You’ve spent countless hours playing the beloved video game Tetris, twisting and rotating the varying tetriminos as they fell down your screens and fit into place. But, did you ever think that one day you could inhabit one of these idiosyncratic pieces?

Designed by Chinese Studio Liu Lubin, the modular “Micro-House” is built around the ability to shift, stack, and fit together individual units of dwelling, much like the pieces of Tetris. The units each focus on a single daily activity, such as resting, cooking, or working, and are built with a fiber-reinforced composite structure for easy transportation and assembly. Developed to ensure personal privacy while still meeting China’s strict land use policy, a prototype of the minimal home is currently on display in a Beijing park. Let’s just avoid stacking the home in lines, less it disappear. We’ve got more photos below!

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In his beguiling photo series “Sitting on the Wall: Haikou V,” Chinese artist Weng Fen captures young women and new cities on the precipice of change. In the images, faceless adolescent girls sit on cement partitions in cities like Hai-kou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, gazing out toward sleek hi-rises in developing commercial districts. Their backs face us, giving no hint of a personal identity, save for their slightly varied school uniforms. Meanwhile, the booming new buildings dominate the background, their postmodern façades signifying an increase of investment and oncoming changes throughout the city.

This intriguing scene, which is replicated in each of Weng’s pictures, highlights the growing divide between disenfranchised urban populations and residents in more central areas, as cities increasingly look toward development to attract capital and the upper classes. The anonymity of these girls feels unnerving; like the city, they are at transitional stages of growth in their lives. An anxiety arises in the possibility of the girls being cast in the shadow of the burgeoning development that captures their attention. The vibrant hues of the new cityscape captivate the viewer and the subject, who at the moment remains static on a steep precipice. See all the gorgeous photos below.

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In theory, the of idea of a brand new flashy tower in the shape of skinny, elongated orb sounds like a great way to redefine the traditional skyscraper. There’s only one problem: When built, this recent trend in high-rise construction tends to look like a giant … phallus. You’ve seen the Gherkin in London, and the Torre Agbar in Barcelona, but the People’s Daily News Headquarters, currently being, erm, erected in Beijing, might be the most fully realized tower-turned-blatant-innuendo we’ve seen.

Designed by Professor Zhou Qi of Southeast University School of Architecture, the shape of the headquarters arose (sorry!) from a sphere that was molded into three extremities with a concave curtain spanning the distance between. However, according to the Telegraph, Chinese censors have been hard at work trying to stop people from sniggering at the new design, which is only amplified by OMA’s nearby China Central Television Headquarters, nicknamed “The Big Underpants.” Click through to see PG-13 images of the new headquarters!

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Photo: HOK Architects

Spring is in the air—from the magnolia trees bursting into bloom in Brooklyn to the daffodils carpeting the Upper West Side, the last traces of a protracted wet winter are quickly vanishing. The old proverb, April showers bring May flowers, is proving true once again! In the spirit of the times (and the logical corollary to our April post, Architecture in the Rain), we’ve compiled a group of buildings whose forms are indebted to flowers, literally. From geometric inspiration to cultural responsiveness, these projects strut their stuff (petals?) across the globe. Click through to see them all!

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For this week’s Guess the Building post, Architizer is headed to China! While we constantly find ourselves covering major projects by Western architects that have flocked to the Far East nation to build their own projects (Steven Holl, Coop Himmelb(l)au, PES-Architects to name a few), this set of fashion photos features the amazing work of a local! Think you’ve seen that gorgeous striated masonry before? Can you name the building? Tell us in the comments section below.

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Wang Shu, the renowned Chinese architect who won the 2012 Pritzker Prize, was included on the “Time 100,” Time Magazine‘s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Shu’s visionary architectural projects are celebrated for their contextual relevance, which infuse historical Chinese traditions into distinctly contemporary structures. As Time notes,”Wang Shu is the rare architect who has successfully blended China’s quest for novel and eye-catching architecture with respect for traditional aesthetics.” Click through to read more!

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This project won the 2013 Architizer A+ Jury Award in the Architecture + Weather category. See the full list of winners here.

It is rare for an architect to find an untouched location in a large city that lends itself so perfectly for constructing a monumental building. Like the iconic waterfront Sydney Opera House, the Wuxi Grand Theatre, built by Finland’s PES-Architects, benefits from its location. The theater is on a manmade peninsula on the north shore of Taihu Lake, highly visible from all directions and in particular from the main bridge linking the old and new cities of Wuxi. This prime spot provided the perfect opportunity to design an equally eye-catching roof, which the architects used to place the building in a direct dialogue with the city’s weather.

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The megacity of Shanghai is known for its futuristic skyscrapers, booming population, and economic dominance—not for bucolic images of mountain ranges. Perhaps that is why we immediately thought of a twisting, looping roller coaster when we spotted this brand new bridge designed by Shanghai-based CA Group on psfk, which was meant to evoke the peaks of mountains not found in the region.

Making its way across a river, the bridge seems to echo the energy and motion of the world’s most populated city, rather than giving its residents a distant feeling of nature. The dynamic arches are visually striking, recalling that nervous, excited feeling of plunging down a colossal coaster. However, they also function to support the bridge’s infrastructure. See for yourself!

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This project won the 2013 Architizer A+ Jury Award in the performing arts category. See the full list of winners here.

Remember when convention centers were like blights on the urban landscape—monolithic, bland buildings that took up too much of a city’s space and resources? Well, the convention center has gotten a major upgrade lately, with brand-new buildings boasting things like LEED certification and audacious, interesting design. And China’s Dalian International Conference Center, by Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, is no exception. Which is why this silver space-ship-looking conference-center-slash-opera-house has won the Architizer A+ Jury Award for the best performing arts space! Read more.

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Easter is just around the corner, and you don’t need to celebrate the holiday to enjoy all the Cadbury Creme Eggs, marshmallow Peeps, and chocolate bunnies currently in season. But there’s one guilt-free Easter tradition that we (gasp!) love even more than candy: That’s the good ole-fashioned Easter Egg Hunt. We’ve gone all over the world and back to find the best, most labyrinthian, and prettiest public parks to hide—or search for—those colorful little treasures. From ancient ruins to futuristic gardens, here are our nine favorite places for an Easter Egg Hunt. Click through to see them all!

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