One of the final events at the Biennale Architettura is the Meetings on Architecture that will take place on November 24 at Teatro alle Tese, Arsenale. In the context of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition Common Ground, the aim is to explore together with the curator David Chipperfield, architects, scholars and critics the themes of the exhibition Common Ground and are addressed to the public of the Biennale Architettura made up, as well as professionals, by passionates, students and visitors of all ages, backgrounds and origins. Organized by la Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta, the ‘Grande meeting di chiusura’ event on this day will be an afternoon of round table discussions reviewing the intentions of the Exhibition and the reactions to Common Ground. For more information, please visit here.

The Bisazza Foundation is currently exhibiting the site-specific architectural installation by Arik Levy, which will be on display until December 21 in Vicenza. Dedicated to the Israeli designer Arik Levy, with the title Experimental Growth, the exhibition comprises a structural modification to the architecture of the Foundation, a macroinstallation called Rock Chamber and a video created especially for the event, titled Virtual Truth. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.

The ‘Your Text Here’ participatory, site-specific light installation challenges the condition of the city constantly telling us what to do, what to think, and how to act. Using explicit visual language, a multiplicity of billboards, signs, images and symbols invade our public spaces in order to tell us something. The project by Marcos Zotes/UNSTABLE aims at empowering local communities by providing a tool that transforms people voices into citizen proclamations the size of buildings. You just submit an anonymous text message in a website through your mobile phone, and in turn it is automatically projected at large scale onto the façade of a building. More images and architect’s description after the break.

The proposal for the ‘Cinepalego’ Futuristic Cinema is an urban intervention, utilizing the vacant rooftop spaces in Kabukicho in order to create a network of mini-theaters that will spontaneously emerge and provide a variety of social spaces for people. Designed by Chansoo Byeon + Daichi Yamashita, the act of cinema going will be completely redefined, becoming seamlessly integrated into day-to-day life. Occupying the vacant space on the rooftop, the cinemas will also be closely integrated with the businesses underneath. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taking place November 24-25, the Open House Thessaloniki 2012 event marks the first Open House event in Greece as a selection of architectural sites will be open to the public during that weekend. Celebrating the city’s architecture and design, the event aspires to expose the architectural treasures of this dynamic city, and make architecture accessible to all. Its aim is to contribute to the deeper understanding of urban design and public space, and enable all citizens and visitors to explore and understand the value of a well-designed built environment. Open House is a simple but powerful concept: showcasing outstanding architecture for all to experience, completely for free. For more information, please visit here.

Located in one of the most distinguished locations in Copenhagen, the second prize winning proposal for the Sølund Retirement Community by Henning Larsen Architects is designed as one large, continuous building block. Their design engages in close dialogue with the surrounding buildings and creates simple, easily accessible spatialities – both on the inside and on the outside. Also including a new daycare center, the project incorporates the qualities of the residents’ previous homes in a new retirement community based on worthiness and well-being, safety and social relations. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Currently lacking an architectural identity capable of signaling the actual moment of the country, the second prize winning proposal for the reconstruction of the Conference Center provides a new image in Libreville, Gabon. The design by PPMS Arquitetos Associados involves the existing building with a circular translucent skin, made of ultra resistance concrete slabs, a material capable of thermally protecting the construction from the heat prevailing in the region. More images and architects’ description after the break.

MAD Architects just unveiled plans for a high-density village near the Huangshan Mountains (Yellow Mountain) in Anhui Province, central China. The low-rise residences echo the contours of the surrounding topography and offer unequalled access to one of China’s most famous landscapes. Their design affirms the inherent significance of this landscape. Composed in deference to the local topography, the village provides housing, a hotel and communal amenities organized in a linked configuration across the southern slope of Taiping Lake. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Located in a forested area of Brasschaat, Belgium, the competition winning proposal for the Officierenwijk Residential Zone consists of 23 single-family houses, of which 17 can be classified as social housing and 6 as affordable housing. Designed by META Architectuurbureau, the different dwellings form, both on a functional as well as aesthetic level, a coherent whole with the façade playing an integral role to achieve this. More images and architects’ description after the break.

With the challenge of creating a new landmark on a floating platform, the ‘U-Topos’ proposal for the Faliro pier competition proposes a constructed “place”, a new “Land-” and a new “-mark”. Designed by Ksestudio, in an attempt to optimize climatic conditions, views and generate events, while developing an iconic identity, their project bends the given square platform to a “U” shape. The design is essentially a shell, an empty vessel, that frames the view towards the city and the sea, while signifying a gate, as small boats are allowed to park at the perimeter of the platform. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Nabito Architects + ACTAR shared with us their design proposal for the “Les Portes de Collserola” international competition held by the government of Barcelona. As a finalist, the architects were challenged to create an ambitious strategical plan to regenerate the entire Park of Coillserola in the North of the city. The architects were then selected to take part in the 4B door called: ‘LES PLANES IN-PARK UNA PORTA, VÀRIES CLAUS’. The Project is a Master plan for the re-interpretation of one of the doors from Collserola Mountain going into the city of Barcelona. It is a space in between a complex superposition of different elements: urban, natural, rural and infrastructural. The perfect mix to ordinate the territory for a contemporary project. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The ZEZEZE Architecture Gallery recently launched their open design competition for the design of a day care center for adults with developmental intellectual disabilities, to be established in the city of Beer Sheba. Held on behalf of the Beer Sheba municipality and the Shalem Fund, while managed by ZEZEZE Architecture Gallery, the winner of the two-stage competition will have the unique experience of entering into agreement with the city of Beer Sheba for the design of the center. The deadline for submissions is February 3rd, with the second stage following shorty after. To register and for more information, please visit here.

MONU magazine on urbanism is continuously looking for interesting contributions. The current open call for submissions for MONU #18 is on the topic of “ Communal Urbansim” with submissions due December 31. This new issue aims to focus on contemporary communal living in cities in general and on contemporary communal housing projects in particular. Nevertheless, we are interested in the history of communal housing and communal living in general as well, whether in the Western world or anywhere else. Today, communes or communal housing projects probably appear to be by far less naïve than in the past, more pragmatic and economic, better organized, and built up around serious and professional financial strategies.More information after the break.

Designed by architect Eli Gotman, the proposal for the “Yad Labanim” (“A Memorial to the Sons”) is dedicated to commemorating the fallen soldiers in Israel’s wars and helping the bereaved families. The Yad Labanim building in Ramat Yishay, is in itself a monument, which begins with the wall buried in the ground carrying the names of the fallen perforated in it, continues to emerge out of the ground as a building, and ending as an illuminated library hovering over the square. More images and Gotman’s description after the break.

Located in Valdespartera Ecocity, a newly built neighborhood located in the residential expansion south of Zaragoza, the design for the Kindergarten by Magen Arquitectos is characterized by its strong expression of horizontality. The definition of the platform floor and the importance and extent of the roof form a broad continuous porch into the yard, supported structurally in tension with cantilevered decks at the top.When projected to the outside by the porch continuum becomes more intense the horizontal relationship with the outside center. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Already built in the Center for Contemporary Art, based in the old Turkish bathhouse in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the |CON|Temporary Library Installation by Studio 8 ½ contains solely books of contemporary art. It provides many comfortable places to sit/lay, bookcases, magazines and newspapers’ shelves, as well as a computer with very rich and detailed multimedia and video archive of contemporary artists.Built using wood, the entire installation is created with a tremendous respect for its surrounding area, since without it, this effect would not be as strong. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The aim for the design of the Varaždin University Student’s Restaurant and Home was to connect the new building with the old student’s home with the restaurant treated as a separate pavilion. This first prize winning design by SANGRAD Architects + AVP Arhitekti creates a new square between both buildings, which is defined by the main entrance to the existing building and the new restaurant volume. Along with the student’s home on the west side, the restaurant has a visual connection with all three buildings through an access plaza, while the student’s home towards the east continues the structure of the existing house forming a block. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Battery Conservancy Americas Design Competition 2012: Draw Up A Chair, which we published a couple months ago here, has received an impressive number of registrations to-date and continue to receive wonderful design submissions. Due to the impact of SuperStorm Sandy on many of their registered and would-be participants, they recently announced that they have extended the competition submission deadline to Monday, November 19. For more information, please visit here.