For Archinect’s latest In Focus feature we talked to Australian photo artist Ward Roberts.
He noted that a lot of his own work "is photographed in Hong Kong as the colors and repletion in architecture has always fascinated me."

Also, Sherin Wing dissected the reasons why there are fewer women in upper management or boardroom positions for our latest CONTOURS feature The Gender Gap in Top Management. Sherin then provides some examples—good and bad—from three management areas (managing personnel, communication and managing projects) "of leadership qualities potential leaders exhibit and how these qualities are nurtured and supported within a firm."

News
Tim Maly reviewed Google Engineering's new London offices designed by PENSON., which he finds to be a "giddy exercise in science fiction set decoration". Eric Chavkin, commented "File under Architecture and Film The  Kubrick set design allusion is to his long time collaborator Ken Adams (Dr. Strangelove, etc)...Adams declined to work on 2001but his influence here is clear. The interior design references watered down NASA enlivened with 60's disco sci-fi camp. This has all the warmth of a sperm-donor  clinic."

In response to the news that IKEA has proposed building a complete neighborhood in East London, rascal2q quipped "it looks like harlem's castles. please tell me it'll be jane jacobs-friendly..."

Gene Summers, Modernist, architect of McCormick Place, and Mies' lieutenant for the Seagrams Building has died. William Huchting, remembered "The last time I saw him was when he and Phyllis Lambert were sitting in the window at the W in San Francisco eating lunch. One of the great things he did at IIT was introduce students to Jim Dine and the publisher of Arion Press, Andrew Hoyem. Hoyem showed us photos of the Desert de Retz outside of Paris. I was hooked. Jim Dine put one of his Venus de Milo statues that fit surprisingly well into the Campus and make you realize how comfortable Mies was with Schinkle."

Schools/School Blogs
Will Galloway, at Keio University put out a call for volunteers in Japan "for people to help put together a community centre in Minami-san-riku".

Kurt Neiswender, talked about the difference between The Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Action and Resource Guide’s (SC2019) - a "rallying document" and  the Citywide 2020-a city adopted plan. He writes "Taking the position that vacant land is an asset and not a detrimental aspect of the city inspires me to take it one step further and use GIS analysis to develop a conceptual city plan that identifies the vacant land and re-purpose it to catalyze a “closed loop” sustainable design#."

Work Updates/Firm Updates/Blogs

toasteroven, has started a log which will be "dedicated to all things urbane, urban, and erudite - not necessarily always about architecture, but skirting around and within the subject in order to perhaps gain some insight into the current state of the field.  Oh - and there will be some urban farming stuff too."

Over the past two weeks, Evan Chakroff helped lead a tour of Ohio State University architecture students and alumni on a tour up the East China coast, from Hong Kong, to Shanghai, and inland to Beijing. So the next few posts on his blog will be based on his brief impressions of the cities visited. First up Hong Kong the City of Malls. He writes "Where malls in the US (and mainland China, and elsewhere) can be viewed as discrete objects with secure perimeters and clear design intent, Hong Kong’s malls are porous and interconnected. In Hong Kong, the semi-public space of 'the mall' forms a major component of the primary pedestrian circulation of the city."

Also check out the work of ISSHO
an architectural design office based in Tokyo, which has just posted images of a coupkle of their projects including: YUFUTOKU a mixed use building part ‘soba’ noodle shop with the owner’s residence situated above and KMM3 Apartment a 9 unit apartment building in Tokyo.

Discussion Threads
A comment by ja1990’s studio-mate led him to question Deconstructivism: What comes next? trace™ answered "You are a decade or two late to the party" and oe clarifies "I think he's saying deconstructivism has been dead for a long time. I disagree, and tend to think its just evolved into a more baroque form, but Im in the minority on that I think. The obvious problem is the obsession with an aesthetic that leaves very little room for anything else." While FRaC concluded "hadid was decon back in the day but when blobs bloomed she morphed into deconblobivism".

Miles Jaffe, wants to talk about BNKR Arquitectura’s recently proposed underground “earthscraper”. pale shelter offered a critique "if by underground they mean taking it (sustainable design) 'to the grave' aka f^ck it! - then yeah! heck yeah! i think the concept of sustainability is understood by 1% of the educated public... natural ventilation, really? natural daylighting, you really think so? (no chance here)  - i thought these were sustainable precepts - i must be wrong, perhaps a droid designed this with some algorithmic idea of what sustainable design embodies". For his part Barry Lehrman, agreed, posting "underground buildings were the latest thinking back in the 1970s, but after a few attempts at subterranean living and working the idea was buried as a bad idea. so why are folks bothering to resurrect something better left for dead? what a waste of time and talent.  underground ain't sustainable or a good place to be".

Taking a clue from Archinect’s Thread Central Brian Henry, has started Theory Central and Henry Miller questions "What have I done to destroy this thread's momentum?"

Finally, danielmunteanu is asking for feedback regarding how to define "an ideal architecture competition?"

Additionally
Over at Design Observer David Stairs reviewed the Design with the Other 90%: Cities exhibit at the U.N with his 12 year old son in tow. The exhibition led him to reflect that "Our relevance as western designers and design critics will ultimately be determined by the kind of prepositions we choose to employ as the world's economic system restructures: forget about 'for'; 'with' is a good one; 'by' even better."