Architecture firm Populous is now playing for both sides in the contest to bring pro football back to Southern California.

The firm, already the architect of record for the 75,000-seat NFL stadium planned for east Los Angeles County, has been hired to do work on a rival proposal that sports and entertainment firm AEG wants to build on downtown Los Angeles' convention center campus, AEG said Wednesday. — mercurynews.com

Peter Zumthor's first completed building in the UK opens this Friday, July 1: the 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. The concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. One enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers. — bustler.net

With its strips of glass windows and clean geometric structures, the building paved the way for a modernist style which became the trademark of the Bauhaus. The factory still produces shoe lasts, the forms used to mould shoes, to this day. — Der Spiegel

While Norman Foster and David Chipperfield issue pitiless streams of press releases about their fabulous projects, wins, achievements, awards, honours, Zumthor does not cultivate journalists. On the contrary, he tends to be ever so slightly disobliging to reporters. — telegraph.co.uk

Norman Foster has been presented with the 2011 Save the Children Award, given by Save the Children Spain, at a ceremony in Madrid. The high profile awards are given annually to outstanding individuals whose work helps to build a better world for children. Lord Foster has been recognised for his longstanding relationship with the charity and his humanitarian work. — fosterandpartners.com

Brazilian real estate developer Gafisa decided to ask people directly, what they want in their new apartments? Launched last week, the Edifício Colaborativo (Collaborative Building) initiative transformed the company’s fan page on Facebook in a crowdsourcing platform, intended to harvest innovative ideas for a new building. As Fred Scharmen
said "Can't follow the portugese, but those are some awesome images!"

World Architecture Festival (WAF) has confirmed Michael Sorkin will head-up the ‘super-jury’ at this year’s WAF Awards, to determine which building, from entries across the globe, will be crowned with the ultimate prize - ‘World Building of the Year 2011’. — bustler.net

Leading architects on both sides of the Atlantic hit out at the institute this week after American architect Richard Gage, part of the group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, delivered a lecture at RIBA HQ on Monday night.

The venue was booked by fellow American and RIBA member Craig Phillip Kiner, an associate at Zaha Hadid Architects. — bdonline.co.uk

George M. White, the architect who oversaw myriad federal projects on Capitol Hill, including the construction of the Hart Senate Office Building and the restoration of the old Supreme Court and Senate chambers in the United States Capitol itself, died Friday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 90. — NYTimes.com

architects are already expanding their offerings beyond traditional building design to “supplemental services.” Eventually, architects may even become “creative consultants” to a wide range of industries, particularly given the drop-off in building work with the economic downturn. Business schools around the country are now promoting the benefits of “design-thinking” and architects may be uniquely positioned to “intuit, analyze, and solve problems in different ways.” — ASLA's The DIRT

The Life Mounds are the first thing you see as you drive through the gates of Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park in the grounds of Bonnington House, outside Edinburgh. Newly completed, these eight man-made hills have been shaped by the distinguished US critic, polemicist and designer Charles Jencks. Beautiful things, they rise in stepped ramps sheathed in emerald green turf, clustered around swirling ponds. — guardian.co.uk

[Jun Igarashi's] award-winning designs include a temporary theater in Osaka made entirely from soft, vinyl tubes of air, and a conceptual design for a lifelong learning center in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. It is clear that Igarashi prefers to focus on projects that have a social emphasis, often taking designs back to the raw basics and then utilizing materials to improve the buildings' natural ventilation and lighting. — search.japantimes.co.jp

Kahn doesn’t draw like an architect. Kahn’s drawings are instead personal, emotional. Each subject is unique, with Kahn truly moved by each building or landscape he studied. He had no interest in imposing his own order or technical perfection on the world he sketched. — metropolismag.com

With conservation restrictions protecting the facade, Pawson focused on streamlining the interior and rear garden. Using a glass wall and a long continuous counter, the minimalist blurred the line between interior and exterior space spectacularly. Plus, unlike many of Pawson's stark interiors, his home boasts a blast of bold color, courtesy of the verdant green vines in the courtyard. — curbed.com