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With millions watching the first World Cup to be held on the African continent, the spotlight is on the host country — and the stadiums commissioned for the games. History was made on June 11 when the first game of the 19th FIFA World Cup was played at Johannesburg’s stunning Soccer City—one of 10 new or refurbished stadiums in nine cities —launching South Africa into a highly visible economic and architectural arena. Cape Town Stadium With a seating capacity of 68,000, the Cape Town Stadium nestles in a remarkable setting, between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean. Located in the

With millions watching the first World Cup to be held on the African continent, the spotlight is on the host country — and the stadiums commissioned for the games. Moses Mabhida Stadium Situated on the Indian Ocean, Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium is perhaps the most assimilated in terms of its long-term vision. The country’s eThekwini Municipality, which includes the City of Durban, stipulated in its brief that the stadium should be a symbol of civic pride and inspiration and draw on the physical features that give identity and character to the site — the sea, the Umgeni River, and the

With millions watching the first World Cup to be held on the African continent, the spotlight is on the host country — and the stadiums commissioned for the games. Soccer City The tough, glistening epitome of life in Johannesburg, Soccer City — the home of football in South Africa — lies coiled at the foot of a mine dump in the Nasrec Precinct adjacent to Soweto. K.E.

Photos © Daici Ano (top); Roel Backaert (middle); Duccio Malagamba (bottom) Click here to view images. Robert Venturi’s iconic 1964 house for his mother in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, a departure from the “less is more” ideal of his architectural peers at the time, offered a strong but subtle statement. In his own words, its gabled form created “an almost symbolic image of a house.” These days, you can forget subtlety. A string of recent projects takes an in-your-face approach to revive the gable once again. In Tokyo, Sou Fujimoto stacks prototypical house shapes three stories high in a wood structure.

A bold urban strategy transforms a worn beachfront into a vivid curvilinear 'plaza' on Spain's Costa Blanca. Photos © Aleix Bagué  Click here to view images. When Carlos Ferrater, principal of Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), won the competition to upgrade the mile-long Poniente Beachfront of Benidorm — a sliver of a city dubbed the “Manhattan of Spain” for its concentration of high-rise buildings along the Mediterranean — he and his associate, Xavier Martí Galí, who are the project’s design architects, referenced the landscape and wavy patterning of Roberto Burle Marx’s Copacabana promenade, as well as the work of Antonio

Although it hasn't lost its fun-loving and sometimes vulgar ways, the city is becoming more urbane.

Laurinda Spear Photo courtesy Arquitectonica Arquitectonica-designed bus stop / Courtesy of Arquitectonica (top), Fontainebleau Hotel / Courtesy of Fountainebleau Hotel Laurinda Spear, FAIA, is a founding principal of Arquitectonica and ArquitectonicaGEO.  She studied fine arts at Brown University, received her Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University and later a Master of Landscape Architecture from Florida International University.  She has taught at Harvard and the University of Miami.   Best New Architecture Arquitectonica “Drive by the old Arquitectonica Headquarters at the corner of 5th Street and Jefferson Avenue, now belonging to Estefan Enterprises, or the new Arquitectonica offices under construction

Alexander Gorlin Photo courtesy Alexander Gorlin Architects “The Gorlin” at Aqua Condominiums / Courtesy of Dacra Development (top), A view of Vizcaya from Biscayne Bay / Photo © Bill Sumner (middle), The W South Beach / Photo courtesy Starwood Hotels and Resorts (bottom) Alexander Gorlin, FAIA, founded New York-based Alexander Gorlin Architects in 1987. Gorlin’s projects cover a large swath of building types, from affordable housing to religious institutions to luxury condos, including “The Gorlin,” a mid-rise residential tower in the Miami development Aqua, where he currently has an apartment. Best New Architecture “The Gorlin” at Aqua Condominium “Who can

Allan T. Shulman founded Shulman & Associates in 1996 with an initial focus on historic preservation projects.

Andrés Duany, FAIA, founded the firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) in 1980.