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This gleaming hunk of urban development is about to rise on an artificial, perfectly square island off the coast of Dubai. Engineers in the coastal country are already adept at building islands -- Dubai possesses three artificial island developments, including one made of house-sized islets that form the shape of all the continents of the world. With this new development, architect Rem Koolhaas will design an entire city that reflects his futurist philosophy about the "generic city." That glowing ball you see will be a city unto itself. See inside it below.

Since the Renaissance, courthouses often feature a sculpture of Lady Justice as an allegoric representation of justice. Her features include a blindfold (for impartiality), weighing scales (for balancing each argument), and a sword (for judgment).

Jean Nouvel has won the Pritzker Prize, the world's most prestigious architecture award. And for a good reason, because his work is simply amazing. We love Nouvel's work for many reasons, from his irregular shapes and spaces, to the use of plants and color LEDs to create almost surreal, night-city creatures that seem taken from a science fiction movie. Here's a 68-picture gallery with his most stunning pieces, from the vibrant Torre Agbar in Barcelona to the alien spaceship of the new Orchestra Hall for the Philharmonie de Paris. Update: due to an error, the 68-pic gallery was incomplete. I've fixed it and the remaining pictures will appear shortly, after the jump.

Interesting facade treatment by Guillermo Hevia at Santiago Chile, 2005.

It is difficult to ignore the designs of Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid. Bold, brave, often controversial - her ambitious experiments in form always seem to stir discourse and debate. Hadid’s design for the new civil courts building in Madrid is no exception. Planned as part of the new Campus de la Justicia at Valdebebas in the Spanish capital city, Hadid’s Civil Court is expected to become a focal point among works from Norman Foster, IM Pei and others. While we are not always big fans of Hadid’s obsession with form, we are intrigued by the “intelligent” façade of this Madrid courthouse, that in addition to being extremely eye-catching, is intended to regulate the building’s indoor environment.

Just when you thought development in the United Arab Emirates couldn’t get any crazier, here comes a new UAE eco-city to rival Masdar. Intended to be entirely sustainable and cater to residents’ every conceivable whim within its four walls, the new Ras al Khaimah eco city development in the United Arab Emirates, design by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA office, is often likened to that of the zero-carbon, zero-waste Masdar. Cutting-edge solar technology will power the 1.2 million square meter city, built using locally-sourced Arabian materials and aesthetic styles to support the city’s overall ethos of sustainability. Leave it to Rem to design something so grand it could possibly upstage Masdar- we’ll see how it unfolds!

The House that Shaped an Architectural Generation: Frank Gehry’s First ‘Deconstructivist’ Building

Una alfombra roja seduce a los visitantes a entrar en el teatro a través de una escalera monumental, lo que subraya el amplio hall de entrada levantado en torno a las salas de cine y teatro, que conduce a la cafetería.

Construction is nearly complete on the Beijing Olympic Stadium, shaped like a massive steel bird's nest, and the swimming-pool-filled Water Cube, which looks like a piece of glowing alien machinery. This is an actual photo of the buildings at night. We've also got some less-surreal glimpses of them too.

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Foreign Office Architects has recieved planning permission for is Trinity EC3 commercial project for developer Beetham. The £700 million Trinity EC3 project comprises of three crystal-shaped buildings ranging from 12 to 22 storeys on a 1.3ha site in Aldgate. The renders below show the revised scheme after it was remodelled to avoid spoiling strategic views of the Tower of London. The physical model shows the project in its original form.

The Pixel House is an interesting project designed by Mass Studies and has an innovative design and a curve like geometry. It just looks like each pixel of stone jelled together to create this astonishing building, which apparently gives you an effect similar to that of a 3-dimensional picture.

producer | author | editor | creative director of: eye candy... This blog has been set up as an extension of a free weekly e-mail we've been sending out for over 7 years. It is our intention to raise the level of design by exposing ourselves to the examples set by others (both good and bad). We sincerely hope you will think, reflect, learn and raise the bar (or at least bring some insight and/or intelligent conversation that might have been overlooked) on the project in which you are currently engaged. The thoughtful evolution of the design of our cities and built environment is dependant upon the engaged critical thinking of its design professionals. ______________________________ If you like this blog then you should sign up for our free e-mail service at: eyecandy... and be sure to share the great value with your friends.

Estonia has just opened an embassy in second life, being the second country to do it officially behind Sweden. Interestingly Estonia’s official second life embassy is different from Swedens offering in a few subtle ways that seem to me to make it a more thoughtful offering. The Architecture is especially of interest to me, while Sweden plonked down a copy of their real life Embassy in America, Estonia have had a purpose designed building by Scope Cleaver. Aleister Kronos an Avatar in SL has visited it and posted some photos and I quite like it. Check out the Estonian Embassy blog. You can’t really call this building a simulacrum but I think it should be appreciated on its own terms in the context of Second Life, and its tempting to speculate as to whether the next real life Estonian Embassy somewhere in the world might borrow design elements from this one.

Patrick of Creative Review blog went to Brussels and told us about the highlight of his trip: a 38-floor Dexia Tower. With 150,000 LEDs on its exterior walls, which means only one thing: one heckuva light show!

Having to design a big important building is always a dream for an architect. Having to design an iconic building is every architect's fantasy. Having to compete with perhaps the most iconic building in the world must be the architect's worst nightmare. This is the case with the new Acropolis Museum, designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects with Michael Fotiadis, Arsy.

What is it about tree houses that we love so much? Their playfulness, the escapism they offer, and the platforms they provide into nature all come to mind. We have written about the 4Treehouse by Lukasz Kos before, but when we saw it again in this month’s Dwell, the gorgeous glowing image stopped us in our tracks. Posing as a Japanese lantern on stilts, Kos’ creation floats within the fir trees on Lake Muskoka, Ontario.

Linked Hybrid, which will house 2,500 people in 700 apartments covering 1.6 million square feet, is a model for large-scale sustainable residential architecture. The site will feature one of the world’s largest geothermal cooling and heating systems, which will stabilize the temperature within the complex of eight buildings, all linked at the 20th floor by a “ring” of service establishments, like cafés and dry cleaners. A set of dual pipes pumps water from 100 meters below ground, circulating the liquid between the buildings’ concrete floors.

Scaling his literal Curtain House into a larger and more dense development, Shigeru Ban’s Shutter Houses are one part architecture, one part art, and one part pure poetry from one of our favorite thoughtful architects. The 9-unit condo located in West Chelsea blurs the line between indoor and outdoor with a perforated metal shutter system that lets residence open and close their spaces on a whim.