For the latest Student Works: feature, Archinect published New Horizons Iceland Expedition, which was a compendium of results from a trip The Bartlett School of Architecture Unit 3, wherein "Twelve 2nd and 3rd year students designed, built and tested a series of shelter/surveying devices (they were told to make “sure it fits in the check-in luggage) to research and charted varied aspects of Iceland”.
 

News

The Three Grand Prize winners and thirteen Special Mentions were released for d3's Unbuilt Visions 2012 competition. The program promotes critical debate about architecture and design by acknowledging excellence in unbuilt projects. The Grand Prize: went to The Emperor's Castle, designed by Thomas Hillier, UK. In response homme_du_jura applauded "I'm very glad to see Thomas Hillier's work recognized.  He submitted this piece for another competition a few years ago and was duly recognized, even as it went a bit beyond the competition's established criteria. A beautiful piece!" and mtt9999 said "Yeh Hillier's piece is excellent. It was published, in its entirety, in Lantern Journal in the Fall 2012 issue".

Bustler.net announced that OMA is designing the Essence Financial Tower in Shenzhen. FRaC believed "it's OMA .. s,m,l,xl typical plan .. structural 'balancing act' stuff .. and some b.s. about light angles and solar orientation" and LITS4FormZ offered praise "Looks like it belongs in ShenZhen, well done OMA".

Curbed NY reported that Selldorf Architects had unveiled a The 54-story prismatic tower design for a site just south of the World Trade Center at 22 Thames Street. Darkman felt "this building looks really cool. Selldorf is one of the best architecture firms out there. Also: detail animations like these are so much better than bland, static renderings I see here for the latest Bjarke Ingels mega tower. There is something more interesting in a moving skin system then a crazy computer generated shape". However, Selldorf reps later wrote in to say the firm is not working on the 22 Thames project. Which left "us with two mysteries: who is working on the 22 Thames project, and what project are the renderings on Selldorf's site for"?

The Getty Trust published the final list of it’s exhibition and event partners in Pacific Standard Time Presents, subtitled Modern Architecture in Southern California. Even though "midcentury modernism is not the only theme”" observant chimed in "This era saw Los Angeles's better, inimitable architecture.  The theme tower at LAX is always a pleasure to look at.  For its day, it was modern, organic, unique, and even hinted at classical proportions".

   
Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
everydayintern argued Want to be an Architect?; Don't Learn Revit. He explains "The point is that Revit will not get you onto the short list. And if it did, rest assured that you would only be working in Revit". For his part Gregory Walker couldn’t agree "everyday - i've read through your post twice and still feel like there's a straw argument in there. meaning (and i'm now that proverbial employer): what does an employer look for in any employee? well, what does the firm need to have done that can't currently be done by someone else there? answer that and you'll answer your question: it just depends”. In addition mfischer3387’s only critique was "to say it probably could have been written about any software, and still would have been mostly true. I don't think it addresses a larger problem about not putting enough emphasis on intangibles, a strong self-identity as what kind of designer you want to be, and how you can fit into a certain firm".

Barry Lehrman alerted readers that he has Got a pair of workshops coming up (Feb 16th and Feb 17th) in the Owens Valley and Mono Basin as part of the Aqueduct Futures Project while Waleed Karajah worked on "how to work".

This past Friday was the NYC launch of Bracket [Goes Soft] and included a discussion with Neeraj Bhatia, Fionn Byrne, Michael Chen, Leigha Dennis, Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Geoff Manaugh and Chris Perry, @ Studio-X NYC. Buy your copy while still available.

Mitch McEwen discussed working with Vera Nebolsina, a Chess Grandmaster at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, on a project that has got her “enthusiastic about the conceptual implications of using Grasshopper (the Rhino plug-in)”. They are designing “an environment that could host both formal and informal chess tournaments and workshops.  One of the primary goals is to enable a Grandmaster to play up to 20 people simultaneously, including both experts and a lay public".

jk3hl posted "this project is awesome! what a really cool and unique typology" and asked "i find it interesting that you are using the regulation piece/board dimensions as a starting point for the spatial design itself. what do you mean by 'make a kind of inhabitable game?' that's not very clear”. Mitch replied "I doubt I will have a firm answer when the first phase is exhibited next month...as I learn more about chess, I am hoping deeper structures within the game become productive spatially...The first iteration of this may just be a rather formal study of truss parameters, for instance”.

Meanwhile, CZ Insurance HQ in Tilburg, The Netherlands by BARCODE Architects and Central St. Giles in London, GB by Renzo Piano (Building Workshop); TERRART(r) Facades: NBK (a Hunter Douglas Company) were just two of the projects featured in the latest Ten Top Images on Archinect's “Color" Pinterest Board.

g2m2 wrote about GraffitiOLOGY defined as “(Study or practice of graffiti arts)”. In response to the question "When do we include the graffiti artist in the building process? at construction phase(4)?" FRaC commented "no, at the prosecution and sentencing phases".            

Schools/Blogs

ZIP an architectural installation which makes use of a quarter of a million zip ties, was Designed as an experience to exhibit thesis books, as part of Professor Karen Lange’s fifth year studio (Studio400) at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo.

Alexander Morley who is in graduate school at The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts-Washington University in St. Louis, finally got around to documenting the last phase of a journey (from Sahagún to Cabo Finistere) he took last June with his father. Specifically, they cycled 803 kilometers across Northwestern Spain along the Camino de Santiago from Madrid to Finisterre.

Alexander also noted that he found Peter Eisenman's City of Culture "rather disappointing: empty, void of life, and removed from the city, ironic, given the complex's name”. Kos Scarpa Kos, considered the sketches "fresh and vibrant".

Discussions
Did Thread Central jumped the shark? Witness the forums, and the creation of a Thread Scentral, in which citizen posed the question "Have you ever smelled a baby, FRaC?  Especially in one of their more uh... productive moments?", and doppelgänger thread central, in which gruen declared "I'm tired of it" but Dapper Napper stated "I like children, cats, and recipes".

toasteroven was peaved at the news that in the January 2013 issue of Foresight [PDF], Arup proposed an urban 'smart' building of the near future, which he dismissed as ipads in the sky. Miles Jaffe obviously agreed, with the quip "Another great idea, like Facebook in Mercedes cars.Perfect for catering "to an increasingly dense and technology-savvy urban population".

Finally, switch was hoping Archinectors could provide suggestions for Things to see/do in Taipei? Anybody?
Additionally

Over at arenaofspeculation.org Suzanne Harris-Brandts considered "the Political Agency of Residual Landscapes in the West Bank".