For more than 125 years, the University of California, Davis has maintained active research and education programs in viticulture, enology, and food science,. In 2001, Robert Mondavi, renowned California wine producer, made a personal gift of $25 million to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science within the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Davis, opening a new era of opportunity for UC Davis in its widely acclaimed wine and food programs.

The Robert Mondavi Institute allowed the University campus to move two departments, Viticulture & Enology and Food Science & Technology, under one roof. Moreover, in the new facility these two departments, recognized as the best in the world in their respective areas of scholarship, have been linked with other disciplines investigating the role of healthy and safe foods in the quality of life.

Mulders vandenBerk Architecten of Amsterdam have completed a playground building in a park in Utrecht, the Netherlands, with a Corian façade engraved with images of fairytales from around the world. The idea of the building is to excite and stimulate curiosity and creativity of the children.

The expansion of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto speaks to its context in a variety of scales-- activating the site from the outside in, as well as inside out. A new cladding will be built around the existing structure, giving the building a unified image that articulates a larger idea about the site through the way it engages its surroundings, while also improving the building’s environmental performance.

The design proposes a public promenade from the urban context, through the core of the building, all the way to the terrace rooftop. By creating visual, accessible, and programmatic links between the various disciplines, the building’s interior is transformed as a place of learning, while its altered massing reconfigures the city’s skyline.

The existing building of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design anchors the southwest corner of University of Toronto, but does not engage the urban context, thus posing great potentials for the redefinition of the threshold into the campus. In the new design, the southwest, southeast, and northwest corners of the building take on a new urban significance by engaging new entry sequences.

The Cooper Union’ s new building at 41 Cooper Square in New York City, is an academic facility located on the east side of Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets. It houses the college’s Albert Nerken School of Engineering and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences along with additional facilities for the School of Art and the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture.

Thom Mayne and the Morphosis team designed the nine-story, 175,000 square foot, full-block building to replace more than 40 percent of the academic space at the college with reconfigurable, state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories, studios and public spaces.

As explained by Thom Mayne, the new academic building for The Cooper Union, aspires to manifest the character, culture and vibrancy of both the 150 year-old institution and of the city in which it was founded.

All photographs © Iwan Baan

The Westminster Academy is a new secondary school in West London, housing 1175 pupils and 128 staff members. The sponsor, Exilarch Foundation and the Academy principals Alison Banks and Smita Bora, had a powerful vision of learning for the school that embraces the latest thinking in education and the ideals of the RSA Curriculum of the 21st century.
The core values of the Academy are Enterprise, Global Citizenship and Communication delivered through a flexible and responsive learning framework that gives pupils individual responsibility for their education and encourages team working by both staff and pupils.

The project is a kindergarten by Slovenian Architects Ofis Arhitekti., with a  proposed layout  in the form of a four-leaf clover. Each leaf will comprise one department with its associated facilities.

The entrance leads to the central area, hosting or leading to the common areas, that are positioned and distributed on three floors: ground floor with the main entrance and outdoor central common play area/playgrounds for additional activities, first floor with administration/offices and underground level with kitchen, services and technical areas.

In fall of 2005 Østfold University relocated to its new premises in Halden, Norway.  Central to the Architecture's strategy are the qualities of the surrounding landscape and a limited palette of materials.

The project, a close integration of new and existing buildings, emphasizes the contrast between different volumes by using simple geometrical prisms, lines and planes to form a complex matrix of functions and spaces.

The integrated kindergarten 'Dragen' sets new standards, as a sustainable and pedagogically thought-through design. All components are 'Nordic Swan' eco-labelled. The construction is a certified passive-house, using a minimum of energy. And the children's needs and well-being has been the main driver in the design.

The fundamental architectural concept is a simple and clear geometric form on two levels, with the children’s areas located in the best-lit southern end. The two levels are linked by staircases and ramps which are designed to stimulate and challenge the children’s sensory and motor skills.