The newest ShowCase features Butaro Hospital in Rwanda designed by MASS Design Group. Besides the locally-sensitive design of the complex, the project is noteworthy for it's emphasis on social design through capacity-building. 

"Beyond providing access to first-rate healthcare facilities, the Butaro Hospital project was used as a way to spur grassroots business and development. Constructed with 100% local labor, 3,898 people were trained and hired to help excavate, construct, and manage the project."

News

New images of Jean Nouvel's Torre Verre were revealed. George Showman comments "It's frustrating they cut this thing down so it wouldn't offend the tourists on the Empire State viewing platform (well, I love that view too, but always wish there were more tall buildings to look at).  The new version is not nearly as beautiful, taken as a monolith, than the previous - the top feels too blunt.  I would love to know more about the zoning arguments behind this...Finally: can't believe there is still the money in high-end real estate to pay for this kind of ridiculous building."

Archinect is back online after one of it's longest downtime's (since I have been a member) 12 hours (!), earlier in the week. The cause was a result of a major power failure at the data center that Archinect's servers are located, in Dallas, TX.

The fabulous Archinect t-shirts are now back in stock again! Head over to our Archinect T-Shirts (& Stuff) store  and get your new favorite summer shirt!

Paul Petrunia noted that Zaha Hadid's website, received an extreme makeover. A much needed one at that! Her previous website was a commonly-used reference in the "architects have horrible websites" argument. The new one appears to be a huge improvement based on the few minutes Paul surfed around. Liebchen still thinks the website sucks, "Why do architects feel the ALWAYS have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to how people interact with their site?  I mean, floating boxes you have to move to see the picture?  Give me a break."

To the news that Apple will be updating their iconic Cube structure at their midtown Manhattan retail location to make use of new glass technology, holz.box queries "any chance for actual energy efficiency with their showcase cube improvements, or is it just prettier lipstick on a pig?"

Schools/School Blogs
Matthew at University of Illinois-Chicago discusses about StudioBerlin, which is a workshop based in Berlin in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Universität der Künste Berlin. The group of students from both schools will be designing and constructing a temporary pavilion at one of Berlin's most historic places, Tempelhof Airfield. Matthew introduces the group and also shares some Insights from the StudioBerlin about their inspirations for the architectural installation at Tempelhof in Berlin.

Samuel at University of Tennessee has written a post about the installation of energy monitoring equipment at the New Norris House with the help of some folks from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He also outlines the goals of their Phase IV (post-occupancy?) quantitative evaluation efforts.

Firms/Work Updates
Pablo Costa, posted a series of images of the Cidade da Cultura de Galicia in Spain and Mark Silva, is working on a mid-century reinvention.

Andrew Dwight, recently worked on a home built from recycled railway sleepers, recycled glass and that has a golf driving range on the roof. While Dawit Rezene,  recently said "Ain't that something".

Discussion Threads
rusty! asks "WTF is this shit?...So what's up with that rendering above? Architect's have a superhuman ability to lie to themselves as circumstances demand." FRaC thinks "that 'shit' is ellsworth toohey at work (hor-yay fountainhead !!)" and Donna Sink believes "The building proposed by that rendering is indeed a piece of crap. It's laughably, painfully bad. (What's the source, rusty? What enemy have I just made online?)"

germX has a question about architectural photos and copyright. He states "I've been fortunate enough to have some pretty good SITES VISITS from time to time. However, I'm curious about posting the photos of those site visits online in a BLOG or DISCUSSION GROUP." RickB-OR answers that "If the building is readibly available of view from the street then there is virtually no copyright protection to the building. Also, the copyrights under the "Architectural Works" provisions of the copyright law vs. the "pictorial works" would not apply to most buildings built before 1987 (I think it is 1987 but it was definately between 1987-1990.) In general, anyone can photograph a house from a public right-of-way." RickB-OR also posted a bunch of links and excerpts about copyright and fair use.

VanillaBrice is considering a trip to Zanzibar over New Years and is looking for suggestions on must see architecture?

Archinectors discuss the UK riots.  F.T.B. admits he doesn't have the answers but suggests "that it be given some thought from a few perspectives other than revenge and discipline which seems to be the consensus within the media and leadership" FRaC argues that "the youth just want democracy and a fair, level playing field. they have been exploited and unfairly treated for far to long and now the older oppressors have to accept the situation they created. if we can just equally distribute the wealth everyone would get along and live happy productive progressive lives." However, justavisual states "blame the cuts if you want, but theres another side of the story...and honestly, all these "unemployed young people" dont do anything to improve their neighborhoods anyway. They take things for granted, and now have gone and taken it to the next level, actually destroying the places they live and the businesses of their neighbors. Read into it as much as you want, but intellectualizing this is only post rationalization." 

For those looking to help in some way, I would suggest checking out the group

Riot Rebuild: Pots Riot Urban Interventions.They describe themselves; "as Guerrilla Gardening for the urban environment. If you are a handyman, architect, construction company or in any way qualified to help, let us know whatever you can spare whether it is informal advice on planning or construction, materials or labour."

Finally, go do it, wants to talk about how BART asked Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile to suspend service last night in four downtown San Francisco stations, to prevent a protest over the shooting death of Charles Blair Hill to occur. Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile complied, and the suspension of cell service prevented protesters from organizing and the protest failed to materialize as conceived. rusty! responds "A protest failed becuase cell phones were jammed. Fuck. That's all it takes these days."

Additionally
The U of Michigan is seeking to start a "Detroit School" of urban studies: "As part of a cluster hire of up to four faculty, designed to create a "Detroit School" of urban studies, we are interested in candidates with research and teaching interests that focus on how structures of inequality in declining urban environments, such as Detroit, bear upon patterns of crime and law enforcement and how policy responses – drug laws, no-tolerance enforcement, sentencing guidelines – and the practice of mass incarceration that has resulted affect individuals, families, and communities." Via javierest