Sherin Wing, brought the research for the newest installment of the COUNTOURS feature, wherein she looks at New, Energy-Efficient Technologies, in which she explores passive technologies such as the solar shading CRATE system,  developed by a team consisting of Professor Ryan E. Smith, graduate students, and researchers from 3form.
Since it is titled Part 1, I look forward with interest for the rest of the installments.

However, Archinect member applet sounded offended by Sherin’s focus on passive technologies writing "The information you are writing is so main stream and only shows you are just discovering things known to first year architecture and design students. Just don't lecture architects about them". Yet, as Amy Leedham, correctly pointed out "Architects may have been employing passive strategies for 'thousands' of years but clearly many forgot most of these lessons since the invention of electricity as evidenced by the numerous glass boxes designed for the desert by some of worlds 'leading' practices. While the passive strategies here sound obvious and simple, most people are not using them, hence the need to remind people."

For Archinect’s latest Showcase: Shou Sugi Ban Maarn we feature the work of BYTR Architects. The project is a modern wood-clad, extension to a main house from the 1950s. I personally enjoyed the fact that the new building is fairly reserved when viewed from the street but has a more expressive image from within the backyard-garden. The project made heavy use of prefabrication and offsite construction and BYTR Architects shared lots of images of the construction phase.

News
The Chinese building company, Broad Group, successfully attempted another impossible feat, building a 30-story tall hotel prototype in 360 hours. mufthy queries "I'm guessing this means 10 days for on-site construction ... anyone know how long all the pre-fab process took ? anyway its still a milestone".

In response to a New Scientists article on PCMs, Emily Kemper commented "Phase change materials are sweet".

This week Scotland-based architectural firm RMJM’s office in Dubai said that it received planning approval for Metropol Istanbul, a vast 500,000 square meter project, which includes three towers, a 30,000 square meter public shopping mall, offices and luxury apartments. Orhan Ayyüce really dislikes the project and explained "good thing this particular one is outside of city's dreamy silhouette. there are tons of projects of this nature going on in istanbul as we speak. i addressed the problems they deliver in an article that roughly translates as 'master plan worlds' a lot of large corporate firms are having a field day there."

The Gehry Residence in Santa Monica, CA is the winner of the 2012 AIA Twenty-five Year Award. Eric Chavkin, reminisced that he was "a student at SCI-Arc when this was built. I worked for another SCI-Arc student Itzak who built the cabs. I remember staying up all night priming the white cabinets that are hung beneath the windows in the interior photo above. We had to install these quickly as there was a photo shoot, I think Domus, later in the day. What i remember best is the interior light quality. Later on I borrowed, er stolen, at least a half dozen ideas from this house. This is a truly original work". 

Lackey thinks that "This is designed like an ID product, tons of birds eye views and only 2 shots of the interior.  If this guy really wants to keep dabbling in architecture he needs to figure out that architecture needs to be designed for the dweller on the inside, not just an exterior form". The “this” and “this guy” Lackey is referring to is The Black Hole Research Center by artists and designer Michael Jantzen.

Schools/School Blogs

Joe DeBenny, at the University of Arizona, opened his post Postmodern Sympathy with the following passage "the brazen assertion that representation is crime comes with some doubts. When I start to think I know something, I check myself. Fanatic allegiance to any idea is a stiff refusal to consider alternative interpretation and the first sign of a stagnant mind." The impetus for the post was a recent lecture by architect Will Bruder.

Farid Rakun has volunteered to design/build a TV cart for his studio at Cranbook Academy of Art.

Work Updates/Firm Updates/Blogs
Javier Arbona noted a Dec. 28 article in the LAWeekly that discusses plans to close Los Angeles restaurant/institution Angeli Caffe. Angeli was a very early Morphosis project, from when Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi were partners.

Evan Chakroff, reviewed Shenzhen China’s "Miracle City". Ultimately, Evan concluded that "Shenzhen, is more interesting as an idea and an economic model than as a built environment, though the potential to reshape the city is clearly demonstrated in smart new projects by young local architects".

Nicole Fichera, started a conversation about the the psychological impact of labeling: 'architect' vs 'designer'. o d b for his part doesn’t see what the big deal is. He argued "if you want to call yourself an architect at a cocktail party, go ahead, no one is going to sue you for that.  for layman it's the easiest way to convey what you do every day.  as long as you don't advertise yourself as an architect, use it to get work, or create a fake stamp i don't see a problem with it...for me the problem isn't people like us calling ourselves architects in those types of settings but protecting our profession, and the public welfare, against joe schmo who has never studied architecture or worked in architecture from claiming to be an architect".

Meanwhile Tenzin Phuntsok, posted images of Elliot Earls Artist Studio, which he and a friend Drew Mananhan won a departmental competition to design and build during Tenzin's second year studying architecture at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Also, AR Design Studio, from Winchester Great Britain shared images of The Boathouse, a contemporary, 4-legged steel frame structure sitting on concrete piles sunk into the lake, they completed in the Costswolds.

Discussion Threads
Scott Gustafon, puts the word out that Architecture For Humanity’s Los Angeles Chapter is having their first 2012 meeting January 24th, 7pm at Westside Tavern.

Samuel Mortimer is about to archive his old school blog and wanted to know "if there is an easy way to still publicly access these once they are archived?" so he can save a copy for his records. Archinect replied "When you archive your blog, it just indicates that the blog is no longer active, and shows the date span that it was active. You can still find it and access it online. You can even un-archive it later if you want".

H3ndrik wants to do an internship in the Twin Cities area and is wondering "if anyone could recommend some firms that are doing good work recently or seen as 'up and coming', other than the obvious ones like VJAA, Julie Snow, MSR, etc". brorstein suggested Shelter, Alchemy, CITYDESKSTUDIO, Houminn (mostly academic, they teach full-time) and Locus.

Gregory Walker, started a thread to discuss a quote attributed to Bruce Mau, wherein he tells students at Harvard’s GSD, who express concerns regarding scaling up and being corporatist to "Stop the complaining—and join the revolution of possibility".

 b3tadine[sutures] agreed writing that as "far as I'm concerned, Bruce is spot on.", whereas NOT rusty opined "Isn't complaining about complaining still technically complaining?" and went on to contend "These are big words from a frigging branding consultant operating in a city that hasn't had a recession (yet). Enjoy the corporate dollars while they are still flung about Bruce. Once (illusion of) wealth is gone for you too, and you go back to designing kitchens while clinging on to a thread of relevancy, we don't want to hear it either." Finally, Will Galloway cautioned "scalability is cool idea and i agree with the need (it is something we are dealing with as we try to deal with the disaster in japan and its a real problem with no good answer that i can see so far) - let's be honest though, scalable architecture is levittown not high-brow....unless he is advocating for some kind of clever mass customization sort of thing?...my sense is the student complained because s/he is smart enough to see that scaling solutions usually needs compromise (with exception of steve jobs) and the compromise is problematic particularly when it is made over with corporate handling".