Grimshaw Architects reveals an interesting glimpse of the massive construction going on at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, Russia. Back in 2007, Grimshaw had won the competition for a new combined international and domestic terminal designed for 17 million passengers a year. The building is scheduled for completion in December 2013. — bustler.net

Testing the next evolution in commercial building skins the CJ Cheiljedang Research and Development Center’s unique responsive facade controls solar gain over a significant range of exposure... The accordion folded window shading wraps all three towers to provide a level of protection from solar glare. In key areas the shading folds to maximize solar control using a custom designed retractable mechanism. — eVolo

Workers lifted the first section of the 408-foot spire to the top of One World Trade Center Wednesday morning. When completed, the spire will bring One WTC to a staggering 1,776 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. (Though some skyscraper purists disagree.) — huffingtonpost.com

Features include individual taps that can be used for ritual cleansing before prayers and sliding doors to keep men and women apart... — BBC News

Danish firm HAO / Holm Architecture Office has shared with us its competition entry for a high-end hotel in Tianjin, Northern China. — bustler.net

Destination Sydney led by Lend Lease with Australian firm HASSELL Studio, Dutch office OMA and Populous (formerly HOK), has been unveiled as the winning consortium for the redevelopment of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour. — australiandesignreview.com

For the latest in the Showcase series Archinect featured Villa Solaire by JKA + FUGA as well as Folkwang Library by Max Dudler. The Folkwang Library took advantage of a special photographic/glazing technique to create the illusion of the facade being fashioned from the stone material itself. Save Western pointed out "It looks like the original proposal was for actual marble, which came back astronomically expensive, so they VE'd to curtain wall instead."

Earlier today the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority announced the winners of the competition for the Xiqu Centre. Also unveiled today was the shortlist of six design teams that have been invited to submit proposals for the architectural design of M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for 20th and 21st century visual culture within the District. — bustler.net

The two Hong Kong-born architects, Bing Thom in Vancouver and Ronald Lu of Hong Kong, were announced today as the collaborating lead architects on the architectural design of the Xiqu (Chinese opera) Centre, one of the landmark cultural venues for the West Kowloon Cultural District, scheduled for commissioning in 2016 — bustler.net

It is divided into two sections. One of these, the working area, is dominated by its single central desk, which is 12,5 metres long, without any divisions or boundaries. This desk is shared by graphic designers, architects, data visualisation experts, video artists and anyone who the team can share experiences and collaborate with. — domusweb.it

the recent october 12, 2012 installation at sci-arc with zaha hadid partner patrik schumacher, demonstrated trying to emulate thin shell construction with sticks. it can be done, but not like what was built in the sci-arc museum demonstration space recently.
thin shell depends upon significant warpage of surfaces. the ambitious shapes sought were a confused mess, reduced to sculpture with no inherent structure. in one instant relying on connecting into the museum space wall to brace itself. — small@large

called Palais Lumière, [it] will be a glittering menagerie of private apartments, hotels, commercial spaces and even a fashion university, and it would transform a dilapidated industrial area bordering the Venetian lagoon. Mr. Cardin has described the Palais, actually three structures linked by six flat discs, as a “habitable sculpture” and said it was his dream. — NYT