ICYMI Will Galloway penned a reflection on a workshop he instigated at Keio University, with members of Assemble, Paloma Strelitz and James Binning (pre Turner Prize). The studio ended with students building a very rough and very temporary Onsen. The three later discussed, the history of Assemble, architecture’s "long history of collective action" and "amazingly entrepreneurial architectural practices".

Donna Sink loved their take on radicalism "as just being a reasonable way to practice. They believe they're not radical at all. I'm onboard with removing the word ‘non-traditional’ from the descriptor ‘non-traditional practice’ when it comes to architecture of this kind. It's just practice, which is a broad world."

Plus, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg published an interview with Steven Holl and Kevin Lippert (founder of Princeton Architectural Press) about Pamphlet Architecture. rprt frm th heartland praised Pamphlet as "chewy and lovely".
 

News
Over at Architect Magazine Blaine Brownell, AIA, examined the crisis in Flint and explained why architects should care about decentralizing our water systems. Dr. Irwin Redlener also argued that "at least temporary resettlement" should be offered/on the table. Marc Miller believed "The first question that needs to be asked -and honestly answered -is why the entire situation was risk managed into this dire situation…"

For his part b3tadine[sutures] suggested a solution from the state would be much more forthcoming if "maybe we move Grosse Point to Flint, and Flint residents to Grosse Point".

For Archinect Sessions #54 Flint-based architect Kurt Neiswender joined the podcast crew to discuss how architects might apply their skills to improve such a monstrous situation, and address the real limitations the profession has when it comes to these scenarios.

Lautner's Sheats-Goldstein house will be donated to LACMA. haruki is pleased "This is a great thing. I sure appreciate and respect what Jim Goldstein has done and will continue to do for architecture, Lautner, and Los Angeles."

A directive issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet, and Communist Party’s Central Committee came out against architecture if "oversized, xenocentric, weird". midlander pointed out "the much bigger thing which is dominating the discussion within China is regarding the planning of residential developments...The proposed change to the law...will require existing communities to open up the walls and make the internal driveways into public roads."

Evan Chakroff agreed "Indeed, the gated community has deep roots in China, in both traditional and modern ideas of urbanism...The 'opening up' of these complexes could have really interesting consequences".

The twenty winning “My Detroit” postcards, for the 2016 U.S. Venice Biennale exhibit were released. aml found them beautiful but also "incredibly problematic in that they encourage the narrative that detroit is an empty city that used to be nostalgically white. this is just not true. only one of the postcards featured a person of color (there was an additional one with what might have been a middle-eastern family, but that was it). there are scary implications in the narrative the us pavilion is putting forth, and the sooner people realize the better. my two cents, as a recently arrived academic that has been made aware rather quickly of the problems of the city and the abrupt disjunction with the pavilion's strategies."

Firms/Work Updates
Christopher Perrodin addressed retailers and architects. Challenging them "Retail and commercial environments are my daily experience of public life...If we are to spend so much time as a public in such an environment, is there any way to leverage it more fully to the public's advantage?..."

Seed'er Box in Bloomfield Hills, MI in transit to Denver, CO by Jodie Cooper and Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Schiphol, the Netherlands by Mecanoo are just two of the projects found in the latest Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Glass" Pinterest Board.

Designhaus Architecture started a new blog Design Reformed. One of their first posts pitted Design vs. Un-Design.

Ibrahim Rajah recently worked on "...Introducing Children to Design. Part 2", while Stephen Rafferty Jr. presumably was working on an entry for the Fear of Columns Competition.

School/Blogs
As part of a second year graduate studio at UIC, Eugene Murphy and fellow students are studying gradients (as an organizing principle), Tschumi’s drawing for the National Library of France and programmatic intersections/programmatic niches. Christopher Perrodin was intrigued by the teaser "post more!  also, Koolhaas is Tschumi's contemporary in programmatic weaving, no?"

Kathy Quirk touted UWMilwaukee's Prototyping Lab and how it Preps Future Architects for the Real World.

For those who might have been in the neighborhood, Meredith Garda suggested attending a unique exhibition ‘The Chapel of Mosquitoes’, in Knowlton School’s Banvard Gallery. The exhibition ran through February 25th. Evan Chakroff was just happy to see "Jose getting (more) recognition! (Especially good to see Damascus, which he only ever showed in blurry slides when I was at the KSA....)"

Parker Ammann reimagined the DMV. The goal, exploring memory as "an architectural process, lifting it from its accepted place in recollection of an architectural experience."

Discussions/Threads
Spencer Blaney was curious if others saw Arquitectonica's Regalia condominium tower as a "blatant rip-off" of Studio Gang’s Aqua Tower? Janosh zoomed out a bit, finding it "astonishing that within a narrow typology like this that anyone could think that they have created some formal innovation that hasn't been previously imagined." gwharton criticized "Exposing slab edges and shaping them is not a proprietary idea...Just FYI. It does, however, turn buildings into highly efficient heat radiators." Then quipped "THERMODYNAMICS...HOW DOES IT  WORK?"

Smile of Fury was looking for tips regarding how to Waterproof (an) Existing Structure. Non Sequitur and senjohnblutarsky agreed that treating the existing as a rain-screen was the obvious answer. However gruen and Carrera argued, even that was overthinking it. Later Wood Guy clarified "Sorry I muddied the waters by saying it could be done. It can, but it sounds like your situation is not a good candidate."

Finally, Richard Park is planning a move to Dallas and questioned how the market was, given the current slump in hydrocarbon commodities/oil crisis? Both LITS4FormZ and AndrewOf indicated given the current "buyers market for job seekers" he should find work "without much difficulty."
 

Additionally
David Byrne shared some thoughts on Vernacular Culture and Nationalism. Therein he closes with the warning "I was disillusioned—my romantic idea of culture as a sort of bridge that brings different folks together lay shattered...There are two sides to these coins—even culture has a dark side."