The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. — U.S. Department of Energy

A giant purple structure believed to be the world's first inflatable concert hall is to open on Japan's disaster-hit north eastern coast.

British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki created the unusual Ark Nova, a balloon made of a coated polyester material that has been erected at a park in the town of Matsushima.

The structure, which organisers say is a world's first, measures about 18m and 35m wide when fully inflated with room for about 500 guests. — dailymail.co.uk

The houses in Ben Marcin’s project ‘Last House Standing’ seem oddly misplaced, lost and forgotten. The series reads like a homage to the forgotten solo row house. The Baltimore based self-taught photographers interest ‘in these solitary buildings is not only in their ghostly beauty but in their odd placement in the urban landscape. Often three stories high, they were clearly not designed to stand alone like this’. — ignant.de

Mr. Calatrava was paid approximately 94 million euros (about $127 million) for his work. How could that be, Mr. Blanco asks, when the opera house included 150 seats with obstructed views? Or when the science museum was initially built without fire escapes or elevators for the disabled? — NYT

In creating associated descriptive metadata, in tagging building entries to describe their materials, types, and, perhaps most especially, their styles, the author of metadata is practicing the historian’s craft and engaging in the historian’s stock in trade. "Name it, then we’ll know what it is," Reyner Banham suggested at the end of “The Great Gizmo.” We can name it metadata creation, but we already know what it is: architectural history. — Places Journal

Earlier this morning, Ground/Work, the design competition for Van Alen Institute’s new street-level space in NYC, announced Collective–LOK as the overall competition winner. The victorious design team was formed as a collaboration of Jon Lott (PARA-Project), William O’Brien Jr. (WOJR), and Michael Kubo (over,under).

Collective–LOK's winning proposal, titled Screen Play, was selected from a group of three finalist projects. — bustler.net

If you've been following the Van Alen Institute's Ground/Work competition along with us for the past few months, then you were probably hoping to find out who the winner is by the end of this past week. However, we received word from the organizers that we'll have to wait for the big announcement until Monday.

So while we sit tight for a little longer, we're excited to share an in-depth look into another finalist entry, this time from EFGH. — bustler.net

"Our collaboration has been since 1989, and now it's long-term," Toyota says of Gehry. "With Frank, I learned many, many things."

Chief among them, he says: "Flexibility."

"His thinking is very free and without restrictions. His spirit and creative mind is [open]. And we were able to work together in this way," Toyota says.

During the construction of Disney Hall, Toyota, ... was inspired by Gehry's design and perfected what he sees as his personal style of acoustics. — latimes.com

The TREE|HUB is a timber tree house built 3 meters off the ground in a backyard in Peckham, London. Werk Studio—a collaborative team of design students from Goldsmiths-University of London—initiated the non-profit project for the London Design Festival as a pavilion for hosting a conversation series with featured designers until Sept. 22. — bustler.net

"We are some distance from understanding the jet stream well enough to manage the natural risks associated with structural integrity," adds Prof Keith Hjelmstad. — BBC News

The winners of the 5th annual UK and International Restaurant and Bar Design Awards were announced during the London awards ceremony on Sept. 12. Every year, the competition receives entries from the best architects, designers and hospitality operators in the UK and worldwide. The judges also usually consist of several influential figures including designers, creative and hotel directors, editors, and food critics. — bustler.net

A decision by a federal judge paves the way for the forfeiture of a 36-story Manhattan building that the U.S. alleges is secretly owned and controlled by the government of Iran.

The court agreed with the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York that the owners are a front for the Iranian government and therefore in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which restricts commerce with Iran. — npr.org