In yet another display of the city's commitment to 24-hour culture, Seoul is unveiling its biggest nighttime attraction yet in the neon-studded, wildly trendy shopping district of Dongdaemun.

Designed by Iraqi-British Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid, and completed at a cost of $451 million, the new Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) opens to the public March 21.

[...]the first order of business for Seoul's newest landmark and multipurpose cultural center is to kick off 2014 F/W Seoul Fashion Week. — cnn.com

London's iconic Crystal Palace just moved one step closer to its magnificent resurrection with the announcement of six shortlisted design teams, all vying to rebuild The Crystal Palace and the surrounding public park as a major landmark. — bustler.net

"designed by famed architect Zaha Hadid whose signature style appears to be making some of the world's most f**kable buildings...like Georgia O'Keeffe of things you can walk inside...i guess maybe it is time things evened out a bit" - Jon Stewart — Daily Show

A 28-year-old Richard Meier received his first and by far most modest commission from the artist Saul Lambert back in 1962. “Lambert had purchased a very small site on the ocean, on Fire Island,” says Meier, “and said, ‘We don’t have very much money—actually, we have $9,000 to spend on the construction of this house. Could you design something for us?’ ” — New York Magazine

The public is invited to vote for their favorite entry from a field of six finalists in the Flinders Street Station Design Competition, an international, high-profile architectural competition to rejuvenate and restore the historic Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia. The shortlist sports some big names, including Pritzker Prize winners Zaha Hadid and the team of Jaques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. — bustler.net

The 11-story development will feature approximately 37 residences of up to 5,500 square feet, focusing on expansive, gracious layouts with 11-foot ceilings, thoughtful technological integration and state-of-the-art finishes and features. Designed with multiple elevator cores, a majority of the residences will have a private vestibule and entrance that adds to the intimacy of the building. — prnewswire.com

The Zaha Hadid-designed Riverside Museum: Scotland’s Museum of Transport and Travel keeps raking in recognitions [...]: the new Glasgow museum attraction just won the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award 2013, presented by the European Museum Forum. The announcement was made at a special awards ceremony at EMF's annual assembly hosted by the Gallo Romeins Museum in Tongeren in Belgium, EMYA Winner in 2011. — bustler.net

Earlier this week, Zaha Hadid was presented the Aenne Burda Award for Creative Leadership at the Digital Life Design (DLD) Conference in Munich, Germany. The Award for Creative Leadership honors women for outstanding entrepreneurial and creative achievement. — bustler.net

Construction on Zaha Hadid’s anticipated Softbridge building extension to the University of Oxford building in the UK is set to commence at the end of the month.

The Middle East Centre Project is an upgrade for St. Antony’s College, one of seven graduate colleges that are part of the original building. While the the building’s foundation date is unclear, it is the oldest university in the English-speaking world with teaching on the site believed to have commenced in 1096. — DesignBuild Source

Richard Meier & Partners’ mixed-use building was selected in an international competition topping submissions by Foster + Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects. The challenge, Bernhard Karpf, associate partner-in-charge, said was to create a hybrid building that was “like a city in itself,” which creates “property lines” that carves out distinct areas for rentals, offices, and shops, but still comes together in a unified and coherent design. — The Architect's Newspaper

Finally, Orhan Ayyüce posted a quote of John Chase’s Shopping for Architecture LA Forum Newsletter, from December 1989. citizen concluded "My old colleague John certainly knew how to turn a phrase. ..My opinion is that merely expanding the list of things to pick out or specify for a design --while certainly adding important variables-- still is not sufficient to get at the complexity of architecture".

Japan’s Sport Council on Thursday awarded a contract to design and construct a centerpiece, billion-dollar national stadium that forms a key part of Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games to lauded U.K. firm Zaha Hadid Architects. — blogs.wsj.com