cityLAB Design Competition WPA 2.0 Rides Perfect Storm in DC
WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture, the design competition organized by UCLA’s cityLAB, culminated with the announcement of “Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park” as the winner of the professional competition and “R_Ignite” and “Aquaculture Canal_New Orleans” as the winners of the student competition...

Rietveldprijs 2009 Goes to Business Park in Utrecht Papendorp
The design for Papendorp Business Park in Utrecht, The Netherlands, West 8 designed together with Wissing Stedebouw en Ruimtelijke Vormgeving, has won the Rietveld Award 2009...

Kenyan Slum Youth Group Wins 2009 ONE Africa Award
A community organization founded by young people in Nairobi’s slums has won the ONE Africa Award, an annual prize given by the global anti-poverty group to honor ground-breaking work by African non-governmental organizations...

Architect’s Eye Announces Winners of Architectural Photography Contest
The winners of Architect’s Eye, a competition which judges architects’ photography skills, are John Barr, an independent architect practicing in Glasgow, and Philippe Brysse, an Associate at Foster and Partners...

The City Journal's Theodore Dalrymple says "Le Corbusier was to architecture what Pol Pot was to social reform."

As we reported earlier this week, the Pontiac Silverdome was recently purchased by a Canadian buyer for only $583K. According to an article in Crain's today, however, "An Oakland County judge has ordered an injunction to stop the sale of the Pontiac Silverdome after a complaint was filed by attorney H. Wallace Parker, who planned to develop the building as a horse-themed development."

Regents Raise College Tuition in California by 32 Percent - Front page headline on NYTimes website: "As the University of California’s Board of Regents met Thursday at U.C.L.A. and approved a plan to raise undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — 32 percent next fall, hundreds of students from campuses across the state demonstrated outside, beating drums and chanting slogans against the increase." This is also after approving fee hikes for professional programs. Don't forget, we're looking to list notable alumni in the design and arts fields. more here

A new kind of battery that is expected to last 25 years (called a betavoltaic battery) is currently being developed by Widetronix. The battery harvests energy from the nuclear decay of isotopes.
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Get offline! And do something fun in Miami Beach, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Munich, London, Cambridge, Santa Monica, Singapore or Boulder.

Thursday November 19 Friday November 20 Saturday November 21 Sunday November 22 Monday November 23 Tuesday November 24 Wednesday November 25

Zaha Hadid is meeting the Pope this week - apparently he wants to revitalise religious art and architecture - and it will be one of the stranger celebrity encounters. London Evening Standard

Steep tuition hikes, fee increases for professional programs, and a lackadaisical administration have driven thousands to mobilize. UC Regents are today putting the final stamp of approval on a plan drawn up by the university president, Mark Yudof, a president given unprecedented emergency powers, to raise tuition 32%. Students, faculty, lab techs, unions, janitors, librarians, and even high school students are in the middle of a three day strike that is centered around UCLA, where the regents are meeting. (According to reports, Wilshire and Westwood Blvds are blocked). Architecture, planning and landscape professional programs face a $6,000 professional fee. Here's a round up: AP beanbags fired students tasered twitpic LAT rage | background from nick | on twitter search for #ucwalkout and #ucstrike | save uc & more pics | related: no common sense | Regents violate own master plan + full entry...

Jeanne-Claude, who collaborated with her husband, Christo, on dozens of environmental arts projects, notably the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris and the Reichstag in Berlin and the installation of 7,503 vinyl gates with saffron-colored nylon panels in Central Park, died Thursday in Manhattan, where she lived. She was 74. nytimes

Ever pass by a standout building and wonder -- who the hell lives there? Spain's TVE went around visiting apartments in the new housing by architects like FOA and MVRDV, and also older classics, like Casa Milá. (in Español -- and it might only transmit for the next week) watch

In the mid 1970s, before becoming a full-time writer, Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk studied architecture. In this autobiographical piece he describes his feelings about architecture and the trade he never took up. Abitare, pdf

The full line-up of the icon minds talks, by the likes of Ronan Bouroullec, Farshid Moussavi, Bruce Sterling and Dunne & Raby, can now be viewed online.
Watch Farshid Moussavi, Charles Jencks and Marjan Colletti discuss the return of ornament; Dunne & Raby and Bruce Sterling talk about design fiction; Joseph Grima and Julien de Smedt on the pressures of running a young and successful architecture practice; and Ronan Bouroullec in conversation with icon's editor Justin McGuirk.
Watch

Fortune magazine has put together a list of mistakes-to-avoid while looking for a new job. These are general, but definitely apply to out-of-work architects. A good read after studying our recently published Archinect's Official Portfolio Guide Part II: The Search for Employment. Read

Mr. Stern said the building, which is scheduled to have its groundbreaking next year, was not designed to reflect on Mr. Bush personally. “It’s not a portrait or a defense of his policies,” Mr. Stern told The Morning News. “It is about the presidency, the dignity of the office.” NYT

Germany's idealistic designers have much to teach the modern world
From The Economist