In the second part of the CONTOURS: Whither Goest Thou, Green Economy: feature, Sherin Wing looks at the how the R-word index and the drag that the so-called PIIGS is having on the economy, are impacting the greening of the economy. Her essay attempts to put aside overblown rhetoric about 'New Sustainability Champions', and looks to a recent joint report by the World Economic Forum and the Boston Consulting Group. The report she argues "highlights sixteen companies in developing nations that deploy environmentally-conscientious business practices which, incidentally, have ensured their economic success. So, the green economy seems to be emerging in the developing world more significantly than in the developed world. Much of this is out of market necessity."

holz.box offers up his own take on the trajectory of the green economy "passivhaus retrofits: green jobs (planning, construction), significantly reduced energy bills (up to 95% reduction, owners keeps money in the country instead of OPEC/significant reduction on taxpayers to power buildings in the u.s. - sum of which costs more than medicare), significantly reduced CO2 emissions.and this could be done now, not 30 years from now."

News

Jonathan Glancey recently opined that Gaudí's unfinished Sagrada Família does not need a completion date because worthwhile architecture, whether a home or a cathedral, has its seasons. There is no ultimate need to hurry its making. To which Medit responded "The bigger it gets, the kitschier it becomes. This is not Gaudí what they are building right now, this is another architect's work (or group of architects). But it's —this concatenation of different architects— what Gaudí wanted for the project, so..."

In a recent Washington Post article architect Roger K Lewis wrote about a recent article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology which examined how commercial architecture’s similarity across nation provides mobile Americans with a sense of stability. Donna Sink, thinks it has less to do with with concepts like "familiarity-seeking" and more to do with the profit motives of developers. Therefore, she suggests "if consumer-Americans want to see individuality etc. in their commercial architecture, they need to not shop/eat/live in places that don't have those values." KASAI seems to agree writing "We as a "American" society have completely abdicated our responsibilities...If you don't like the way our cities look, then go to zoning boards and speak your mind. As an architect/student (hell, as a citizen) stand up."

Archinect is days away from launching our new blogging platform, and we're looking for a few motivated individuals to get started now. If you're an architecture student that wants to represent your school with a school blog, we want to hear from you. But our new blogging platform will no longer be limited to student blogs. If you want to get started now, and test out the new platform before it's publicly launched, send an email to connect@archinect.com, with the subject "I want to blog".

Although barry lehrman is happy that architect Jeanne Gang was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" he was "also struck by the fact that NO landscape architects, urban planners, urban designers, or structural engineers have gotten noticed by the Foundation." For his part Steven Ward is just glad because "she seems like just the kind of person (w/ her office) that will use this as a jumping-off point for greater things instead of just an signal of things already achieved."

For the 16th installment of Christopher Hawthorne's Reading LA series Hawthorne explored the giant, complex legacy of the Case Study program by reading "Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses" eric chavkin reminds us that while he likes the look to "lets face it. Case Study, mid-century, style is just another 'lifestyle choice' as the mags point out...The case study STYLE too me is a too cool aesthetic, more like a fetish world, and works best as a stage-set for sexual fantasies or high-end porn."

Schools/School Blogs
Lian at GSD encouraged attendance at the Weiss/Manfredi studio at the BMW Guggenheim Lab held this past Friday, September 23. The workshop-lab session is an extension of their studio (which she is in) at the GSD this semester and will be based around "an analysis of selected inhabitable infrastructure proposals conceived between 1925 and 1969 and selected realized precedents constructed between 1915 and 2010" all of which is really a way to examine the "challenges and potential of inhabitable infrastructure in urban territories".

Zhao at University of Tokyo makes up for his recent absence with two posts in a week.
The first reviews a recent talk by Rem Koolhaas on the legacy of the Metabolist (did you know Koolhaas and Han Ulrich Obrist have a book out soon on this topic entitled Project Japan: An Oral History Of Metabolism) and lists some "obvious" questions Zhao had after attending the lecture. They include: "what did "The Metabolists" exactly do to re-build/re-new/re-development of japan cities in history?what will it do for now?what's the role of it in japan mega cities's development?is metabolism the same term as 1960s?in 21st century,with driving forces like computational space/material computation;can metabolism be extended?does rem consider his new book as a summury or historical book for metabolism?" Zhao actually asked these of Koolhaas after the lecture and promises recordings of the answer(s) in the near future.

The second provides a view from on the ground during Tokyo's 9/19 anti-nuclear parade. Zhao reports that "tens of thousands of people in tokyo gathered at meji park right behind Kenzo Tange's olympic stadium"

Work Updates/Firm
Clint Langevin, recently "finished a model for 3rd Uncle Design Inc." while Anders Sletbak recently worked on a model of a power plant in NYC.

David Reilly, posted photos of a completed small, 400 square foot space photography studio. Also, check out Liz Desmond's, of the Camp Crystal Lake Rinse-House. The project was a design build team project completed by a core group consisting of Liz, four additional students, and their professor.

Discussion Threads

theids relays a line from a conversation he heard on the train yesterday, "The architect already finished his work, why should we pay him?" However, although anger was the first reaction theids wants to go beyond that posting "we must look deeper and find the root of the problem or it will keep getting worse."

Responding to an earlier comment by Miles Jaffe, trace™ writes "the value system 'is largely sociopathic', yeah, that sounds about right. It is a mentality. Some people just will do whatever to get whatever they can" Yet Erin Williams, argues "I would say that all of the design fields suffer from this. I used to do architecture, and am now a graphic designer at an industrial design firm, and I can tell you that I've seen clients undervalue and undercut design services in all three of those fields. The issues that I've seen clients stumble over mostly boil down to transparency."

PS-FP-PHL is looking for "ideas or suggestions for manufacturers or fabricators that have storefront offerings similar to the attached image." lmanske says "We are all aware that the picture shows steel windows, right? You wont get that kind of beauty (and strength) out of aluminum storefront. The mullions are finished to a point in order to allow for the wind load on such a large expanse. Without it, the windows would have blown in years ago."

mogwai is "teaching a second year design studio - the project is a surf club on the beach (California). I'm looking for some case studies - such as community centers or buildings that have an interesting relationship to water." calculator offers up Iceberg's in Bondi Beach which although it isn't "really a community center...has a really interesting sea fed pool literally adjacent to the water."

dassouki wonders "Are elevators to the outside of the building with windows considered cliche or kitsch?" tagalong thinks "only if you detail them in brass..." Meanwhile, citizen and Ryan002 get into a discussion regarding the relative merits of open and glass elevators in terms of security versus those with acrophobia.

Finally, yulo is looking for information on the Master's Int'l Coop. Sustainable Emergency Arch offered through ESARQ in Spain. Anybody attended or know more?

Additionally
Quilian Riano talked to Chris Reed in an interview on Landscape Optimism. The discussion focused on the evolution of StossLU aka Stoss Landscape Urbanism design ideas. In the quote below Chris Reed explains what makes StossLU's  Streamlines proposal and other recent works, true projects of landscape urbanism, "The goal here is to render landscape — and large-scale landscape processes like ecological succession and adaptation — as a new type of infrastructure and a new framework for retrofitted and diversified urban neighborhoods."