For the latest edition of the Student Works feature, Archinect published work from Beyond Prototype, an advanced digital fabrication seminar developed at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation by Jason Ivaliotis and Nicholas Kothari. In the course "Students develop parametrically controlled tessellations and transform them into building component systems that can be built using conventional sheet stock materials. These tessellated systems are extracted from the digital realm and built at full scale".

Nicholas Cecchi was impressed but also offered some criticism "This is amazing student work. The craft and quality is great, and the theory behind it is impressive. However, I would like architecture schools to stop pushing students to contextualize this kind of research-based exploration. Showing these as enclosures (or the one as a gondola) only undermines the amazing generative capacity of this kind of design. These should not be taken literally, but as explorations which will inform the design and construction of actual enclosure systems".
                  

News

The Pritzker Foundation revealed that Toyo Ito, the 71 year old architect whose architectural practice is based in Tokyo, Japan, will be the recipient of the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to become a Pritzker Laureate -- the first five being the late Kenzo Tange in 1987, Fumihiko Maki in 1993, Tadao Ando in 1995, and the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010.

Apurimac was pleased "About time Ito got his Pritzker" while Thayer-D wrote "This might not sit well with others who see architecture as more of a fine art, ie. a more individually based art, but from my perspective great architects have always been able to do both, express a client's wishes within their cultural, economic, physical context, and express one's own artistic vision, whatever that may be based on.  In Mr. Ito's case, he seems to have done that with versatility".

Bustler.net announced that the jury of the first annual Flat Lot Competition, selected Two Islands, a London-based team of architects and designers, to receive the $25,000 grand prize for their proposal 'Mark's House' . The project brief was to design and build a temporary summer pavilion in the central parking lot in downtown Flint, Michigan.

18x32 was curious "Is the $25k the budget for realization or an extra prize? Because, although I like this projet, it seems ambitious to pull of the effects this entry promises at that price"?

The Architects' Journal  reported that Olga Felip, co-founder of Catalonia-based practice Arquitecturia, has won the prestigious AJ Emerging Woman Architect of the Year award. The 32-year-old, who set up the studio with Josep Camps eight years ago, topped the award category open to architects and architectural designers under the age of 40.

archinet thought she was "kick ass!! totally agree with jla-x! hmmm no ivy league dregree, managed to get a diplom by the age of 24, and get all this great work done by 32" but as accesskb suggested she "must've had connections.. i mean who here as a child played with templates of letters, furniture, huge rolls of tracing paper, Rotring pens, and compasses unless your mom/pop was an architect also xP".

Joe Mcnally Instagrammed/Tweeted from 820 meters straight up, on top of the Burj Khalifa!.

The team consisting of Rotterdam's MVRDV, French architects de Alzua+, and the development corporation ADIM Nord, won the first place in an urban renewal competition in the French city of Villeneuve-d’Ascq. Perhaps somewhat pedantically, Kamil Muhammad queried "How exactly do you 'win' in urban renewal? Isn't the point of a renewal is the process itself?"

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Gregory Walker argued that sometimes a glass is just a glass....He reflected "on the one hand, the aia's architecture billings index (which i am a participant with) is truly picking up steam over the past few months...on the other hand... you get a survey like this one produced by BD in the UK, which indicates a truly staggering number: only 24% of British architects are currently employed by a ‘company’...cripes. what are we supposed to think? maybe the glass is just a glass, depending on where you're drinking”...

b3tadine[sutures] contended "GB is an anomaly Greg, their ridiculous austerity program will send them into a triple or quad dip recession. Now, if the republicans have their way, then, we're all fucked" however Gregory Walker wasn't so sure, "i agree (and mentioned austerity in my tweet for the post). but, i'm having a hard time accepting it's the full reason for the difference".

Anirudh Dhawan recently worked on a variable geometric pattern study while Dimitri Kim recently worked on a Canopy of light and inflatable for the upcoming 'Honolulu Night Market' event.

In a post titled On Internships and Mowing the Lawn everydayintern argued "I will concede that students hear way to many urban myths about what an internship is like and what a real architectural office is. However, if the only value we can take from an internship is to somehow absorb enough of the office culture through just being around real architects, then I'd say that employer isn't using their interns well enough".

Donna Sink chimed in "Excellent blog post, everydayintern. I'm a registered architect, and I spent the morning putting together an Ikea-type piece of furniture for my boss.  Granted, the furniture was at our company-owned residence.  My point is that there is nothing inherently demeaning about doing something like mowing the lawn, or like emptying the trash, answering the phone, assembling materials binder shelving, or buying snacks for an office reception - all things I did as an intern.  Being willing to pitch in and help wherever it is needed, and with a good attitude, is valuable, and puts you in a better bargaining position to then ask to work on more challenging projects. But by all means ask potential employers what your job duties might be so you can prepare appropriately.  And do not ever, ever work for free. If they offer to pay you nothing then yes, spend the day on Thread Central".

Brooks Residence in Venice, CA by Duvivier Architects and Dakhleh Excavation House in Dakhleh, Egypt by Utopus Studio were just two of the projects featured in the latest post featuring the Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Outdoors" Pinterest Board.

Schools/Blogs
Farid Rakun explains that for his Degree Show at  Cranbrook Art Museum he will create a self-explanatory piece called ‘How I put a SAAB 9-3 into Cranbrook Art Museum’.

He has a little under 1 month to finish this project.

Michael Speaks will be leaving his position of Dean at the University of Kentucky College of Design to take on the position of Dean of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University.

Aaron Plewke believes "Speaks put in a 5 year term at UK, which is an entirely appropriate tenure for a dean (though I'm sure many would have been happy to keep him for another 5 years).  In any case, UK benefited, and now Syracuse will too, and in the end, spreading the Speaks around (in concentrated doses) seems like a good thing for design education overall". Steve Fuchs also offered his congratulations "As a former student of Michael's, I want to send a sincere, public congratulations to him and hope that the deep impression he made on our graduate cohort at SCI-Arc, circa mid-2000s, continues to affect change in our design communities. Both Kentucky and Syracuse have and will benefit greatly from his leadership and provocations--entrepreneurial, architectural, post-theoretical, or otherwise".

Over at the blog for the Caribbean School of Architecture, David Cuthbert noted how staff and students have been Instagraming the student experience.

Meanwhile Ayax Abreu a student at the Städelschule Architecture Class in Frankfurt, Germany shared a short analysis of the book Morpho-ecologies: Towards Heterogeneous Space in Architectural Design.

Discussions
katieeelainggg started a thread to get answers to the question how has technology led to the globalization of architecture?

starrchitect quickly replied "It hasn't. Architecture has always been a global force dictated by local climate and cultural vernacular" but Miles Jaffe disagreed "Actually, starrchitect, architecture was dictated by local climate and cultural vernacular. Now it is largely - at least in the industrialized world - dictated by technology, which is seen as the solution to problems created by technology and bad design. Thus we have geothermal heat pumps instead of passive solar, building materials imported from countries around the globe, etc., etc". He continued "The point is simply that local climate and cultural vernacular are irrelevant to the design of Guggenheim Bilbao. As they are to Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Gehry’s (thankfully) abandoned East River Guggenheim, further examples of architectural globalization not ‘dictated by local climate and cultural vernacular’. The culture they are dictated by is global, not local, and climate is irrelevant to their siting. The technology is also global, as are the materials used in fabrication, the financing of the construction, etc., etc".

Plus, sandhilldesign added "I think technology has helped companies take their brand internationally, architects and engineers work from anywhere in the world, and builders coordinate construction of elements from all across the globe. This is a deep well to study. Lots of implications of technology. One must make the distinction of architecture from being purely a designer to really tackle the issue".

C was looking for answers regarding Rebar and Complex Curvature,specifically they were "looking for a good resource ( book ? website ? forum ? vid ? )  which covers structural techniques for concrete buildings with irregular geometries". accesskb cautioned "Often times, its not as simple as rebar techniques.. Complex forms require complex reinforcements when trying to balance forces being produced. A good book to start out would be ‘Form and Forces - Designing Efficient Expressive Structures - EdwardAllen’  It may not be what you're looking for but its a lot about what you'd learn in a structures course but with more interesting projects and not the rudimentary post, beams and trusses only.  Something you should have a good grasp of if you want to tackle more complex geometries".

Finally, bowling_ball was looking for suggestions on how to square the circle between (the past of a) Criminal client and their own personal / professional ethics. BE penned a lengthy response "The first question I will ask myself is: am I, in my professional position as an architect, extending the agenda of this client in a direction that is socially undesirable through the architecture that I will design (Perez-Gomez)?...Most of the Utopian ideals of architecture, wrong-headed as many of them were, are altogether eschewed today for the instrumentalism of the commodification of space. I think the drawing of that line, is the beginning of good architecture. Without drawing the line, I am afraid we are mere instruments, swayed in whichever direction the winds of Capital will blow. The drawing of that line also is the start of our foundation in positive architecture, rather than the negative critique of Tafuri or the blind aimlessness of Capitalistic reproduction".

geezertect concluded "BE:  I think we are in agreement that legal doesn't automatically mean ethical.  I was responding in the context of the fact set laid out by the OP.  I think his dilemma is less ethical than it is practical.  Bad clients aren't worth the trouble for purely practical reasons, generally speaking. Architects along with everyone else have to conduct their professional lives in the real world...However, we should all have lines we won't cross...But most projects we do don't measure up to our loftiest standards".

Additionally
Over at their blog airoots Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove analyzed Speculation and use value in Mumbai. Therein, they explore how the logic that rules Mumbai is not that of the static city, but of the speculative city.