Rogers Marvel Architects is designing the new, 2,000-square-foot space, which is slated to open in early 2012. — archrecord.construction.com

In February 2003, Daniel Libeskind was named the winning designer of the international contest to rebuild the World Trade Center. After eight years of collaboration, controversy, and the typical cast of characters in any real estate nightmare, the final product that will tower over Lower Manhattan is not, in fact, the design that won the hearts of New Yorkers. — Inhabitat

Steven Holl Architects’ gigantic Sliced Porosity Block just topped out in Chengdu, China, inserting its striking neo-cavern profile into the urban grid. The large-scale, LEED Gold project is a pedestrian friendly gathering space which, while immense in size, attempts to reduce its bulk with large openings to provide code-mandated natural light to the surrounding neighborhood. — Inhabitat

A giant image of Ziggy will dominate four levels of the $10 million Tatu building planned for Macquarie St. It will appear on a perforated metal screen and Bowie's eyes and lips will move when apartment residents adjust screens on their balconies. — heraldsun.com.au

Grimshaw Architects has revealed designs for two Manhattan city “superblocks” as part of New York University’s city-wide development programme. — bdonline.co.uk

Tiny components like nails, screws and light bulbs, mundane but crucial, are significantly cheaper if bought from China or other developing nations. High-end frills — which tend to be imported, like Italian marble or mahogany — may be doomed to stay on the dock or in the showroom. — The New York Times

Any skyscraper is a contradiction.

The tall tower is architecture's most famous building type and also the one most clearly at odds with the profession's roots. Fundamentally, architecture is shelter, a concession that we're afraid to face the elements without protection. A skyscraper is vertical hubris. — latimes.com

theids wants to start a conversation about the Animal Architecture Awards. To theids, "this is not Animal Architecture. I feel that they have taken a term that was already being used to describe other projects... which pre-dates this competition that has been hosted for 3 years. " der flaneur cautioned "Zoomorphic is an architecture book for 1st year students that want to see 'cool animal-looking buildings'."

The massive, slow moving Sandcrawlers from George Lucas' Star Wars films inspired the form of his new regional headquarters in Singapore. Designed by Aedas, the Sandcrawler Building is neither rusty nor slow moving - the glassy and streamlined building will combine a high performance facade with lush gardens and foliage that spills over terraces, resulting in a highly efficient commercial space. — Inhabitat

THEY go up, they go down — and that’s pretty much it for any New York building, maybe with one or two alterations. But the French-style Harry Winston store of 1960, at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, now shrouded in netting, is a ramble through a century of architectural history. The building has been through one-two-three-four-five major episodes, and a sixth was never realized. — nytimes.com

There were other strong contenders, but the 2011 Carbuncle Cup for Britain's "ugliest new building" has been awarded to the £600m MediaCityUK. This concatenation of anaemic buildings is the controversial new regional headquarters of the BBC, and home to the media studies faculty of Salford University. — guardian.co.uk

Now the British government is preparing to close the road around [Stonehenge], restoring the stones' heathland setting, while a new visitors' centre is constructed 2.5km away. In the new design, hundreds of thousands of sightseers will reach the site via the centre on a lightweight transit system. Expect druids in golf buggies. — theaustralian.com.au

Sixteen-year-old Austin Hay of Santa Rosa, Calif., has been sleeping in a work-in-progress 130 square foot "tiny home" in his parents' backyard for months. The project came about because "like every teenager, I want to move out," says Hay. — grist.org

Designed by developer/architect Ian Pollard, it's a brash, grandiose office building on Queenstown Road facing Battersea Park that was completed
in 1987... In short, it's an architectural dog's dinner, one of a very few buildings that can actually make me laugh out loud on the rare occasion I pass it on the bus. — thisislondon.co.uk