In 2012, the DRX (The Design Research Exchange a non-profit residency program for researchers hosted by HENN Architekten) took place in Berlin from July 16th, 2012 through September 7th, 2012. Participants included four invited DRX Experts and eight invited DRX Researchers all of whom focused on the topic Minimal Surface Highrise Structures. As part of the DRX 2012, three prototypic 500m (1,640ft) tall Highrise Structures were developed as so-called ProtoTowers.

The latest edition of the Working out of the Box series features Skip Schwartz who is currently the CEO of a heath care service/technology company that provides primary healthcare to people mostly on a virtual basis.  The two main lessons that he gained from architecture school and the architecture industry were that "Design counts" and "Project management counts".

News
The world lost three very talented architects last week including, Lebbeus Woods dead at 72, John M. Johansen the last surviving member of the Harvard Five and Italian architect, designer and teacher Gae Aulenti, one of the few well-recognized women working in Italian postwar design.

rjm1990 commented "Johansen was a very important figure in theoretical and sustainable circles and WAY ahead of his time. I recommend to anyone who does not know about him to check out his book ‘Nano-Architecture’ or to view his lecture on the Sci-Arc  Media Archive from 1993" and Orhan Ayyüce eulogized "The photograph showing Mr. Woods with his keffiyeh on his side in fact tells about his ethical standing on human rights. His enormous visionary talent with this kind of political standing and courage make an exceptional human being as is and was".

Last week was the birthday of Iraqi-British architect, Dame Zaha Hadid. Known for her sculptural designs and commanding demeanor, the renown female artist turned 61 years old this Halloween.She was also named "Woman of the Year 2012" by Glamour Magazine.

Were you one of the 17,000 construction or 1,500 architectural and engineering jobs added in October? If so share your story in the comments...

Following Hurricane Sandy Architect and planner Vishaan Charkrabarti, was quoted "The Dutch have unrivaled experience in dealing with flooding. They really know how to shape the water’s edge, and I think we really have to rethink the way we deal with the water’s edge, given what’s happened with Sandy". However, cowered retorted "Except that in 2008 the Dutch reset their entire coastal protection program and now carefully consider ecological effects of their coastal defenses. And the Maeslantkering (big effing gates) only protect against a 3.0m storm surge (oops, i.e. its a fixed defense and not adaptive)".                                          

For those architects looking for a way to help, the AIA issued a statement on Hurricane Sandy's; aftermath  and recovery. Specifically, via http://www.aia.org/disasterresponse.

"A commitment to public service is a core value of our profession. We intend to live up to that value in the hours and days ahead as we prepare to assist the communities hit by Hurricane Sandy. Anyone wishing to donate to the recovery effort should consider making a contribution to our partners, Architecture for Humanity www.architectureforhumanity.org".               

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Omer Malik recently worked on the Turin Green Competition and this Summer House project in Paros Cyclades Greece with design and construction by Alexandros Logodotis, is so Greecian Island paridise... 

In High Performing Thermal Mass in New Mexico lawrencewspeck (currently a principal in the architectural firm of PageSoutherlandPage) blogged about a new rammed-earth residence, located outside Santa Fe. snook_dude commented "Not sure of where this project was built...but the first rule of the desert....is it eats wood alive.  Maybe the shaded protection will protect it for a while but  the life of that wood is limited.  I do love the rammed earth, long as you don't get basil erosion".

Back in 2010 Marco Rocha designed a new SIC TV Broadcasting Studios and logistic complex in Parque Holanda – Carnaxide, Portugal.

School Blogs
Martijn de Geus at the School of Architecture, the English Program for Master Architecture (EPMA)  in China, had a chance to visit the ‘soft-opening’ of the Galaxy SoHo Zaha Hadid’s first building in Beijing. In the comments Gregory Walker quipped "congratulations zaha: you're the new john portman...”

Matthew Messner recapped his ARCH566 Research Seminar Midterm from last Saturday. Students were joined by Jeff Kipnis, Jose R. Oubrerie, John McMorrough, Sam Jacob, Jimenez Lai, and Bob Somol.

o d b stated "while i find the forms and figures of the 3d prints and figure grounds beautiful i have trouble seeing the relationship to the stated title of the class (the legislation and political aspects specifically)...i am very interested in hearing more about the discussion and seeing other supporting work such as diagrams, research". Matthew explained "Right now it is a pretty big stretch to get these to be understood in the context of a political argument...We have a hunch that through research we can come to a general theory on what is the political nature of incusion.  There is another semester and a half of this exploration so you will be hearing more".

Meanwhile in the post Habitat for Humanity ReStore intervention series (Oct 19 & 20), farid rakun documented his and Fernando Bales efforts to see "what could be done, architectonically, with spontaneous, ever-changing, unplanned settings (material availability differs for each locations, and depends heavily on the time-of-day), by two people, 8-hours (for both installation and de-installation process—the less mark we left on the site the better), and more-or-less $20" for his proposal for the Robert C. Larson Venture Fund Award.

Discussions
Over at Thread Central Donna Sink asked "What do you say to someone who says, when you critique a building, ‘Yeah well good design is just subjective.’? I think design is the opposite of subjective; whether something is a good design or not can always be quantified.  Whether or not someone thinks a building is pretty, that's subjective". curtkram though argued "i kind of think good design tends to be subjective. to me, if you suggest design is objective, that means the difference between good and bad has to be measurable.  for example, does the building leak?...for a critique to not be subjective the critic has to get rid of their biases.  i would suggest critics tend to be far to proud of their biases to say their judgement of design is anything but subjective".

carlosos was looking for help identifying a project of which he can only recall: "a house over a hill, perhaps an artificial hill, on a green area, it's certainly in the countryside, I remember cattle around in some of the pics. Don't trust me on this, but it could perhaps be in Catalonia, Spain. It's most distinctive feature is a sequence of 2-3 stories volumes, not quite wide, organized in a rhytmic composition". christiang threw out a wild guess (it was also christiang’s first post!) "rcr arquitectes” and it was, their Casa Rural.

accesskb recently discovered Herman Hertzberger’s book 'Lessons for Students in Architecture' and writes "I just managed to read his book...and wish I had read it very early on...Can any of you familiar with his writings recommend me other such books”? toasteroven offered "he was a student of Aldo Van Eyck (who was part of team 10)- IMO, Van Eyck is one of the more important figures in our field that people seem to neglect a bit too much.  I'd also look at the work of Piet Blom (part of that crew) if you're into that era in dutch architecture".

Finally, Thecyclist wanted to confirm re: Exposed structure transferring heat/cold "Is this truly an issue?  The concept sounds correct, however, can enough heat/cold transfer to cause the interior to become uncomfortably cold or warm"? gwharton confirmed "Many jurisdictions won't allow you to expose steel or concrete structure unless you put a thermal break behind it (which is great for controlling heat loss, but not so great for structural continuity)” and IamGray added "As others have said, it of course depends on the region, but yes in northern North America and Europe (and similar wintery climates), any thermal bridges...are to be avoided. If you look at the detail sections, you'll see various ways of getting around this. Usually it's pretty straight-forward stuff, ie.  simply cutting a 'break' and stuffing in a layer of poly or similar. Where it gets interesting is when the illusion is to have a monolithic piece of concrete extending from interior to exterior, like the Educatorium”.

Additionally
Bernd Upmeyer, Editor-in-Chief, November 2012 released a new call for submissions for MONU #18 - Communal Urbanism writing "The key questions we aim to answer are: what does communal housing look like today? What are the spatial requirements and how do they appear in cities spatially and formally? What kind of new typologies do they produce? What are the intentions and motivations of the people living in those contemporary communities? What is their economic base and how do they deal with issues such as property and rent? How do people organize themselves and deal with possessions and resources in general? How important is work and income within those contemporary collectives? What role does spirituality play in those communities? How is the common interest shared? What kind of people live in such projects? And where will it all lead to eventually?"