Five finalist projects have been announced by the European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe in the run for the coveted 2013 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. — bustler.net

Earlier this month, we published the 3rd place-winning entry in the international architectural competition, Innovative Bioclimatic European School complex in Crete, Greece - SEEH (School of European Education in Heraklion). Here is now also the winner of the 2nd place by Greek architects Platon Issaias, Theodossis Issaias, Costandis Kizis, and Alexandra Vougia. — bustler.net

The winners of the 34th Annual Interiors Awards, presented by Contract magazine, have been unveiled. Besides the top entries in each of 13 project categories, ranging from large and small offices to public space and adaptive re-use, the jury also chose LA-based architect and designer Joey Shimoda as recipient of the 2013 Designer of the Year Award. The 2013 Legend Award was bestowed upon Michael Graves. — bustler.net

The proposal Palazzo del Cinema di Locarno by London-based AZPA, Alejandro Zaera-Polo Architecture (former FOA, Foreign Office Architects) has been selected as winner in the international competition to rethink the site of the Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland. — bustler.net

The design competition to bring fresh life to San Francisco's Fort Mason Center has been won by a team that proposes such twists as a floating pool and a pedestrian bridge to Marina Green. — sfgate.com

schmidt hammer lassen architects has just won an international competition for the new Cultural Center and Library in the Swedish city of Karlshamn, designed to gather the city’s cultural functions under one roof. The 5,000 square meter (53,820 sq ft) facility aims to be the city’s new meeting place and will house a library, an exhibition area, a movie theater, a tourist office, and a café. — bustler.net

In New York City, an elevated freight rail lane in west Manhattan became the High Line, a celebrated linear park running through a busy part of the borough. Design firm Workshop Architecture hopes that one of Toronto’s hydro corridors can be similarly transformed into a continuous recreation area for Toronto’s pedestrians and cyclists, and that an international contest soliciting ideas for the space will help hasten the process. — torontoist.com

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, together with city officials, announced today the winner of the adAPT NYC Competition, a pilot program to develop a new housing model for the city’s growing small-household population [...]. The winning entry, ‘My Micro NY,’ was designed by a development team comprising Monadnock Development LLC, Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation, and nARCHITECTS. — bustler.net

DawnTown, well known for its annual design ideas competitions for Miami, has announced the winner of its inaugural Design/Build competition. Over 110 submissions competed to design a low cost, temporary installation on the topic of Evolution in Miami. From a narrowed-down list of 16, the jury finally selected the international collaboration between Manuel Clavel-Rojo (Murcia, Spain) and Jacob Brillhart (Miami, Florida) as the winners. — bustler.net

A few days ago, we published one of the finalist entries of the international design ideas competition, Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures. The competition was open [...] to develop innovative visions for Latrobe City, in eastern Victoria, Australia to make the transition from a singular economy dominated by the power industry (coal mining and electricity generation) into a diversified economy and prosperous low carbon regional city. — bustler.net

From simple and functional to splendidly provocative, four proposals vying to become reality as Kent State University's new College of Architecture and Environmental Design were presented to the public Thursday.

The university hosted the four partnerships competing to design the $40 million building by providing a forum so the architects could pitch their ideas for "solving the problem," as one presenter put it. — kent.patch.com

The entry "Urban Canyon" by the design consortium of Synthesis Design + Architecture and Shenzhen General Architectural Design Institute has recently been awarded first place in the invited international design competition for the enormous mixed-used development, Shanghai Wuzhou International Plaza. — bustler.net

A London architect firm has been declared the winner of an international competition to design a new $1bn Iraqi parliament building in Baghdad.

Assemblage architects was one of 130 firms to put forward a design for the £620million scheme.

But while Assemblage received its $250,000 prize in August, the designs have only just been released as the Iraqi Government had remained in talks with a rival, which came third place in the competition, Zaha Hadid Architects, The Guardian has reported. — dailymail.co.uk

Last fall, the international research project and design ideas competition, "Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures," had invited designers and academic institutions from various fields to envision new, innovative and alternative cities of the near future by defining opportunities for transition into low carbon, prosperous, and vibrant communities.

One of the finalist entries [...] is the concept "Networked Ecologies: Rethinking Remediation" by Arizona-based team Studio One. — bustler.net

Brooklyn-based design firm Situ Studio is the winner of this year's annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design. Over the last five years, the Times Square Alliance has invited architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a romantic public art installation celebrating Valentine's Day in Times Square.

This year's winning design, Situ Studio's Heartwalk, will be unveiled on Tuesday, February 12, 2013, and remain on view until March 8, 2013. — bustler.net