Rather elegant," intoned the white-haired figure at the podium. He was speaking of Adolf Hitler's Reich Chancellery, designed in 1938 by Albert Speer. Up next on the screen was the Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds where brown-shirted Nazis paraded en masse. "I think it is really great architecture," said the lecturer. "You take off the swastikas, and you can admire it without feeling guilty." — Wall Street Journal

Jonathan Dessi-Olive, a Master's candidate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, has recently been announced as recipient of the 2013 RAMSA Travel Fellowship. The $10,000 prize is awarded annually by the Partners of Robert A.M. Stern Architects for the purpose of travel and research. — bustler.net

Winners of the 15th annual BERKELEY PRIZE competition have been announced. The 2013 prize program focuses on the topic: 'The Architect and the Accessible City.' 152 architecture students from 26 countries responded to this year’s question: "Provide us with an overview of what is being done in your city to make it accessible to people who have physical disabilities. In your opinion as an architect, what more can be done?" — bustler.net

Officials at New York City's Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art announced today that the school, famously free to students, will begin charging undergraduate tuition next year. — archrecord.construction.com

How should we live together? is the central question of this 18th issue of MONU on the topic of "Communal Urbanism", focusing on contemporary communal living in cities.

(Bernd Upmeyer, Editor-in-Chief, April 2013) — MONU

The LA Times reported that Renzo Piano, Los Angeles architect Zoltan Pali and officials from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled preliminary designs for a $300-million film museum. Eric Chavkin concluded "A toy chest of architectures related only by location. From the Bruce Goff Japanese Pavilion to the black box Mies bookstore to Hugh Hardy's disco streamlined moderne to Luckmans sorry start. Renzo Piano's 'back-to-the-future cinema spheres just continues the trajectory"

Departing with the familiar tradition of producing a hefty physical volume, GSAPP offered its most recent Abstract in the form of an iPad app. In addition to (or on cover-like behalf of) this app, students received an object: It looks like a book, but turns out to be a book-shaped plastic box, and its contents consist of a URL, where the app can be downloaded. This object, as you can see, has not been universally embraced. — observatory.designobserver.com

More than 50 students will attempt to break the nationwide record of 1,655 boxes, currently held by BYU

The battle to build the world’s largest cardboard structure has been an ongoing rivalry between three schools: UNLV, Harvard University, and BYU.

UNLV students have been preparing for weeks to manipulate the cardboard into realistic architectural concepts, using lessons learned in a fundamentals of design course. — news.unlv.edu

To be sure, I do not believe that design practices do not involve research, or that these practices do not produce new knowledge. Nothing could be further from the idea. All design draws upon knowledge, either produced by existing research or new research. But critically, design is not synonymous with research. Design cannot base its conclusions on design itself. — Plat Journal

Archiculture takes a thoughtful, yet critical look at the architectural studio. The film offers a unique glimpse into the world of studio-based, design education through the eyes of a group of students finishing their final design projects. Interviews with leading professionals, historians and educators help create crucial dialog around the key issues faced by this unique teaching methodology. — archiculturefilm.com

Robert K. Alexander of San Pedro, California, an adjunct faculty member of the architecture department at California State Polytechnic Institute University, Pomona’s College of Environmental Design, has been named the 2013 Rotch Travelling Scholarship recipient. Alexander will receive a $37,000 stipend to spend eight months traveling and studying architecture around the world. — bustler.net