The AIA New York Chapter recently announced seven promising and pioneering new architecture and design firms from the New York area to receive the New Practices New York 2012 awards. The seven selected firms are: Holler Architecture; The Living; Abruzzo Bodziak; SLO Architecture; formlessfinder; Marc Fornes & THEVERYMANY; Christian Wassman. — bustler.net

Now the Palais Stoclet, considered the best surviving realization of a Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total work of art," faces an uncertain future as it marks its centennial. For the past decade this Jugendstil masterpiece has been a battleground for the four sisters who inherited it, even as they seek to protect the coveted private property from the ravages of decay, pollution, theft and the prying eyes of the public. — online.wsj.com

...will re-examine the built environment of the arid and semi-arid west as a vast field of opportunities for design innovation at a range of scales, from building systems to infrastructure and landscape spaces. The conference will present and debate a portfolio of design strategies generated in response to the challenges set forth in ALI's Drylands Design Initiative... — Arid Lands Institute

The 2012 Alvar Aalto Medal was awarded to Portuguese architect Paulo David last night at the World Design Capital Gala in Lahti, Finland. In the view of the jury, David’s architecture forms a convincing synthesis of contemporary and traditional architecture. — bustler.net

About three-quarters of the people who spoke favored renovating the existing pier or picking a "Mediterranean-style" design for a replacement. The ultra-modern design of "The Lens" did not draw support from most of the people who spoke.

"We are paying for $50 million for a sidewalk over the water," one commenter said.

"I wanted Mediterranean style. (I) feel we are being locked into (a design) that doesn't have any local flavor." — oldnortheast.patch.com

In a way, my influences are eclectic. Music doesn’t make me want to go and design a house, in a way it’s a more physical pleasure. It’s maybe a break for me or a tunnel to something else. I’ve never had a lot of music in the office. To me music is to be listened to and art is to be looked at. I never understood that thing of using art as decoration. It has to mean something to me otherwise I wouldn’t have it. And I can’t work with music. I find it too stimulating in a way. — John Pawson, phaidon.com

Los Angeles architect Yaohua Wang - many may still remember his Nanjing Lab proposal - has sent us his latest project, a schematic design proposal for the experimental Xianghong Theater in Taiyuan, China. — bustler.net

Lindal Cedar Homes has just launched their Lindal Architects Collaborative, an innovative new prefab home collection featuring designs from the world's leading architects. The line, which will feature prefab systems designed by 12 architects, will not only make modern design more accessible, but will make architecture previously reserved for the more affluent financially accessible to the masses. — www.Inhabitat.com

Within the parameters of the building art there cannot be artists like Saul Bellow and Philip Roth or like Sidney Lumet and Woody Allen, who in books and movies probe the excruciating details of the Jewish encounter with American capitalism and lifestyle. Architecture cannot tell stories about one’s Jewish mother or one’s Jewish nose. Especially in the era of high modernism, architecture possessed limited expressive resources for detailed cultural critique. — Places Journal

This film explores how the Metropol Parasol affects the people who live and work around it, as well as the historic area in which it sits.

The Metropol Parasol is one of the largest wooden structures in the world and was completed in April 2011. It has become a new centre for Seville.

The Metropol Parasol was designed by Architect, J. MAYER H., with engineering consulting from Arup. — youtube.com

Through meticulous infiltration, UX members have carried out shocking acts of cultural preservation and repair, with an ethos of “restoring those invisible parts of our patrimony that the government has abandoned or doesn’t have the means to maintain.” The group claims to have conducted 15 such covert restorations, often in centuries-old spaces, all over Paris. — wired.com

If we’re going to find jobs in the U.S. and the rest of the world, they’re going to have to be found in exactly the area where China is finding them — tertiary industry, or services.

How do you create service-industry jobs? By investing in cities and inter-city infrastructure like smart grids and high-speed rail. Services flourish where people are close together and can interact easily with the maximum number of people. If we want to create jobs in America, we should look to services... — blogs.reuters.com

“I’m never trying to be disparaging to these other communities in any way,” says Bill Browne, a local architect on Indianapolis’ host committee who has looked at what other Super Bowl cities have done. “But we came away with the sense that they’re putting on an event. We’re certainly putting on an event here, but we are absolutely trying to transform a number of elements of our community as a part of this.” — theatlanticcities.com

The board's long-range planning committee chose Holl, based in New York City and Beijing, after reviewing site-specific concepts from three internationally known architecture firms, including Snøhetta and Morphosis, according to a statement from board chair Cornelia Long. — chron.com

oh, to clarify: i’m not saying the architecture is relatively pointless, i’m merely suggesting that my blog is relatively pointless. the architecture is anything but pointless, it’s great, even when it’s banal and mundane. it’s my blogging that is relatively pointless. or so i believe. i guess i should work on my syntax. — mobylosangelesarchitecture.com