Evan Chakroff writes about the work of the recent Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu suggesting the selection continues a trend in which "the Pritzker Committee has gravitated towards architects who produce work with an innate understanding of place, allowing their ties to local culture to infuse their work" in the essay Amateur Architecture: A New Vernacular?

News
In advance of the World Cup and Olympic Games authorities in Rio de Janeiro are clearing people from their homes in Vila Autódromo and other favelas, preparing the areas for redevelopment. Will Galloway believed "it would be cool if they followed the lead of medellin instead.  i have not heard any complaints about what was done there.  anyone know if there was a downside?"

Viennese architectural firm Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH won the First Prize in an international competition that seeks to overhaul the campus of the Angewandte, a group of buildings that house the University of Applied Arts, as well as the Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. johnszot commented "fucking hot, that".

A photo essay sample of what one might see on the Portland streetcar between the South and Northwest Portland lead Abraham Rodriguez to write "Great pics, and major kuddos to them for highlighting El Cubo de Cuba, my favorite food cart!"

First place in the 2012 Housing Tomorrow competition went to the proposal 'Woolopolis' by Hannes Frykholm and Henry Stephens (Sweden/New Zealand). royc found it "Interesting that this story and Habitat 67 popped up next to each other on the front page. That's all I'm going to say about that."

Schools/School Blogs
Lian Chikako Chang at Harvard GSD let us know that the "the current hype about GPS-based social networking apps" makes her uneasy. She explained "My concern is the art of being a flâneur, of walking in the city simply to see and be seen, will be lost. That the risks and subtleties of flirting with strangers will be transformed into something more transactional: a search for potential friends or romantic partners who meet our stated requirements. Or that we'll start to bypass the simple pleasures of getting to know people in our neighborhood according to the rhythms of daily life."

Kimberly V.K.H. Nguyen at Columbia University's GSAPP spent last weekend in FabLab (aka woodshop) making a prototype for a metal lamp.

Jia Gu hyped us to a new project of his, LA REDUX which is a three-year collectively-mapped investigation into Los Angeles. It began with a 7 hour walking tour of a 9 mile cross section of the city starting near W. 6th Street and San Vicente to where it terminates at the Los Angeles River.

Work Updates/Firm Updates/Blogs
Jongmin Kim, recently worked on the Save the Castle Coalition, Staten Island, NY and Carroll Street MTA Plaza by Future Green Studio in Brooklyn  is set to become a new iconic corner mediating between a historic Brooklyn neighborhood and the industrial nature of Gowanus.

Discussion Threads
geemerk needed help finding a project "a garage door (i believe) that does something similar to this chair" a flatpack wood folding chair by Robert van Embricqs. usernametaken posted an image of Calatrava’s  Ernstings Warehouse to which Phillip Crosby replied "yep... that one... i knocked that of way back in my 3rd year design studio!"

Peter Trio is serving as Community Outreach Chair for the Emerging Green Builders at UWM, where he is working along with other students in coming up with schematic designs and helping spread the word regarding a new Food Village as part of Milwaukee's Urban Agriculture revolution. He queried "Does anyone know of any precedents, or resources that may help this project catch ground?"

hans.viljoen wanted to talk about incidences of Lacan appropriated to architecture. Steven Ward cheekily questioned "could he help me figure out this one tricky flashing condition?" Meanwhile Orhan Ayyüce more to the point posted that "Dan Graham, though not an architect but an artist who works closely with architecture, sometime references to Lacan's 'mirror stage' in his installations. I think it is the split second reflection of the object, buildings etc.., that creates impressions on the self and its development. Really interesting stuff."

Finally, Donna Sink announced Paul Rudolph threatened with demolition: when I see #&*! like this I just want to give up. Alerting us to the fact that Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center awaits it’s fate. DAS99 countered "Don't get me wrong the building is a beautiful, sculptural piece. I like it, always have.  But is doesn't perform it's function well and never has". While trace™ criticized the proposed replacement "I get that buildings have to work, but my God, could they propose anything more banal??".

Additionally
Christian Dimmer an urbanist and partner at frontoffice Tokyo recently write a Letter from Tokyo. In which he question whether one year on from the March 11 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami "Is it possible for post-traumatic Japan to overcome institutionalised problems with infrastructure and architecture in order to become more ‘resilient’?"