of the site [to] provide an acoustic barrier from the noisy adjacent streets.”

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On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the coast of Japan at Sendai, damaging the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and taking over 10,000 lives. Over the past three years, only temporary memorial observances have been utilized to honor these victims in Sendai. To address this deficiency, MIT graduate student Beomki Lee has created a concept design for an innovative new memorial space called [ME]morial.

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EM2N has won first prize in an international competition to design the new Museum of Natural History Basel and the State Archives Basel-City. Selected over 22 other proposals, the winning scheme "Zasamane" will unite both institutions within a single "storehouse" that will "combine knowledge about nature and culture" of the Swiss city. The elongated building will take shape with a subtle stagger that responds to the neighboring railway line and increases in density as it approaches Vogesenplatz. A slender tower will anchor the building, offering an "urban symbol" for both institutions.

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penda has released plans for their first project in India. Based on a modular building system, the Pooja Crafted Homes will allow residents of Vijayawada to design their own high-rise apartment by selecting prefabricated modules from a catalogue that will then be inserted into the tower's frame.

"In an age of mass-production and a certain conformism in the building industry, we try to use modern construction techniques to bring back a level of individualism and flexibility for the inhabitants of a highrise. A kind of individualism one would have in building his own house," says penda. 

Avenida Chapultepec is one of the most important and historic avenues in Mexico City. Once a calm Pre-Hispanic road that ran along the city's aqueduct, Avenida Chapultepec is now high-speed avenue, "negligent to its context and historic richness." Thus, FR-EE / Fernando Romero EnterprisE, FRENTE arquitectura and RVDG arquitectura + urbanismo have joined forces to propose a pedestrian-centric masterplan that aims to transform the congested avenue into an efficient, multimodal roadway that features an elevated promenade lined with commercial and cultural programs that are powered by renewable energy and connected by lush landscaping. Read on to learn more about the proposed Chapultepec Cultural Corridor (CCC).

"This is the most important creation of a new public space from the Central Alameda, it will be an area unprecedented in the city and space of more urban diversity in Mexico City." - Fernando Romero, general FR-EE Fernando Romero Enterprise

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SimpsonHaugh and Partners has announced the construction of its new premier residential tower, called Dollar Bay, at the East India Dock overlooking Canary Wharf in London.

Named for the site’s World War Two heritage—“when dockworkers would tow American naval ships to their moorings for the cost of one dollar”—the building will provide unparalleled views of the River Thames from where it sits across from the O2 Arena.

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As the longest open-air gallery in the world, the East Side Gallery in Berlin is undoubtedly a popular destination for art enthusiasts, historians, and tourists alike. Covered in political artwork, the Eastern side of the largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall has a strong historic as well as aesthetic presence. The other side, however, seems much more barren and abandoned.

With this contrast in mind, architects Emiliano Lareu and Marie de Testa have developed an idea to overcome the sense of desolation found on the opposite side of the wall. Though the designs are only a concept, they are easily imagined in the context of Berlin’s greater cityscape.

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URBAN AGENCY, BEM Architects and bbz have unveiled their proposal for the Kronberg School of Music, in Kronberg, Germany, which includes a music chamber, music school and hotel. Developed as an invited competition entry, the project aims to enhance the area around the Kronberg train station and act as a new “gate” to the city, designed to blend into the forecourt of the station.

Kéré Architecture has placed first in a competition to design a protective shelter on the UNESCO-protected Meroe Royal Baths in Sudan, North Africa. Believed to have served nearby palaces from the great African Kingdom of Kush (now modern-day Sudan), the Meroe Royal Baths were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011 and is the focus of joint research by the German Archaeological Institute and the National Corporation for Antiques and Museums. Still marked by temples, palaces and over two hundred pyramids, the ruins of Meroe are a testimony to the exchanges of culture between the Mediterranean and Africa. Find out more about the proposal after the break.

Designed by URBAN AGENCY and BET Satge, Le Twist is set to be a series of 10 luxury apartments with a ground floor restaurant that opens onto a semi-public garden. Commissioned in 2013, the architects were asked to re-evaluate an existing proposal for Montpellier, France. By sliding and twisting each storey, the firm was able to "comply with and 'twist' French planning law," gaining an extra 40% of floor space.

Gould Evans has unveiled its newest project: the DeBruce Center for the Original Rules of Basketball, a 32,000 square-foot museum that will house the 1891 original typed rules of basketball by James Naismith.

The museum will serve as an addition to the University of Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse, and seeks not only to provide an exhibition place for the historical document, but also to tell a three-dimensional history of the evolution of basketball through various points along a linear path.

Melike Altınışık and Gül Ertekin have shared with us their proposal for the İstanbul Gülsuyu Cemevi and Cultural Center Competition. Hosted by Maltepe Municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, the competition asked participants to design a religious and cultural complex for the Alevi population (a religious minority group practicing Islam) that can serve modern society’s needs and honor past culture.

Morphosis Architects has teamed up with Albert Kahn Associates to expand Detroit's Lawrence Technological University with a new "Taubman Complex." Marked by a "carbon-fiber circulation orb," the complex will form a new grand entrance to the University and provide flexible laboratory space for multidisciplinary research, including robotics and biomedical engineering.

Ennead Architects has designed a new research and development community for Shanghai. Located on the city's western edge, as part of a new district being planned around one of Shanghai’s largest future public parks, Taopu Sci-Tech City will be a vibrant and well connected research district that engages its context by establishing a multilayered pedestrian network.

“Our design goal was to create something greater than a single building; our goal was to create a memorable and connected civic district,” said Peter Schubert, a partner at Ennead International.

PLP Architecture has released their new design for a skyscraper at 22 Bishopsgate. Set to be 278m tall, it will be the tallest building in the City of London, second only to the Shard in the UK. The site was originally home to the Pinnacle, a slightly taller proposal that stopped work in 2012 due to economic restraints. Located in the midst of the city’s cluster of tall buildings, the new design will pick up where the Pinnacle left off, reusing the already built foundations and basements. Read more about this new development in London after the break.

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Mexico City's exponential urban growth in the last decades has brought with it problems in terms of mobility, disorganized urban development and pollution. This has affected the connectivity of its roads and axes both physically and in terms of image. However, it has also provided important opportunities for urban and architectural interventions.

This project, developed by FRENTE arquitectura and RVDG arquitectura + urbanismo, recently received an IAA International Architecture Award in the Urban Planning category. It is a proposal for the regeneration of public space in order to create community in one of the areas with the most potential in the city.

Read on to learn more about the Chapultepec Elevated Park.

gmp Architekten has been selected to design a new library in Suzhou in China. As Suzhou's second library, the building will be constructed in the Xiangcheng area, a newly-constructed part of the city to the North of Suzhou's historic center. Located next to one of Xiangcheng's many artificial water courses, in addition to a traditional library, the building will feature China's first fully automated storage system for 7 million books, as well as other public functions including a cinema and exhibition rooms.

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Winning joint first prize in the recent competition hosted by the Louvre museum, Alberto Campo Baeza and Raphaël Gabrion have proposed a dark, cubic volume for the combined conservation facility and gallery to be built in Liévin. Though the final commission for the project was awarded to the other first place winner, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the proposal by Campo Baeza and Gabrion offers an interesting take on the relationship between art and architecture.

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Adjaye Associates have unveiled their design for the Eugene Gasana Jr. Foundation Paediatric Cancer Centre in Kigali, Rwanda. Located on a four-hectare site, the centre will include a 100-bed hospital, lodging for outpatients and residential housing for hospital staff. The design is inspired by the region’s vernacular architecture, and by the local Imigongo art form, which often includes black, white and red geometric patterns.

Read on to learn more about the project.

Steven Holl Architects has broken ground on the “Ex of In House,” an experimental guest house and artist studio in Rhinebeck, New York. The house is part of the firms’ ongoing research project “Explorations of In,” which questions “current clichés of architectural language and commercial practice” and explores spatial language, energy, openness and public space.

UNStudio’s design for a theatre in Den Bosch, the Netherlands has been selected through a competition in which the city’s residents voted on one of two finalist designs, receiving 57% of the votes. Their proposal, Theatre on the Parade, integrates the theatre’s four volumes into its surrounding environment.

Aiming to make a statement that architecture can no longer be designed with a single “move”, Rome-based firm, Paolo Venturella Architecture has unveiled their proposal titled “Plus is More” for the WHO Headquarters Extension competition. Although not selected as the winning proposal, Plus is More takes on the maxim of its name, investigating the complexity generated by a combination of "moves," circumventing the common tilted, lifted or pushed buildings that rely on a single movement. Read more about the project after the break.

KAMJZ have unveiled their proposal for the UIA’s MOLEWA (Mount Lu Estate of World Architecture) competition, which tasked participants with designing several cultural and commercial complexes near one of the world’s largest flower theme parks in Ruichang, China. Titled Ruichang Flower Market, KAMJZ's design contemplates a series of shopping streets with high-end, as well as more vernacular shopping spaces, in particular a specialty area carrying flowers grown in the neighboring Flower Theme Park, traditional crafts, and souvenirs.