For Archinect's latest Working out of the Box feature we interview Igor Siddiqui, Architect-turned-Product Designer. Describing his current practice he writes "At this moment, in both practice and teaching, my work primarily considers the contemporary interior as a framework for encounters between manufactured products and architectural spaces, and through it I have been investigating digital design techniques, fabrication technologies, material properties, as well as issues of flexibility, mobility and part-to-whole aggregations."

News
Peter Zumthor's first completed building in the UK opened this Friday, July 1: the 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. The concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. In an article in the Daily Telegraph,  Zumthor describes the inspiration for his design “Enclosed gardens fascinate me,” he says. “A forerunner of this fascination is my love of the fenced vegetable gardens on farms in the Alps. I love the image of these small rectangles cut out of vast alpine meadows, the fence keeping the animals out. There is something else that strikes me in this image of a garden fenced off within the larger landscape around it: something small has found sanctuary within something big.”

James Webb quips "as always, there's only one way to really find out how this feels - another london summer trip is in order. i wonder if they will control the number of ppl in at any one time. it might lose the serenity aspect if too crowded?" Though GO ARCHITECTS! thinks "I guess it's one of those "acquired tastes" that I don't have. Having visited a couple of his buildings, all I can say is Zumthor is the most overrated starchitect of his generation." But Orhan Ayyüce opines "I like the overall op-ed meaning of this work. Zumthor clearly frames the ubiquitous circulation of 'back to nature and harmony with the man made' discussion. If it was not generated by him and the Serpentine, it would be yet another pictorial blog feature, only" 

Personally, I love the textural look to the walls/hallways. Initially it was reported the plan was to "to wrap and coat with scrim and black paste mixed with sand."

Some feel it is something of a Damascene conversion, but apparently Ken Shuttleworth has called time on strangely shaped edifices. However, Chris Hildrey responds "Hard to take the rhetoric seriously when he's just resubmitted a planning application for this...http://i.imgur.com/glUw0.jpg"

This year High Desert Test Sites has invited Ball Nogues Studio to create a structure in a remote region of the Mojave Desert. Based off the images provided, Scott K asks "So it's a trap for children?  How fun."

In response to the news that Chinese artist and government critic Ai Weiwei is to challenge a bill of more than 12m yuan ($1.9m, £1.2m) in unpaid taxes and fines as his wife told the BBC, Alexander Walter says "Go, get them, tiger!"

Schools/School Blogs
Jump profiles Keio University's architecture school which he writes is "somehow flying just under the radar." The post is entitled The Secret School; or A different way to train architects (maybe).

Firms/Work Updates

Gregory Dowell is thankful, "...I love my job. Santa Fe Building facade inspection from ropes."

Barry Lehrman posted "...Assistant Professor, Cal Poly Pomona! I really like the sound of that!"

Discussion Threads
starrchitect relates a story about an acquaintance who "spent three years working in Petey's office, but when the interviewer looked at her resume, he discounted the three years as not being real office experience." Hawkin like others thinks the story doesn't add up writing "I think this post is fake/trolling." However elinor thinks "i believe it.  architecture is rife with factions, and so many architects will use any excuse they can get to put down another."

citizen recently had a realization about the importance of networking. He writes "I realized that every part-time job I've gotten since being laid off 3 years ago has come via someone I already knew.  I then thought back over my entire work history and realized that, with one or two exceptions, every job I've ever landed originated with a personal contact in one way or another." For the most part everyone agrees. Although postal notes that actually "all this talk of networking, leads, and referrals makes me feel uncomfortable... i think as a profession or maybe it's just my personality, I have trouble putting myself out there like that.  And I'm not a shy guy, I just feel its a little inappropriate in a lot of instances.  (I don't think its inappropriate, i just feel that way." The discussion prompts jk3hl to wonder "would anyone care to speculate if the basic dynamics of networking will change during the next generation, with the advent of online social networking, etc? will this tech decrease the value of real, interpersonal contact or will it actually enhance it?" quizzical for his part concludes "the key is to NOT network with other architects" -- amen to that."

talmamr is going to Bogotá and Medellín in a week and wondered if anyone could give them some advice on modern/contemporary architecture to visit? n_ drops the knowledge suggesting the Orquideorama and España Library in Medellin and  the works of Rogelio Salmona, the TransMilenio, Botero Museum, Museo del Oro and Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá amongst other stops in Bogotá. Ending with the plea "And for the love of god, eat as many arepas y empanadas as you can"

Finally, marmkid needs some help with a historic storefront replacement project and asks "anyone worked with any storefront or glazing manufacturers who deal with historic preservation and renovation? " won and done williams suggests starting with some good past threads including ones on industrial style windows, a swanky narrow stile commercial entry and one on good steel window companies.

Additionally
In recent months the "crew" over at faslanyc has  assembled a field guide to urban industrial canals in the Americas and just uploaded it to Issuu. It is divided up into three main sections- ecologies, taxonomies, and operations, in addition to defining some of the history and terms useful for understanding this landscape typology.  If it’s useful and you get a chance to use it down at your local canal, they would love to hear about that.  In the meantime, this week they have published excerpts from the Ecologies section of the canal field guide. These excerpts included: Hydrology, Vacancy and Sediment and more!