A Japanese company, Air Danshin Systems Inc., has come up with perhaps the most inventive solution we've seen - they fit out existing houses to levitate in the event of an earthquake. In the wake of last year's Fukushima disaster the company is set to install the levitation system in 88 houses across Japan, reported The Inhabitat. As fantastical as a home levitation system may seem, Air Danshin claims that the technology is not only effective, but also 1/3 cheaper than many other earthquake-proofing systems out there - and it requires little maintenance. According to Spoon & Tamago, the technology calls for a fairly simple, if powerful, set of mechanisms to be installed around a property. When an earthquake hits, a sensor responds within one second by activating a compressor, which forces an incredible amount of air under the home, pushing the structure up and apart from its foundation. The air pressure can keep the home levitating up to 3cm from the shaking foundation below. An indoor valve controls the flow of air under the house, keeping the structure steady as it "floats". Once the earthquake is over the home gently falls back onto an earthquake-resistant reinforced concrete foundation. While the earthquake-resistant levitation system is presently being installed in houses, we hear the Japanese firm hopes to expand to install the system in larger, potentially more critical structures. To promote the technology, Air Danshin Systems have made some fairly convincing, and somewhat humorous, videos to demonstrate their technology in action.

In a sign of the times, architecture studio ARCHAEUS transformed an 18th century bastion into a park and community center, reported The Inhabitat. Bastion Theresia Timisoara was built as a defensive perimeter for the Romanian town of Timisoara and has languished for decades in the center of the city. ARCHAEUS renovation carefully inserts a modern plaza and assembly room amid the brick and timber buildings and vaulted masonry walls, and a huge green roof now caps the extensive and inviting reurbanized space. The complex was initially in a state of disrepair, and the architects took great care in removing cement patches added in the 70s which would have further deteriorated the original brick. The design was clearly thought through for the long-term - the team applied metal and other materials which can then be easily removed during future rehabilitation efforts. The use of the space as a public venue was also carefully considered. The many concrete ramps and open portals to the street offer bicycle-friendly paths, which local kids on BMXs will soon made full use of. A glass-lined subterranean assembly is placed smack dab in the middle, with a shallow ramp funneling visitors downwards. The main building's huge attic, which is made from large timbers, has been converted to daylit multi-use spaces complete with rows of skylights. The building has been carefully restored with electrical and plumbing services carefully placed to reduce penetrations in the walls and floors. The location of the old fortress in the middle of town makes it a natural hub for transportation and assembly, and the extensive green roof incorporates it into the city's urban green belt. The high albedo of the plaza and green roof also helps reduce the summer's heat. The structure's original purpose was to keep strangers and foes out - however the bastion has now been reborn as magnet for visitors with its many paths of egress and open program.

In 2005 Armenian Government made a decision to build a little Old Yerevan corner in the center of capital, but the project is still only on paper. According to the plan, in capital's heart, not far from the Republic Square, should be reconstructed a little historical and cultural center of old Yerevan. The total site for the historical development is about 2.0 hectares, which is delineated in rectangular area (300m x68m) by Arami, Abovyan, Buzand and Koghbatsi streets. Over the past years, many historical buildings in Yerevan were dismantled with future purpose to restore them in "Old Yerevan" project. The chief designer of the project architect Levon Vardanyan (LV Architect) during his interview to news agency Regnum said that the construction work will start at an early date. The project will include historical and cultural buildings built in XIX and early XX centuries and dismantled recently. The 20 relocated historical buildings will accommodate cafes and restaurants, shops, showrooms, specialized art galleries and museums, as well as small hotel becoming an active part of modern urban life. According to news-portal Panorama, the head of department of Monuments Protection of the Ministry of Culture RA Karo Ayvazyan, said, that the numbered stones from dismantled historical buildings are in storages of 5 private companies. As he said, 15 percent of the stones are in very poor condition, and 10 percent can be used after some restoration work.

2012 Pritzker prize awarded to Wang Shu - first Chinese architect to win the award, reported the official site of Pritzker Prize. Wang Shu runs Amateur Architecture Studio with his wife Lu Wenyu out of Hangzhou and is also the head of the Architecture Department of the China Academy of Art. A 48-year-old architect earned his first degree in architecture at the Nanjing Institute of Technology Department of Architecture in 1985, and then three years later he received his Masters Degree from the same institute. From there he went to work for the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou doing research on the environment and architecture in relation to the renovation of old buildings. In 1990 he completed his first architectural work - a 3.6 thousand square meter Youth Center in Haining, but it was not until 1997 when he and his wife, Lu Wenyu, founded their professional practice, which they named Amateur Architecture Studio. Although he is certainly no amateur, Wang named it thus because the definition of amateur means someone who does something purely out of pleasure rather than it just being work. Three years later in 2000, he completed his first major project, the Library of Wenzheng College at Suzhou University. Over the next decade Wang and his firm have completed a number of large-scale projects including museums, apartment buildings, and university campuses. Some of Wang Shu's most well known projects include the Library of Wenzheng College at Suzhou University, the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum, the Ningbo History Museum, phase 1 and 2 of the Xingshan Campus of the China Academy of Art, and the Vertical Courtyard Apartments. Throughout his work Wang has paid close attention to the environment, the building's relationship to its site and surroundings, and the use of materials. In his project for the Xingshan Campus of the China Academy of Art, he salvaged over two million tiles from demolished traditional houses to cover the roofs of the campus buildings. Since 2000, Wang Shu has been the head of the Architecture Department of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Last year, he became the first Chinese architect to hold the position of "Kenzo Tange Visiting Professor" at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has been a frequent visiting professor at UCLA, Harvard, the University of Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania. He has also received other awards including the 2004 Architecture Art Award of China, a Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction in the Asia-Pacific region, the 2010 Schelling Architecture Prize, and the 2011 French Gold Medal from the Academy of Architecture. Upon learning of his award, Wang Shu said, "This is really a big surprise. I am tremendously honored to receive the Pritzker architecture Prize. I suddenly realized that I've done many things over the last decade. It proves that earnest hard work and persistence lead to positive outcomes." The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture". Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes; it is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. The Pritzker Prize won such architectures, as Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and so on. Wang Shu will be formally honored with the presentation of the Pritzker Prize, the bronze medallion, and a US$ 100 thousand grant on May 25th in Beijing.

Nowadays, it is very popular to transform non residential sites into residential facilities, especially, if the transformation is very cheap. In particular, lighthouses, windmills, space stations, churches, railway stations, water towers, platforms are converted into residential complexes. But architects from Pinkcloud Danish architectural studio went a step further. They have come up with a design that could transform 400 oil refineries around the world into giant energy positive communities. According to official website of the company, When the planet hits peak oil and there is no longer any use for the 49,000 silos that are used to store reserves, these spherical structures could make the perfect solar-powered homes. Their shape optimizes sunlight capture and they are also airtight, waterproof, and structurally bulletproof. An individual silo can be turned into a single family day-lit home, or whole refineries can be converted into interconnected communities that share resources. PinkCloud studio recycled oil silos have everything we expect from a 21st century home, but first they have to be cleaned out. Detoxing the silos involves using in situ bioremediation - soil microbes that eat up harmful toxins. Once it is suitably cleaned, one or more families can move in. These 100 percent self-sustaining buildings have a green roof and green wall that absorb carbon dioxide and improve air quality, high-quality insulation, photovoltaic panels, a rainwater harvesting system and even a basement-level water storage area. The house is heated with radiant flooring, and water with solar power. Energy efficiency is achieved through passive design, and each level of the home is reached by way of a pneumatic elevator. It's possible to connect up whole communities of these recycled silos that would share underground heating and all other infrastructure necessary to run an off-grid home on renewable sources of energy. Earlier, The Inhabitat reported, that the architectural studio KEG Apartments from Athens has a great idea to recycle old trucks into apartments that can either remain stationary or stay attached to the truck and be mobile. Hopefully the containers could be cleaned well enough to eliminate any past toxins to ensure safe air quality. Perhaps this is very efficient design for small houses, as a human population increases at an exponential rate, but the aforementioned two projects are still on paper.