The recent feature Instigating Change with Common Ground, written by John Southern is a critical but largely positive review of the Venice Architecture Biennale.  Therein, he put forward the argument that this year’s "Biennale doesn’t have much to be cynical, negative, or nasty about" and wrote "But the 2012 Architecture Biennale isn’t just about solving problems.  For those in the mood for a wink, there is a healthy balance of fun amongst the furrowed brows.  FAT Architecture partnered with San Rocco and Ines Weizman to supply smart laughs with a Museum of Copying"

Plus, in the latest edition of ShowCase: New Keelung Harbor Service Building, Archinect presents the first prize winning project by Neil M. Denari Architects, Inc. (NMDA). The details include; 120,780 square meters, Ground breaking: 2013, Completion: terminal (2015), office building (2017). double o zero immediately noted that "Something like this would have countless comments just a few years ago. Now it is just another thing".

Steven Ward agreed adding "why do you think that's true?...what kind of qualitative discussion can these images generate beyond a series of guesses about what software/renderer was used....there are limits to our ability to access the project in any critical way. i don't know why we should care, why anyone should spend so much to build such a uniquely difficult set of forms".  sameolddoctor also suggested "NMDA has lost its mojo...or maybe its just getting it back..."

News
On the heels of a nearly three-point increase, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) climbed into positive terrain for the first time in five months...The new projects inquiry index was 57.2, up from mark of 56.3 the previous month.

Yet, on the other hand since the beginning of the recession in early 2008, architecture firms have collectively seen their revenue drop by 40 percent and have had to cut personnel by nearly a third. Despite a national recovery from the recession in 2009, construction activity continued to spiral downward, according to the recently release 2012 AIA Firm Survey. aphorismal felt that "To be entirely fair, employment at architecture firms fell by 28 percent, but architects as a share of those employed increased from 60 percent to some ‘somewhat larger’ figure I have to pay 30 bucks to find out.  Point being employment among architects at architecture firms probably fell by around something more like 20 percent"

Husband and wife design partners Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello have recycled parts of a "boondoggle" into a piece of architecture. Rael San Fratello Architects new(ish) project SOL Grotto uses 1,368 distinctive glass rods, from the failed solar company Solyndra. The installation can currently be found at the Botanical Garden at the University of California, Berkeley.  FRaC thought the project "somewhat reminiscent of andrew zago's detroit pavilion: repetition, illumination, undulation, you can't go wrong!".

Carol Vogel reviewed the new Islamic Galleries at the Louvre for the NYT. The expansion was designed by two architects, Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti, who won the international competition to create the new wing in 2005. Orhan Ayyüce criticized "have no particular sympathy for its Orientalist definitions such as ‘a scarf floating within the space,’ ‘luminous veil,’ ‘a Beduine tent,’ or ‘flying carpet.’ Might as well install an ‘Ali Baba’ on top of roof to scare the birds".

For his latest project, Tatzu Nishi enclosed Gaetano Russo’s 1892 statue of Christopher Columbus at Columbus Circle within a living room on a scaffold more than 70 feet up. Visitors will be admitted into the 810-square-foot space for a carved-marble-eye view of Central Park. Thayer-D quipped "This is so cool.  I would never have imagined what Central Park looks like 8 stories up.  The irony of Columbus in your living room, who would have thunk!” and tammuz questioned “is his premise really about a change in perspective and appreciation for the things we live but never see?...he talks like we architects talk sometimes".

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Dimitar Svilenov recently worked on a Wooden Pavilion in Pernik, Bulgaria and Will Galloway announced that HA Tower, designed by frontoffice tokyo and François Blanciak architect, recently took International Architecture Award.

Aditya Ghosh began his blog Insanse Cities with a post examining his current "Leaving Grad School and Job Hunting" phase of life.

GWWO Architects located in Baltimore, MD posted images of their Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge Education Center aka the DuPont Environmental Education Center.

Schools/Blogs
John Tubles is finally getting used to life at GSD, but only after three weeks. He writes "I am terribly sorry for the expletives but I just realized that it has been a while since I blogged... and yes incase you are wondering, for the 167th time, I have fallen off the edge of the cliff again.. a cliff called GSD...Oh if I get a penny for every time somebody in GSD says the word pedagogy or tabula rasa.. I will be a rich man!".

Matthew Messner at at the School of Architecture/UIC finally posted some more images from Daniel Starcher. Final renderings of Mr. Starcher's Clumsy Form project.

Chris DeHenzel UC Berkeley graduate student, and grateful recipient of the 2011-2012 John K. Branner Fellowship, visited Berlin over the summer. While there, he sat down with  Nikolaus Driesen, co-founder of Markthalle Neun to discuss food market "revivalism" and the "food culture" of Berlin.

Alexander Morley, a current graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, wrote about his summer  adventure. He along with his father cycled the Camino de Santiago across Northwestern Spain from Madrid to Finesterre the westernmost point of continental Europe. seanrazz offered a correction "Amazing trip, photos and sketches. It's a trip I hope to make some day. However I need to rectify Spain's continuous overshadowing of Portugal...Cape Finisterre is sometimes said to be the westernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula. However, this is not true, since Cabo da Roca, in Portugal is about 16.5 km further west and thus the westernmost point of continental Europe".

Discussions
tammuz started a thread to discuss a video of a AA’s symposium ft Patrik Schumacher and Zaha Hadid billed as Debating Fundamentals: Probing the Autopoiesis of Architecture. tammuz got things started noting "he stutters because he has  much to say and yet cannot reach the punch line. she doesnt have much to say because she has her punch lines...".

Then ciao claimed "tammuz,You seem to be concerned with a lot of soft issues. Yes, few ‘poetic/lyrical’ projects use coding to illustrate their fictions. I think that (along with the redundancy of speculation and lack of realism), is what Patrik had a problem with". toasteroven later chimed in "I just looked through those projects that schumacher was criticizing...I agree with him that this kind of dystopian non-realism in too many final projects really does not bode well for architectural education".

jk3hl asked if anyone cared to discuss how much real impact the Dean has on an architecture graduate program? accesskb thinks that it is simple "they call the final shots on how the school is run, what faculty is hired, etc.  They can move the school forward or set it back a couple of decades" but James Petty believes it "Totally depends on the school. At Yale, Stern keeps a tight grip on everyone...If he wasnt so personally interested in diversity, im sure the school wouldnt be."

wurdan freo wanted to know if Archinectors had any comments re:  experience on the impact of vapor barriers under slab on grade. anarchytecture advised "Only use a vapor barrier under the slab if you have uninterrupted sub-slab drainage with a gravel bed or something. Else you're looking for a waterproof membrane, especially with concrete" and Janosh added "That Preprufe stuff Rusty mentions is absolutely dynamite if you are doing new construction. If you find yourself to have inherited an existing slab with  vapor migration issues, you can use top-side applied moisture vapor emission reduction coatings. Koester VAP and Aquafin are both good..."

Additionally
You might want to check out A Toolkit for Creating and Implementing Parklets by UCLA’s Complete Streets Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. Hat-tip - Aurash Khawarzad‏.