U.S. architecture billings highest since 2007.
News
U.S. architecture billings highest since 2007.

Orhan highlights three recent instances of art censorship aka 'the nightmare of safe art'. Meanwhile, uxbridge started a related discussion here.

Nicolai Ouroussoff took a break from reviewing new cultural buildings and such in the developed West and instead explored two examples of urban redevelopment in the Middle East. The first in Allepo Syria and second in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Discussion Threads
We discuss Acura's gingerbread house commercial.

ADavin tips us off about an article in the NYT re: a five day urban spelunking expedition in NYC.

In a discussion resulting from a question about Structural window systems in non-orthoganol geometries syp suggests that Assigning an aesthetic or "artistic" egoism to tectonics is absurd and obsolete.

School Blogs
Henry at Woodbury University posts for the first time. He talks about The Threshold:Hive a project by Austin Wilson, Ehson Hoarpisheh and himself which was a digi-fab, cardboard based structure.

Mike at UBC assisted on a design build project which used some of the hundreds of sheets of wheat board left over from the construction of the Vancouver Olympic village. The boards were used to create a created a 6 x 7 x 14m artwork, specifically in the shape of a giant bulldozer. He also had a piece published in the Canadian journal On Site Review in its 24th issue on migration, which drew on his research in Marrakech's Jemaa el Fna square.

Anthony at Columbia University GSAPP categorizes the various participants of the 2011 M.Arch applicants, commiserate here! thread.

Mark at Cooper Union is now one of the first official graduates of Cooper's M.Arch II program. He therefore takes the opportunity to sign off and reflect back on Cooper Union's new degree program. Interestingly, he writes Drawing was a focus so much that the idea of having a 'project' or something you can call architecture was completely dismissed. To focus to quickly on 'architecture' was a big no-no in my studios.

Michael at UC Berkeley praises Berkeley highly for allowing him the opportunity to choose classes that made his studio experience truly ‘comprehensive’.

Roberto at University of Edinburgh reflects on "Christmas, Nazis, and Processional Architecture".