News
RIP - Iconic Danish architect Henning Larsen died in his sleep in his home in Copenhagen on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Henning Larsen was 87 years old.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker of the Washington Post reported that after 14 years in the making and despite recent protests over the Gehry design, the Eisenhower Memorial Commission voted "to move forward with the Frank Gehry-designed memorial to the 34th president". have cheered "Hopefully the pious "National" Civic Art Society can now go bankrupt. LOL!"

Orhan Ayyüce posted a link to #occupygeziarchitecture where a group of architects are documenting the temporary structures that were destroyed by the police in Gezi Park, Istanbul. The group explains "The protests in Istanbul indicated one simple thing for architects (designers?): We need new definitions for architecture in situations when architecture is removed from architects.Each unique structure that we encounter in the streets and Gezi Park has its own in-situ design and implementation process. Documentation of these temporary structures is of huge importance for further examination, considering their limited life-cycle".

99% Invisible in collaboration with the Life of the Law podcast examined the intersection between AIA’s Ethical Standard ES 1.4, Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) and KMD’s design for the Pelican Bay Supermax.

there is no there commented "Prisons are correctional and rehab centers, not architectural torture devices. Lol, silly architects". Meanwhile Steve Swartz suggested "Pick up a book.  The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society".

IKEA Foundation announced a new prototype shelter now being tested in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. The refugee families who would be making the shelter their homes will have a direct say in how the product is developed, putting their experience at the heart of this collaborative process.

Will Galloway pointed out "There are many examples like this. One of the issues is that while the actual shelter is cheap the shipping costs too much. Lots of other problems make it very hard to solve housing for such camps . Most of the issues are political though. Not architecture at all". peterlattey agreed writing "There needs to be a wide range of political and technical solutions...I think this shelter is one brilliant solution...I have also worked with Shelter Box.  This is a Rotary sponsored initiative that provides a tent shelter, cooking utensils, etc as a complete shelter for a family into disaster areas.  It would be great if Ikea worked with organizations like this to provide a shelter PLUS other basic necessities".

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Alec Perkins an intern currently working for Tatiana Bilbao's office, visited Vasconcelos library completed in 2006  by the architect Alberto Kalach. Mr. Perkins also reflected on the nature of Mexico City as a 'dirty' city concluding "My impression is that I am visually substituting dirty for in disrepair. The things here, the streets, the sidewalks, the buildings, people's clothes, are all clean, but are in generally poor condition, broken, torn or worn...In other words, the city and the population appear to be either too poor to repair and upgrade, or it's just not a priority in a city with bigger problems. Mexico City is a patent leather oxford, kept shined to a high glossy black even as the laces fray apart and the sole detaches".

Albertina Passage in Vienna, Austria by Soehne & Partner architects and Nursery School in Curtis, A Coruña (Spain) NAOS ARCHITECTURE are just two of the recent projects to be found in the post Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Color" Pinterest Board

Over at the blog Starting up Awesome, which chronicles Richard and Stefano trying to start their dream practice: Osom Architects, bigness relates how a few weeks after handing in drawings a client called back complaining that the usual contractor was out of the game and, two weeks from the planned opening, they had no one to do the work, so him and his partner transformed themselves into construction workers for two weeks. He worries "I cannot shake the feeling it de-professionalized us a bit....Would have any of you taken on the task"?

citizen advised "Aside from the pain in the ass and break-neck schedule (which sounds grueling), this constitutes an incredible experience --and you've now got a big, fat example of design-build on your CV.  Congratulations, and don't overthink this.  Be glad for the money, the experience, and the resume-builder".

Schools/Blogs
Inspired by a both a BBC Radio 4 episode of In Our Time (looking at the driving forces and ideology behind the creation of cities) and the writing of Edward Soja, Matthew Rust argued "I would suggest the balance between civility and profit has become skewed towards profit at the expense of social issues. This narrative will be explored further in the next blog post".

studiostumpo has been collaborating with the Architecture Department, more specifically with the Annex Lecture Series, at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Even though studiostumpo saw the documentary Manufactured Landscapes (written and directed by world-known photographer Edward Burtinsky) months ago, they can’t stop thinking about. It is according to studiostumpo One documentary you have to watch today.

On June 24, 2013 the 2013 graduates of NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) held their commencement exercises at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. Retiring president (after seven years) Steve Altman, thanked faculty and staff members.  Keynote speaker Christopher Hawthorne, architectural critic for the Los Angeles Times, noted: "The opportunity for the emerging generation of architects and designers is not just to create, but to define an architecture that responds to and makes sense for and ultimately gives shape to the 21st Century".

Matthew Messner presented Double Story by Nayereh Pater-Rov a fellow student at University of Chicago School of Architecture. The project explored the possibility of shaping the suburban house through "The spaces created for the life of the hoarder".

Discussions
Thecyclist is looking for tips for Gluing together large chipboard topography layers with spray adhesive. Gregory Walker replied "i use both 77 and glue. the key for me is to align one edge with small dowel sticks under the others to keep it suspended as i position it...like the combination of glue and 77 better than 77 alone because we're in a high humidity area. humidity will kill the 77 alone".  

LITS4FormZ recommended  "Sobo or no go" and anonitect added "have you tried ATG? - like the advesive from tape without the backing material- really flexible, good for curvy things, and super strong (although I like to add just a few dots of elmer's here and there, but not enough to buckle anything)".

utopianrobot had a question re: CNC milling. Specifically, when "milling 3/4" oak veneer plywood with a compression mill bit...would using a v-bit clean up the edges"? Miles Jaffe encouraged utopianrobot "Use a carbide router bit. Milling cutters are designed for metal, not wood" gwharton warned "If you're switching from a mill bit to a router bit, make sure the router bit is rated for the tool speed of your machine. Putting a consumer router bit in an industrial spindle can have nasty consequences".

Finally, Susan Ankenman bumped a thread (about office management software) from December 2012. She "would love to get some feedback on the office management software you have been trying. We have been running ArchiOffice since 2008 and have experienced nothing but frustration since we did the so called ‘upgrade’. It has cost us thousands of dollars and hundreds of lost hours of admin time. It makes calculation errors on invoices and no longer exports to my accounting software as the previous version did"!