Guy Horton, author of Contours, Archinect's featured series on the business, politics, and culture of architecture, gets real regarding our current economic situation. He states "discussions about the recession in the architecture field have been less than up-front and honest. Much of this is related to the need for firms to do internal damage-control while continuing to project a positive brand out into the marketplace. Media permeates every aspect of the business now...Very little about  the reality of the current economy makes it through the firewall."

News
Hungarian architect Imre Makovecz, died at age 75. As chicagoski commented “Makovecz showed that you don't need a computer to get away from the orthogonal”.

The world also lost Steve Jobs this week. Paul Petrunia, thinks the “The world is a little less interesting now” In response to which Gregory Walker, said “less interesting and less imaginary. ..and apple can leave the best legacy simply by continuing to dare to fail and resist the temptation to blindly copy the brilliant template he's left behind...” Discuss with other Archinector’s here.

We're excited to announce the launch of our new blogging platform. As many of you are aware, Archinect has been hosting hundreds of incredible school blogs, for the last many years, providing a unique insight into architecture programs around the world. The system we were using was basic and difficult to use, to say the least, so we undertook the project of completely overhauling this system, and opening up the blogging platform to all members of the A+D community to start and manage a blog that reflects each persons own distinct interests, skills and experience. The A+D blogging platform with a built-in audience. 

For tips and suggestions on how to use the new blogging platform make sure to check out The Archinect Blog Blog.

Glenn Small served as a jury member for the 2011 thesis reviews at SCi-Arc. eric chavkin pointed out the way “The software generated blobs are not far off from the (50'-60s science fiction graphics of Richard Powers) imaginary renderings of alien worlds.”

Orhan Ayyüce, alerts Archinect to the fact that recently LADOT “erected traffic signal in front of historically significant Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. No notification was ever sent to institutions, individuals and organizations in charge of the house which is open to public.” He asks that others please write to LADOT
if this bothers you. Janosh believes “That's so audacious that it's the perfect example of LADOT's total detachment from the world outside of traffic engineering.  Cars, after all, can't appreciate architecture.”

Schools/School Blogs
andreas viglakis at Harvard's GSD takes the opportunity of "the re-launch of the blogging platform to re-launch this space." After working for an office in Hong Kong for the summer he decided to keep on working and take some time off from GSD. Since most of the work stuff is confidential he plans on using the Archinect blog as a " clearinghouse for any thinking and work generated" as he continue to do research in preparation for his return to Harvard and the accompanied thesis.

Lian at Harvard's GSD takes us along with her on a site visit for her studio (led by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi). The site is near the "Bridge Towers that are built directly over the I-95 highway in northern Manhattan." She writes "So, now you see why our studio is called "Evolutionary Infrastructure - The New Mega Form"! Our task is to add housing for 1000 people to the site, plus whatever other program we deem appropriate. The idea is to propose a new piece of large-scale infrastructure that critiques and extends the existing structures as "unfinished utopias."

Archinect also welcomed some new school bloggers including: zmlka at Architectural Institute in Prague (ARCHIP), where we learn that This is ARCHIP's first year of operation, Jacob Kenney, a freshman 2+4 architecture student at Drexel University, who started the week of with some diagramming, and lawrence.lek. lawrence.lek just started in Cooper Union MArch II course, and begins with a repost of something he wrote for a class entitled 'Blogging Architecture' which he is taking, taught by Professor Lebbeus Woods.

Finally, we also welcomed aramixed who has just started a three year Master of Architecture program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona).

Work Updates/Firm Updates/Blogs
Check out the Suburban Tipi project by John Paananen. Originally installed at the Cranbrook Academy of Art's it is now be found  at Aguafina Gardens International in Sylvan Lake, Michigan.

Douglas Harding, recently uploaded a new project  to Archinect! - 'Two Tables' [2007]
The first table was constructed out of an old mahogany laboratory worktop (complete with chemical stains) and the second was cast out of concrete.

Lian Chikako-Chang, recently noted "...Finally, the truth comes out. http://publicintelligence.net/mcgill-university-school-of-architecture-2011-cyclical-academic-unit-review/#comment-12387" The report provides additional information on the recent departure of Michael Jemtrud, ex-Director of McGill University’s School.

jump of frontoffice tokyo shared some images of “preliminary design for a residential tower in tokyo put together with french architect, françois blanciak”.

anti aka Andrew Zientek who just completed "Two years at Harvard's GSD in the MLA II program" is making a run of hanging the "proverbial shingle out." His blog will be a series of "letters" from the field chronicling my missteps and successes.

fischerrandom started a blog about spatial politics. For his first post he writes about his experience in China and Tiananmen square. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s idea of space as  a materialization of "social being"'.

If you are looking for something to do in LA on October the 16th, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, posted an image of the Lovell Beach House (Schindler, 1926). This was done to highlight the upcoming MAK Center Fall Fundraiser 2011 when in conjunction with the exhibition Sympathetic Seeing: Esther McCoy and the Heart of American Modernist Architecture and Design, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture will open the Lovell Beach House (R.M. Schindler, 1926) in Newport Beach, for public tours on Sunday, October 16 as a fundraiser. For more info see

Discussion Threads
drawmore.flounces, after listening to a lecture by Rem Koolhaas is trying to “figure out what happened in architecture since the 70's”. Specifically, “Why don't architects look like this anymore”? calculator offers up the opinion that “This guy was only hired for government projects.  Thirty others exactly like him went out of business.” toasteroven counters “architects who do this sort of work still exist to a certain extent - except the US government doesn't usually directly fund large-scale housing projects anymore.  they're funded by incentives and subsidies, and built by developer” While jmanganelli thinks “this discussion reminds me a little of Lisa Findley's book, Building Change: Architecture, Politics and Cultural Agency.  you might like it very much. …”

randy1 is curious whether the recent appointment of Chief Justice Stephen G. Breyer to the panel that awards the Pritzker Prize means traditional work will be favored? Phillip Crosby, assures randy1 “I believe that Zaha Hadid was also just appointed, so I wouldn't be too concerned with it swinging into conservative territory. Plus, that's what the Driehaus Prize is for”

rusty!, made a nice catch regarding NYT’s “changing” coverage of the recent Brooklyn Bridge fiasco as part of the Occupy Wall Street protest.

c would like to know if bjarke's teaching  this fall or next spring semester stateside? Anybody know?

Additionally
Following in the footsteps of a growing number of cities around the world—including London, Melbourne, Barcelona, Dublin, Toronto, New York, and Denver—Chicago will launch its own Open House weekend October 15 and 16. Sponsored by the CAF, Open House Chicago offers architecture buffs the chance to see, free of charge, more than 100 sites, including many that are normally off-limits to the public. Fore more information visit. Originally discovered via Architectural Record