Last week, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority unveiled OMA’s conceptual masterplan for a major new arts district in Hong Kong. Under OMA’s plan – one of three competing proposals – the 40 hectare waterfront site facing Victoria Harbour would become an authentic environment of three urban villages embedded in a new public park, Hong Kong’s largest.

OMA founding partner Rem Koolhaas commented: “Using the village – a typology every citizen of Hong Kong is familiar with – as the model for our plan allows us to absorb the massive scale of WKCD’s ambition into manageable portions and forge deep connections with Kowloon, whose vital urban energy will be the lifeblood of WKCD.”

We continue the series on the 2010 Architecture for Education (CAE) Awards with a research institute in North Carolina.

BRITE Center is a key component of North Carolina's statewide public-private initiative to provide a hands-on learning experience for undergraduate and graduate students interested in careers in the State's growing biotechnology industry. Faculty and students train in flexible research labs designed to accommodate instrumentation commonly found in biotechnology work environments. and often donated by the local biotech community. The east and west elevations are derived metaphorically from an unfolded DNA strand, reflective of the building's teaching mission. The BRITE Center shares resources with the adjacent Mary Townes Science Building, creating a dynamic science quad on the NCCU campus.

The new terminal for Stockholm will provide permanent ferry connections to Finland and the Baltics. c for the new urban development Norra Djursgårdsstaden - both architecturally and environmentally. The terminal, which will have a facade covered with expanded mesh, recalls the shape of a moving vessel and the architecture - with large cranes and warehouses - that previously characterized the ports. At the same time, the terminal has an ambitious sustainable profile, characteristic of the entire development.

Concordia International School Shanghai (ciss) is an independent private day school for students Pre-K through Grade 12. following the master plan update and implementation of Phase iii - a new elementary school and arts center, the same architects moved onto the programming, planning and design of the final phase – a new high school building and renovation of the existing.

As the final leg of ciss’s phased master plan for expansion, the new high school facility is a physical manifestation of a student’s final threshold before moving onto college and post-graduate life. the maturity and freedom exhibited in the design of this building evokes the spirit with which the school hopes students will take with them as they move forward.

While we posted an article about the project when it was completed back in January, we are revisiting the project with more information and photographs with the series on the recipients of the 2010 Architecture for Education (CAE) Awards.

All images ⓒ ShuHe

The high school and elementary school design focuses on the experiential quality of architecture as an essential ingredient for meaningful learning. The design reinterprets the original character of the site, thereby imbuing the new experience with a rich and varied relationship to nature.

Through mountain views, sloping terrain, courtyards, bridges, and a tactile landscape of salvaged logs and boulders, nature enriches the learning environment. The site character is both the poetic inspiration for and an active participant in the daily experience of the users of the school.

The grey colour of the concrete dominates this 1.500m2 (16,000 sq ft) luxurious residence. It solidifies the building, bringing a sharp contrast with the surrounding landscape. Large openings puncture the concrete mass, making the most of the house’s surrounding view.