Robert Urquhart visited BIG's 2016 Serpentine Pavilion and the new Summer Houses. Olaf Design Ninja_ approved "Adeyemi's is very architectural and tectonic. still modern while taking on that neo classical stuff. and Leibingers is nice too...." 

Plus, Nicholas Korody published 'The Permanent Temporality of Refugee Camps: The Syrian Chapter' a Masters thesis project of Nikita Gyawali, a student at the Aarhus School of Architecture.

News
Orhan Ayyüce recommended reading Nick Currie in Art-agenda, in which the Scottish artist tears into the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, "vis a vis its older cousin, the art biennale." Currie also writes (about 'Fundamentals', Rem Koolhaas’s 2014 Biennale of Architecture) "Depending on your perspective the results were either Brechtian or resembled a severe case of Asperger syndrome" and makes reference to Max Weber’s Verstehen.

Oliver Wainwright reviews the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion (and new  Summer Houses) offering(s). Will Galloway placed this year’s entry in a larger context "Selgascano and fujiimoto and now BIG seem to be saying lets just experience this place and enjoy and not worry that tomorrow it will be gone. That's a mark of a generational shift maybe and a preview of where our profession is going. Maybe that is part of the appeal of these pavilions."

Mia Lehrer + OMA won over Eric Owen Moss, Brooks + Scarpa, AECOM to design DTLA's new public park. Janosh offered a critique, "Hooray for design and all, but Los Angeles could do with some parks that aren't designed for signature architects, are made up largely of unprogrammed open space, and are distributed in the parts of the city besides downtown and Silverlake…"

In good news/bad news, more women joined the profession in 2015 than ever before. Yet earlier this year in an AIA survey, more than two-thirds of women polled reported a lack of gender equity in architecture.

Firms/Work Updates
For those looking for work, Coach is seeking an Assistant Manager, Global Environments.

Alternatively, Henning Larsen Architects is seeking a senior Project Manager who’ll be in charge of US projects.

Recently Nazli E Unsal worked on her winning entry for GSAPP's W. Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize 2016 : Along the Border Following Europe's "Iron Curtain". While Matt Kleinmann worked on (a map for/of) Increasing access to WIC stores.

Designhaus Architecture suggested some easy/superficial ways to give a patio that Summer Look.

Stockwool announced it is working with Telford Homes on a mixed-use scheme, with views over the Thames, World Heritage Site and the City, on the Isle of Dogs.

School/Blogs
Over at the community Blog for IDS 420 Summer 2016 (affiliated with The University of Tennessee - Knoxville), hstarnes caught us up on weeks 4 & 5 at McCarty Holsaple McCarty. While pterry3 wrapped up a project during week 3 on two hotel properties.

On June 3, three of the most accomplished women (Avra Jain and Kim Briesemeister moderated by Alicia Cervera Lamadrid) in South Florida real estate, spoke to a standing-room only crowd at the first Women in Real Estate Luncheon.

In addition Avra Jain and Kim Briesemeister just-published a book, Reinventing Your City, which offers eight steps for strategic urban planning.

Auburn University has selected Boston-based Wilson Butler Architects to design a new $50 million performing arts center, that will serve as the cultural gateway to the University when the center makes its debut in 2019.

After responding to many similar requests over the years, Will Galloway put together a post on the main three questions regarding studying architecture in japan; ENGLISH?, SCHOLARSHIPS?, SCHOOLS? As well as some others, folks usually forget to ask...

Salam Rida (one of Six Taubman College M.Arch students selected to assist the curators of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale) while "generally not a fan of advertising places to go on blogs", put together a list of favorite places visited and "a few tricks, tips, and anecdotes to accompany them."
 

Discussions/Threads
rico_w started a thread to discuss designing buildings to protect the public from mass shootings. After much initial digression into politics et al., chris-chitect brought the conversation back to architecture, writing "It's not a bad thing to consider structural integrity in design, but often the money is better spent elsewhere. It doesn't say much about society when our social spaces end up being designed as bunkers or military complexes." For her part Donna Sink was less/more optimistic "this very cogent and brief blog post explains what I think is the reality: ‘Architecture can do fuck-all to prevent a mass-shooting.’...As architects we can't do anything, really. But as citizens we can, and I don't ever separate who I am as a citizen from who I am as an architect".

Meanwhile Koww was curious, whether you can deduct travel expenses to see exemplary architectural works. While some commenters thought it was a stupid question or rather it should at least be asked over on "Accountanect.com... or its equivalent", null pointer answered "yes, but be prepared to fight the IRS if you get audited. Most idiots here know shit about taxes. I'd fight tooth and nail to justify that deduction."

archanonymous added "I'd deduct every last cent. Take pictures. Bam, done, you have visual documentation which is important for your professional development. "

Orhan Ayyüce linked to a video featuring Peter Eisenman, wherein he rails against the use of modern software in architecture school, as it is a "cruel tool". anonitect argues "that after the shameful performance Petey gives in the crit I've linked below, the man has surrendered any authority to say anything about pedagogy ever again." Thayer-D agrees "100% with his polemic on technology" but thought the rest of the speech was B.S. especially regarding Humanism.

EKE believes "The evidence is that much of the architecture of the current avant garde is dominated by an empty formalism, nearly devoid of meaning.  Eisenman is offering a possible explanation for why this is so."

Finally, RickB-OR shared a nice reminder from Alexander Walter about community standards and guidance about the spirit behind our beloved forums

"We want the discussion forum and comment section on Archinect to be an environment where users can freely express themselves and debate issues related to the architectural profession, but we ask to do it in a respectful and professional manner that is beneficial to all participants."

While others, made reference to cyber bullying.
 

Additionally
Ramia Mazé, Anab Jain and others regarding "critical practices", alternatives and futures, and "the fringes of the design world".

h/t Bruce Sterling