I know nothing about the ins and outs of architecture, but lord I love to look at trendy new buildings. These came in an email from ArchDaily to my SFMOMA address. Check em out!
Carl Hampson and Eunike Design recently designed the Pitch House for Belmont, Massachusetts. The home is the reinterpretation for the ideals of early European modernism as it “evolves the universal machine for living concept into a site-specific contemporary dwelling shaped by the local forces of climate, culture, and sustainability” (sounds like some deep stuff!). The main living spaces sit under a pivoting roof that responds to the changing seasons by providing the correct amount of sunlight and shade to the interior throughout the year. 
The constantly changing roof “provides a centerpiece for year round outdoor activities.” An open ended site strategy responds “to the transformation of suburban ideals facilitated by the influx of information technology” while the home’s orientation, active and passive solar strategies, thermal mass, and earthen berms collectively reduce year round energy loads.
Salburúa Nature Interpretation Centre - Vitoria, SpainAn astonishing place: a natural wetlands area close to city, formerly drained to transform them into a farmland, which were returned to their original condition during the last years. An intense “wood-smell”: as element of mediation with nature and the perfect material to take advantage of time (”the older the better”), wood arose from the very first moment as a desire
The will to project the building beyond its limits, flying over the water, to put the visitors in a privileged place: just inside the park, once forgotten the city at their backs, over the water, in a point at which you could not arrive otherwise: a twenty one meters span cantilever made of wood and steel. 
This is Visiondivison's entry for the Koivusaari Idea Competition to create a new city district on an island just outside Helsinki, Finland. The competition asked participants to organize a master plan for the island that would provide the framework for further planning. Visiondivison’s proposal, Urban Fade, is comprised of a highly efficient city grid that allows users the option of moving around the district to interact with the different areas.
“In Koivusaari, you will experience a great urban diversity on a relatively small island; a dense city core that gradually fades to smaller premises and that eventually becomes archipelago. The island becomes a distillation of the best qualities that each one of the urban typologies has to offer,” explained the architects. The proposal divides the city into separate areas: a city center, medium sized town, small town and then the archipelago. These areas create a densely programmed layout where “the distances between the new districts is kept short …to get a lively city area. This is good for both the environment and from an economical point of view.” The “intense city center” is filled with office, retail and service spaces in close vicinity to transportation lines; green areas surround the “medium sized town” that houses restaurants and residential units; the “small town” area is situated in a park condition; and the archipelago is dominated with public spaces such as piers and pavilions.
In the Netherlands over 50 spots are marked on the map as starting points for recreational use of the rural landscape. People are encouraged to park their cars at these locations instead of at other, more preserved, areas. From here they can explore nature by foot, mountain bike, horse etc. In the small town Reusel, the nomination motivated a local sports merchant to found an outdoor sports park.
A tower, 25 meters high, with sport facilities like climbing and abseiling is the main attraction. It consists of six cubes, hanging on a core of steel columns. Straight flight staircases raise in between and cross the cubes several times in different positions. Two of the six cubes are accessible. The third one is the start platform for a rope slide and a high rope track. In the top box people can enjoy a panorama view of the surrounding landscape and there is a starting platform for abseiling. The athletes on the 13 meters high climbing wall are observed by visitors of the adjacent bistro.Huge stacks of logs can be found in the surrounding production forest. The cladding of the tower consists of the same halved, stripped logs. This way it is an addition, as well a product of it’s surroundings.
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