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"Hiroshi Sambuichi: Moving Materials": ...an example of how the poetic concept of taking water, air and light, and turning that into architecture, can go beyond just being a romantic idea. [He] demonstrates the value of data and empirical evidence to inform his spatial forms. Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen, thru June 25 -- Sambuichi Architects [images]

ELEMENTAL Wins Qatar Museums' Art Mill International Design Competition: ...design was described by the jury as "a serene artwork, where the structure is the architecture" [on Doha’s waterfront]... concept took as its inspiration from the rhythmic monumental grain silos...of the original Flour Mills on the site... -- Alejandro Aravena [images]- Malcolm Reading Consultants / Qatar Museums

John King: 3 Alameda County affordable housing complexes add to communities: ...the trio offer fresh proof of how low-income housing developments strengthen their communities...extra density can be beguiling...with luck, will help make the skeptics see that affordable housing is a Bay Area asset in more ways than one. -- Van Meter Williams Pollack; Ankrom Moisan; HKIT Architects [images]- San Francisco Chronicle

Amazon creating a place for hundreds of homeless on its shiny new Seattle campus: Mary’s Place, a nonprofit that temporarily converts unused buildings into shelters...will soon have a permanent home - embedded in the heart of Amazon.com’s burgeoning Seattle domain. -- Graphite Design Group [images]- Seattle Times

Don tasks architects on home designs for blighted urban areas: With 70% of Nigeria’s population living in unplanned and inhabitable slums, architects have been urged to come up with cheap and affordable housing designs to reverse the trend...to prove their relevance...with a revolution for architectural development in Nigeria. -- Lagos Architects Forum; Nigeria Institute of Architecture/NIA; Kunlé Adeyemi/NLÉ; Tonye Braide- The Guardian (Nigeria)

Christopher Hume: How to avoid the next St. James Town: Two projects embrace the city, rather than treating it as something to be tolerated: The Well and Mirvish Village represent the sort of projects cities can only hope for. Rather than fill the property with monolithic structures designed by accountants disguised as architects, these schemes embrace and celebrate the city... -- Adamson Associates Architects; Hariri Pontarini Architects; BDP; Claude Cormier + Associés; Wallman Architects; architects­Alliance; Henriquez Partners Architects; E.R.A. Architects; Janet Rosenberg & Studio- Toronto Star

Charm City's lucky charm: Under Armour’s Kevin Plank launches a $5.5 billion redevelopment to transform Baltimore into “the coolest city in America": ...plans to build a 3.9-million-sf headquarters on a 58-acre campus within Port Covington, a post-industrial area along the Patapsco River...would dwarf Baltimore’s popular Inner Harbor... -- Elkus Manfredi Architects; STV- Building Design + Construction (BD+C)

Richey Piiparinan: The Wrong Way to Grow a City: A lesson from Cleveland: To avoid deepening inequality, prepare for economic growth before it starts: Today’s representative of the “successful” city is how unequal it’s become...Those cities with the best foresight will have the greatest ability to put equity-based policies in place...Inequality isn’t success. It’s an admission that cities haven’t succeeded yet.- CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities)

Roger K. Lewis: Beijing and Washington, DC, face similar challenges: Although [they] are different in many ways, both world capitals struggle with transit, parking and housing woes...significant contrast concerns planning policies and urban design characteristics. In Beijing, skyscraping verticality is the favored scale. In the District, horizontality rules.- Washington Post

In Segregated Postwar Montgomery County, Modern Architecture Forged A Path Ahead: ..."Mad Men" buildings hark back to a time when the architecture moved faster than the culture: Even as modernist developments sprang up across the suburbs in the 1950s...much of the Washington region was still a backwards-looking place for racial and ethnic minorities...the county is pushing for that architecture to be preserved so its stories can continue to be told. -- Charles Goodman- WAMU.org - American University Radio

Stefan Al: The Mall Isn't Dead, It's Just Changing: Hong Kong figured out how to make shopping malls a sensible part of the urban fabric. Can this model go global? ...developers...are beginning to closely copy Hong Kong’s projects. But will they improve upon the suburban shopping mall’s faults - or simply exacerbate them? -- Victor Gruen- The Conversation

David Chipperfield: "Brexit one of the worst decisions ever made": Britain’s vote to pull out of the European Union has been branded “stupid”...“going to be very bad for British architecture”...building walls is just the daftest thing ever.”- CLAD (Community of Leisure Architects & Designers)

Firms need to “get on” with Brexit, Norman Foster says...: ...firms had to turn the UK’s impending withdrawal from the EU into an opportunity – rather than “regret” the decision to leave + On tall buildings: "Total absence of planning" -- Foster + Partners- BD/Building Design (UK)

...as leading architects demand clarity on status of EU nationals: Overseas staff must not be used as “negotiating chip” in Brexit negotiations, Rogers, Chipperfield and Levete warn...they are “appalled” at the way EU staff in their offices are being kept in the dark about their status...- BD/Building Design (UK)

Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry retiring: The pair, married in 1979, are said to be closing their Chicago office: ...they will make a formal announcement in the coming weeks. -- Tigerman McCurry Architects- Curbed Chicago

2017 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award: Two housing projects won big...DeFlat Kleiburg in Amsterdam by NL Architects and XVW architectuur...2017 Emerging Architect prize went to Brussels-based practice MSA/V+ for the NAVEZ social housing project. [images]- Archinect

2017 AIA/HUD Secretary's Awards: Celebrating projects that demonstrate affordable, accessible, and well-designed housing. -- Dahlin Group Architecture Planning; SMR Architects/7 Directions Architects & Planners/Third Place Design Cooperative; Trivers Associates [images]- American Institute of Architects (AIA) / U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development

Call for entries: International Competition for National Museum of World Writing, Songdo International City, Incheon, South Korea; cash prizes; registration deadline: June 1 (submissions due September 1)- Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea

Call for entries: Construction Container Facelift competition (international): Neutralize the negative visual impact of the construction containers on cityscapes by using them as an unclaimed resource to enhance the city; cash prizes; earlybird registration deadline (save money!): May 24 (submissions due October 6)- Bee Breeders (formerly HMMD/Homemade Dessert) / VUDIS

ANN feature: Charles F. Bloszies: Left Coast Reflections #1: The Sustainable Spoon: The idea that humans are able to create sustainable artifacts is here to stay. But as designers of the largest artifacts on the planet, we architects need to be especially vigilant.- ArchNewsNow.com