In the latest installment of Archinect’s Contours feature EDD DE 1101 I - Part 2, Guy Horton claims "Unemployment is one of the worst things that can happen to you in a society that places so much emphasis on career and financial advancement. The unemployed are so stigmatized in our culture of work that companies don’t want to hire them. The blame is automatically shifted onto the individual rather than on the blatant failures of our deregulated economic system and intrinsically-bought political structures. Deep down, many people are too threatened by this scenario." But polymathic asks "Couldn't you have just written 'unemployment is uncomfortable' instead of all that??

The part about the notebooks insects and blood made me a little nauseated. That big long run-on sentence paragraph about not being able to pay bills gave me an odd sense of vertigo and I think that it should be tightened up a good bit....Otherwise I ignore the content of your piece, whatever you went through isn't fucking important."

News
Thomas Fisher dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, reviewed the state of architectural criticism. He argued that argue that aspiring critics "can take at least three lessons from Chuck Close's nervy reinvention of portraiture" and apply to architectural criticism. toasteroven contended "criticism has been weakened by cultural fragmentation.  there is no longer a small cadre of individuals who hold cultural authority for us to either follow or challenge.  we're all critics."

Speaking at the V&A last week, Farshid Moussavi, the former Foreign Office Architects partner said that she was "dubious" about volunteers who see working in these places as an "easy option". arkhive believes "Cynicism aside - her commentary that it is tougher to be an activist in America is pretty insightful. It highlights the need for initiatives that allow people to volunteer in the wide swathes of the USA that are geographically and/or culturally part of the "Other 90%" of the world. And I hope that's what she meant." while archinet agrees with Quilian "that some of  the questions that need to be raised are: How can this type of work not be patronizing? Should the west be involved? To what extent? I mean having some students and profs. from Ivy League schools getting published because they are doing work in the most poorest nations will inevitably look patronizing." Quiilian wraps up the discussion with the following "by All I am saying is that the conditions in these areas are very complex and ever changing. Small tactical projects are important, but the work in Medellin's comunas also point towards large-scale (yet sensitive) solutions. There is probably not a silver bullet to tackle this work. As a matter of fact, I wonder if the hyper-localism that some 'social' practitioners argue for is a bad idea and can stunt a community's natural flow."

"Boxpark”, London's latest retail park lays claim to be the world's first ever "pop-up" shopping mall. Yet Benms questioned "Call me cynical, but this just really isn't what the architects are claiming- for starters, shipping containers are used all over the world for shops and temporary markets. They have also consistently been used as temporary shops, and even in London, the rather crumby and less glamorous Elephant and Castle market is made of shipping containers- so I really don't see what is new here. In fact the level of ingenuity used by most shopkeepers in traditionally temporary shops from containers is usually far more interesting than here, where as the picture shows,"

The Royal Institute of British Architects named internationally acclaimed Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger as the recipient of the 2012 Royal Gold Medal. Aaron Lim griped "@Orhan, I completely agree. A lifetime's work of innovative social ideas remains largely unrecognized by the architectural establishment today: his work remains fresh after all these years."

Schools/School Blogs
Dewey Thorbeck, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Founder and Director of the Center for Rural Design at the University of Minnesota, and leading expert in the field, is the author of Rural Design: A New Design Discipline - set to hit bookshelves worldwide in January. Thorbeck's book is the first step along the path for rural design to emerge as an important new design discipline.

Stephanie at the Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole informed us that she "started a job on Sunday (yep... Sunday) and have two more offers to think about over the holidays"  and Lian at Harvard’s GSD announced that she has "one week left before our final review".

Ayax Abreu made his "first post of 'Der Architectural Amanuensis'. A blog entitled to document, through personal impressions, the line of research, theory, experiments, and lectures currently happening at the Städelschule Architecture Class".

Work Updates/Firm Updates/Blogs

Kaori Walter, alerted us to the fact that “The starbucks designed by Kengo Kuma will be opening on December 16, 2011 in Fukuoka, Japan." holz.box commented "going back to their roots? weren't the first starbucks designed by seattle architect george suyama? glad to see them rethinking the horrid banality they spewed all over the world".

Discussion Threads

piero1910 wonders "Why doesn't Frank Gehry show his projects on his website?", Miles Jaffe, suggested "Because the drawing looks a whole lot better than any of his work.”
While magentasky thinks it is because "Gehry probably just doesn't care about putting them on his website since he gets enough publicity on his projects as it is."

TimR, asked "Can anyone suggest good tools for model making?...Cutting through thick chipboard can be quite the exercise and think there has got to be a better way!" jmanganelli opined that "for hand cutting chipboard i always use an old-fashioned fixed-blade utility knife, as they are very, very sturdy and the blade never slips or breaks under any normal usage.  invest in a good cork-backed ruler from Fairgate.  Get a nice, large cutting mat from Alvin -- one of the thicker ones.  Also, for quick and dirty models, nothing is faster than hot glue."

Heather Ring, is looking for help. She "was wondering if anyone could tell me more about what's happening in Danish design at the moment?" and would "love to know of interesting architecture, landscape architecture and art practices happening in Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark." Dustin Brugmann is happy to elaborate on those topics and starts by noting that "The most important fact to know however is that all reaches of design are integrated SO well in Copenhagen and throughout the countryside...they have been for generations. ..nfrastructure is key in Denmark and a lot of public money goes into it. Look at some of the work by ADEPT...Skaal!"

Finally, Rusty Long, started  a thread to talk about Architecture as Art. He went on to state "if our dialog, as a profession, continues to be dominated by a combination of starchitecture coverage and Architecture-as-Artwork, how can we ever hope to close the knowledge gap and educate the general public about what it is that 'the rest of us' do?" Emilio offered up the following "Why this either/or thinking at Archinect and with architects in general?  Like emart above, we love to separate...Any art has practical considerations, functional real world problems to be solved in its creation (how does the sculpture stand up, what support or medium to use, where and how and with what equipment to shoot the film, etc.). Architecture has more than most because it is also lived in by human beings, but this is not an either/or situation (something is either functional or art), rather both/and: many things created by humans can be both functional objects and art "

While Kevin Wagner wrote "Architecture can be whatever you want it to be. There are as many answers as there are questions, all right, all wrong, depends on who is asking and answering. You can change the world, or you can sit in the back and do toilet elevations...theres a place for everyone."