For the latest entry in the ShowCase series Archinect published the Shrine of the Virgin of "La Antigua" by Otxotorena Arquitectos. The project is located in Alberite, La Rioja, Spain and the architects main constraint was the need to "incorporate a preexisting stone archway in the design. This archway was rescued from a previous demolition in the town and it was preserved by the locals".

Donna Sink exclaimed "Wow, wow.  I love it.  Love the multiple arcade forms and multiple striations and similar but different textures...Would love to see a floorplan if there is one?".

News

The LA Times reported that the Watts Towers in South Los Angeles will be the subject of a new study conducted by experts from UCLA to determine the stability of the historic sculptures.

Orhan Ayyüce shared these words "In my opinion it is the most beautiful and meaningful public art in Los Angeles that people neglected for decades" and a photo.

The Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com announced that Kent State University  has picked Weiss/Manfredi's "Design Loft" concept, for its $40 million new building for the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Given argued "It was the only ‘inspired’ design amongst the contenders, everyone else looked quite generic. Just because we are in a new age of more humble arch schools (a good thing) doesnt mean we should make them uninteresting".

Yet, Austin Kotting let it be known that "Around Cleveland and Kent there was a lot of support for the ARO scheme, but it doesn't seem there was much of that anywhere else"...

The NY Times’s Sam Lubell highlighted the work of a new-wave of French architects working in Paris, in the Sunday Travel section.

davvid criticized "My first thought was how surprising it is to see Kimmelman actually highlighting an architectural design trend. Alas, its just a fluffy travel article. It seems that the Times post-Ouroussoff  has decided that design is less about art and more about lifestyle".

As an interesting pairing I will note two news posts from the last week. First, a story about The rise and fall of Scottish architects RMJM, which prompted Activity to post "The slowest oncoming train wreck seen in some time".

Second, Places Journal provided an excerpt of a chapter from the forthcoming book Architecture and Capitalism, by Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones. The piece is titled The Irrational Exuberance of Rem Koolhaas.

Dimitri Kim however responded “On a cursory glance, I have no doubt, 'Architecture and Capitalism' will be another work of borrowed authorship (which also says much about Rem's authorship), in this case, from Tafuri's seminal, 'Architecture and Utopia...We should embrace the philosophy of indifferent pragmatism as part of the larger discourse in contemporary architecture and urbanism...and dispense with making martyr of the bald dutchman".
 

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Christine Pierron (a licensed architect in the state of California (CA29397) and LEEDS accredited professional) offered up "A short post to bolster the argument for the No Master alternative. Money, money, money"...

Will Galloway wondered "a bit of a hard question but if the lack of a masters is holding architects back from fulfillment how does the no master lead to a better outcome?".

She provided the following clarification "What No Master offers that leads to, not a better outcome, but an alternative outcome...No Master, if it has the good fortune to fully grow, also could also be a part of the new movement for lower cost more accessible education provided online... I'll work on this and make it a more coherent post. Your thoughts would be very much appreciated, even if you disagree".

Mr. Galloway replied "if you are thinking of professional advancement in a regular sense then just working in any office is cool, but if you want to get the know-how that comes from masters degree i think it takes more intense study.  maybe that latter bit is what you need to focus on?".

Michela Barone Lumaga recently worked on her MIT SMArchS Thesis; Public by Design: Auto-fabrication for a Contemporary Urban Physiognomy while Matthew Cavender recently worked on the 40/40 SCI-Arc Alumni Competition.

ml studio pointed out that Design Bureau Magazine covered their MTA art installation of stained glass.

Landscape architect Matthew Geldin opened his latest blog post "1200 miles. 2 months. 3 countries. 1 broken wheel. 1 broken rack. 1 broken fender. 5 or 6 broken spokes. 0 flats. Seriously, 0 flats. Our journey took us from Chiang Mai, Thailand, through Laos, and up to Hanoi, Vietnam...My current adventure is at Din Dang Natural Building Center, where I’m learning clay brick making in the small Thai village of Paksong, Phato District”, he ended the post (a reflection on the Thai, Laotian,  and Vietnamese tradition of spirit houses) with a question “Where are our markers for mindfulness in the Western urban landscape?"...

danlipski was impressed eough to write "Very insightful. One of the best arguments I've ever heard for riding a bicycle. You must be the brains of the operation. You can stay at my spirit house any day, buddy".
 

Schools/Blogs

Over at his Columbia University school blog Anthony Sunga gave an update on how the mid-term review for "fast pace//slow space, a tech class by Mark Bearak and Brigette Borders.  Our proposal aptly named TINA*, Tensile Integrity Nodal Assemblage...  This is a 4-unit arch comprised of our ‘boomerangs’."

The University of Oregon released the poster for their Spring 2013 Lectures Series.

Hospi-Hotel was the capstone project for Gabriel Morales Jordán’s architecture degree at Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR) while Redux - Prototype (Recycled Prefabricated Modular Prototype) was completed by Bryan Pendzinski while he was earning his MArch from The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

Meanwhile at Harvard GSD Lian Chikako Chang live-blogged the event "KUMBH MELA: Mapping the Ephemeral City. Presentation of a work in progress". KUMBH MELA is an interdisciplinary mapping project of the Kumbh Mela 2013 undertaken by students and faculty from Harvard’s Business School, School of Public Health, and Harvard Divinity School.

One quote; "For us, the Kumbh "is not about the spectacle of the architecture...but the ability to manage a city in an elastic manner".
 

Discussions
Kirill Volchinskiy wanted suggestions for online forums for Rhino Help.

He is especially struggling with "joining polysurfaces at the moment for example, and _PointsOn does not give me control of most verticies".

Not being snarky lletdownl replied "might i suggest google? im not being a smart ass, google is the best possible way to learn how to use software...ive found solutions to ridiculously obscure questions about modeling, drafting, coding, video editing... you name it... by just googling as specificly as i could... someone else has had this problem and found a solution".

For his part Nicholas Cecchi thought Mr. Volchinskiy should just "Open Rhino. Press F1...Learn...Seriously, though, the built-in tutorials, and tutorials on the web, the Rhino3d forums, YouTube tutorials, they are all good resources and it is not terribly difficult to learn on your own".

spencerstar1 has to do a project for school and would like to hear your opinions..The question is: To what extent Mies van der Rohe was ahead of his time? Steven Ward was of the opinion "your instructor has given you an intentionally unresolvable question. you need to have an opinion and then argue it....with a good amount of research (which is probably expected here) you could effectively argue EITHER position".

Will Galloway wasn’t sure “it's a trick question right?” since “there are tons of books on how he was ahead of his time". Later Mr. Galloway explained further "The coolest thing about the dude, at least for me, is that once he came up with a good solution he no longer pursued a problem...With the disruption thing, when it came to the Chicago style I don't think he extended it so much as developed a new version of towers altogether...Quite impressive...I can understand why Koolhaas continues to steal from him".

Finally, Gregory Walker let it be known that he had bought a copy of Peter Zumthor: Buildings and Projects 1986-2013, (now available for pre-order in Paperback), as an early "birthday present" and hedge for funding "child's college education". jw468 thanked him, "I also pre-ordered one of these.  My search for a reasonably-priced copy of the Works book is over.  I wonder how this will impact the value of that book"

Yet, won and don williams queried "Has anyone actually sold their Works for its purported price? All I know is that every architecture student from the late '90s has a copy of it and thinks he or she is sitting on a fortune, but no one has actually cashed in. My feeling is it's more like the Billy Ripken ‘F*ck face’ error card than it is an Honus Wagner T-206."?

To which jw468 answered "the extra edition is better" and Mr. Walker chimed in "won - no idea about what people actually negotiate. one of the issues with the 'Works' book is that, in addition to being collectible to zumthor fans, it's also (apparently) very collectible for fans of helene binet (an artist in her own right). so, two small, niche but rabid audiences looking for the same book. i don't think this one ultimately changes its worth on the secondary market (much), but could very well be wrong".

Additionally

The other day, for about three hours, @fitnr was thinking out loud about what we mean when we say "city":  http://fakeisthenewreal.org/whenisay/

Both Javier Arbona and Dan Phiffer participated and ‘Storified’ the event...HT @sevensixfive