In Student Works: PERFORMA_12 Archinect features  an installation first installed at the entrance to the annual BEAUX ARTS BALL in Lexington, KY, and later reinstalled at The Land of Tomorrow (LOT) gallery, also in Lexington. The piece was completed during PERFORMA Studio ( an intensive research and fabrication studio run by professor Mike McKay) at the University of Kentucky College of Design. Archinect also interviewed Professor McKay.

News
Paul Petrunia, highlighted the recent court decision that there is no requirement that architectural drawings contain sufficient detail to support actual construction in order to warrant copyright protection under Section 102(a)(5) of the Copyright Act. This decision was reached by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit regarding  (Scholz Design v. Sard Custom Homes LLC, 2d Cir., No. 11-3298, 8/15/12). More specifically, over-turning the prior district-court decision the Court of Appeals found given the relevant case law, the case was "a straightforward case of infringement". Accordingly, the court reversed the district court's dismissal of the copyright infringement claims.

Center for Ants was split in reaction, arguing "While some protection should exist, I would hate to see design relegated to state of patent trolling that's going on in the tech industry. It really becomes a damper on innovation. There's a thin line between being inspired from a design to blatantly taking something. And ultimately construction conditions, means and methods, etc. differ greatly from even very similar projects so I'm not so sure whether this kind of protection is necessary.” Center for Ants also referenced a relevant image from Jeffrey Zeldman.

Over at Change.org you can sign a petition to save a remarkable Frank Lloyd Wright house in Phoenix under threat of demolition. Wright designed the house for his son David and it is unique among all his residential designs. Your support is needed to urge the City of Phoenix to approve historic preservation designation for the house thereby extending its temporary protection from demolition. always clarified "The house does not have to be preserved in its current location. It can be dismantled and rebuilt on another site. This would actually save the developer money and put the house in a more appropriate location, allowing the developer to use this land as he wishes." but SDR countered "Yes -- but those houses had wood panels and components, and brickwork which could be sacrificed and recreated on the new site.  This is essentially a monolithic concrete structure, whose ramps and floor slab were cast in place and thoroughly rebarred  to the adjacent supporting and supported elements.  Disassembly would amount to destruction."

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) pointed to a slower decline in July in design activity at U.S. architecture firms. ...The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the July ABI score was 48.7, up considerably from the mark of 45.9 in June. This score reflects a decrease in demand for design services (any score below50 indicates a decline in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 56.3, up from mark of 54.4 the previous month. Said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. "As long as overall economic conditions continue to show improvement, modest declines should shift over to growth in design activity over the coming months". Noticeably, the South  was the only region reporting increase in design activity. el jeffe noted dejectedly "hard to get excited.i don't think that a slightly lessened decline in billing would be a rebound; the direction hasn't changed, just the rate of decline."

The New York Observer conducted some person on the street post occupancy video research on average NYCers opinions of Herzog & de Meuron's 40 Bond Street. One guy who definitely does not like the place is a cranky old neighbor from down the block. Orhan Ayyüce opined "the video itself is dismissive of the people it interviews. It oscillates between making disagreeable comments laughable and more than it makes positive commentary more credible in some really trickery advertisement arts know how... It is not really badass press as the title falsely suggests." Yet, Will Galloway differed "i like the building myself. h and dem are maybe turning tricks for the cash on this one a wee bit, but its still better than a lot of the rubbish that consumer capitalism churns out..."

Firms/Schools/Blogs

The 21st century Iceberg Trading Post is a central rig system that mediates local market, iceberg transportation, price setting, harvesting deck and scientific facilities. The project done as a school project by Alexandre Braleret proposes icebergs mass shipping supported by a constellation of ice-recycling trading posts along the west coast of Greenland and Samuel Ray Jacobson recently worked on ...Ingestatecture 2013.

With the post You too can be an Architecture Critic! Ekaterina Dovjenko begins her new Archinect blog City of Glass  : So West Coast it's East Coast. Therein she claimed "More than ever, there’s a need for regular people like you and I to be pro-active about our city planning".

Nicholas Cecchi of Demiurge Design LLC listed some of the topics he hopes to cover with his new blog; "Tolerating Tolerances, The role of the designer in Fabrication, The role of the fabricator in Design, Craft in Architecture, Design Culture, The role of Grasshopper and Parametric modelling in production, efficiency, and cost calculations".

amlocke visited Chandigarh during his thirteen-week train expedition across India. Rusty Long pondered “The contrast between the aging and maturation of the landscape, versus the aging of the structures here is stark. The hodge-podge of signage and occupant alterations against the concrete structures feels almost like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel. The real question that I'd like to know is what the occupants and dwellers of the city think and feel about their surroundings and built environment. Are they able to find contentment and see the beauty that we, as architects, speak so fondly of in this work?"

Also, Aaron Willette profiled another fabrication project from the back catalog here at the UMich FABlab. As with La Voûte de LeFevre it comes from Wes McGee and Brandon Clifford of Matter Design Studio. Pongo is a coat rack that, to him at least, clearly exhibits the strengths that each brings to their work and reminds of the benefits of collaborations.

Discussions
waterhouse wanted some advice on alternatives to acoustical ceiling tile (such as lapidary panels). MixmasterFestus recommended waterhouse look into "wood-covered sound absorbing systems (immediate manufacturers that come to mind: Decoustics, RPG, I think Armstrong makes some), perf metal systems, gypsum-like finishes..." However Janosh commented "What about just having an open ceiling?  No access problems, and faced insulation has good NRC characteristics".

manoverde84 started a thread to get the scoop on Why the hate against Sci-Arc? because "it's a bit of a spacy new age-y kind of place but it seems like it's the MIT of the West coast, no? Robots and stuff?". Janosh offered up the following;

"In short, many people believe that the current director at SCI-Arc ran a lot of good people out of the school, has attempted to rewrite the history of the institution, and treats people badly.  And there is a feeling that perhaps the school's emphases may create graduates who have tons of debt and are not readily employable.  And the parties used to be better". Yet, paintitblack believed "It depends on what you're looking for in a school.  Seems like most grad programs have certain reputations and a school like Sci-arc probably won't appeal to those who are more traditional, just as Yale or Princeton might not appeal to everyone.  I've seen a lot of positive comments about the school myself".

Finally, piero1910 was perusing Wikipedia recently and was inspired to inquire Why did Brunelleschi change the role and status of the architect? oneLOSTarchitect responded "he transformed architecture by pushing the limits of material used, and to this day the dome over Santa Maria del Fiore is the largest brick dome in the world" while Vile Child expounded "He single handedly gave birth to the Renaissance".

Additionally
If you're in Portland, Oregon these days, don't miss to check out the exhibition BEIJING by visual artist Aaron Yassin, currently on view at Chambers@916. "Beijing" Yassin's latest project, is a series of dynamic and mesmerizing architectural photographic composites built from images of iconic buildings in Beijing, spanning hundreds of years, from the Temple of Heaven to the Bird’s Nest Stadium. The exhibition runs through September 22 with an artist reception on Thursday, September 6, from 6pm to 8:30pm. More via Bustler.net