Archinect (including Orhan, Alex, Kaori and Paul) had the opportunity to speak with Tadao Ando during Ando's brief visit to Los Angeles to collect his 2012 Richard Neutra Award. Check out the Interview: 20 Minutes with a Master. I especially liked the final exchange wherein Ando revealed "As we all know, you can't make architecture by yourself. An architect needs to make everyone take ownership for the work. To be successful, you need to ensure that every carpenter, plumber, and so on, in every project, is doing their own project. Every time I go to the construction site, I try to take a photograph of every worker. It's a symbol that we're all working together with a shared goal. It's very important for me that everyone feels that way"  b3tadine[sutures] was so inspired that he posted three times and archaalto wrote "I sometimes imagine that millions of years from now when another intelligent species excavates the earth they find the ruins of Louis Kahn's and Tadao Ando's buildings,  and maybe they'll think we had some grace and weren't just accidents waiting to happen..

In the News feed this was followed by an interview between Lebbeus Woods and Thom Mayne. Billed as a "Candid Conversation" some commentators thought differently, witness the "Please." from aldorossi and snookers' "party line rhetoric".

To complete a trifecta, an interview with Rem Koolhaas can be found in the Journal of International Affairs spring/summer 2012 issue in an issue titled The Future of the City.
Koolhaas there suggested "cities in the West are so morose. We...have nothing to change, at least not in the way that other parts of the world will change. In these places — particularly in the Middle East and Africa — real change is happening now."  toasteroven though disagreed "there are major changes afoot in infrastructure in western urban areas -  they are becoming less auto-centric and more culturally localized and compact - these places he's talking about in the east are more like western cities in the 20th century who were looking to "modernize" their infrastructure...Things are changing."

Last week the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) called for Congress to pass legislation that includes architecture school graduates in the same programs that offer other graduates loan debt assistance if they donate their services to their communities and elsewhere. Some commenter's noticed the use of term "Young Architects" not  "Interns" yet hoped it was  a simple communication error. To which HandsumCa$hMoneyYo laughed "There is no way that the powerful stakeholders are going to let unlicensed architects engage in public service pro bono work. Young architects means exactly what it says, young architects. For all you interns, you hopes will be crushed, yo!"

Reacting to EE&K and UN Studio’s proposal for Los Angeles Union Station, Rusty Shackleford opined "Architecture designed to be primarily seen from outer space. The interior shot makes very little sense. Vision for 2050 as a cartoon video game. Future peoples rejoice!" Barry Lehrman helpfully pointed out LA Times critic Christopher Hawthorne’s earlier article arguing that the MTA  is facing an identity crisis over its relationship to architecture and urban design.

Work/Firms/Blogs
Danielle Choi just got back from Panama. Where the technologically sublime experience of seeing ships transit through the Panama Canal  blew his f....g mind. Eric Chavkin related "Quartmare de Quincy's quote God is great because he can create huge mountains, vast deserts, deep Grand Canyons sort of thing...man is great too because he can build large structures. I suppose Hoover Dam and the Panama Canal fit that description. Giant machines, huge spaces too."

Jimmy Stamp let us know that he would be "speaking about the architecture of bank heists and prison breaks on a panel at Studio-X in New York City"  on April 30th.

Cairo2seattle proposed starting a social network for [buildings] and Liebchen pointed out  "This kind of exists: http://www.honestbuildings.com/". Yet Cairo2seattle replied "thanks for your comment i have checked the link you posted. and this wasn't what i was talking about as from what i saw on this website honestbuildings.com its just an real estate listing with a share/tweet button the buildings it self dont have the kind of interaction that i was talking about".

Meanwhile Kristell Andrea Perez Fu recently worked on a project in "San Juan de Marcona, Nazca, Peru".

Schools/School Blogs

An NYIT Student Led Design/Build Initiative for a brand new Recycling Center in Nosara, Costa Rica started a new blog and invited those in the area to attend a special presentation, premiere film screening and reception about the ongoing design-build initiative, to be held Thursday May 3rd at the NYIT Auditorium. To find out more about the project or donate money to the cause via Kickstarter.

Chris DeHenzel a 2011-2012 John K. Branner Fellowship,  recipient and UCLA school blogger analyzed Mexico City’s Central de Abastos as a strikingly contemporary work of public infrastructure.

bjd80 shared some sketches done while abroad with Washington University St Louis in Helsinki and the Baltic region. Comparing sketching on site to taking really good pictures. bjd80 concluded "Perhaps sketching on location is archaic, but I can't think of a better way to personally connect with a building, space, or place." While A.D.Morley & J.A.Wong also in Helsinki with Washington University documented another onsite visit as part of their Finnish Building Technologies class, to a new office building under construction in downtown Helsinki, designed by the 19-man firm JKMM Architects. The basement/parking garage is below-sea level and the project features massive and snaking HVAC ducts.

Discussion Threads
Kevin Werme started a conversation about the relationship between agriculture and architecture. He asked "how can today's architects and designers use this application of their professional knowledge to help support struggling local farmers already in existence?" a-f offered up the fact that "Dutch architecture theory journal OASE dedicated an issue to the subject of agriculture. The articles and all back issues can be browsed for free here." Archibum was glad Kevin started the topic writing "As one who grew up on a dairy farm, I too have a passion towards agriculture and have continually thought about how I could use architecture to improve and promote the small farm.  I've considered pursuing the unique relationship as a graduate thesis, but have yet to convince myself that it is a compelling and productive road to take."

To anyone who has hired and fired people before, what would you say if a applicant brought  an iPad to an interview? newfuture is thinking of making use of it, instead of a physical portfolio. Steven Ward replied "i've had candidates do this. it's fine. to address greg's concern: don't play with it. avoid unnecessary manipulation of the images in the interview unless it's triggered by the discussion. ..i.e., have your sh*t together." zenakis also considered it a "Good Idea...we do all of our presentations on our principal's ipad - they just pass it around the conference table".

Finally, bluesteel@wildrocket needs some visualization help with a simple design project for ultra compact cities. Will Galloway thought "all the hits from the 50's and 60's probably would be good start as well.  mies, hilbersheimer, archizoom, metabolists, etc etc.  not as new urbanist-y as your approach but same basic idea..." gwhorton cautioned "As a practical matter, the sort of urban design strategy you describe is far too expensive and inconvenient to apply to an entire city. It just doesn't make any sense. You'd need to have population densities (100,000 per acre or more) on the order of 4 times Mumbai to justify something like that."