In the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect interviewed Larraine Henning who is currently seeking funding for A Practical Guide to Squatting on Indiegogo. Buy a copy of the book “A Practical Guide to Squatting”, and help support independent art and promote the squatting movement! During the interview, she reflected "I think the most valuable thing architecture school bestowed upon me was tolerance and persistence...School taught me to bear conviction and purpose with whatever project I take on, to be earnest and to take judgement in stride"...

@bawshaw commented "@LandMass - agreed. although the thesis is interesting, this is not out of the box in terms of a career. half of my graduating class ended up taking similar paths; more as a product of the recession than anything else. these paths may be alternative to the modern career, but not to architecture specifically. i do applaud her for doing what she believes in".

Yet Connely Farr disagreed "@ LandMass - yep. you sound like an ass. there are more repectful and positive ways to say what you said...I believe that explorations such as this are incredibly important to careers such as ours (assuming you're an architect). It allows us to see our built (and unbuilt) environment with a different perspective...I believe this is a great example of working out of the box, challenging oneself to be true to oneself despite what people (like you) have to say. It is important".

News
Architecture for Humanity is working with local and regional construction professionals to begin assessments and support rebuilding work after an F-4 tornado ripped through the heart of Moore, OK and surrounding communities. Tiko-G couldn’t help wonder "how many more lives have to be lost, before monopolized construction industry will allow modern technologies to be reinforced in residential construction. it is 21st century already! I will gladly donate with my work, or little money I have, but this has to change".

Orhan Ayyüce celebrated the news that three skyscrapers are to be demolished in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu district for interfering with city's historical silhouette. Decision reached by the 4th. Administrative Court of Istanbul with the use licences of the buildings revoked.

tammuz queried "is it not strange that the restrictions on the tower buildings have been placed near posthumously? is there something fishy (ie political ie not a friend of Erdogan's) going on?...the call is coming from the prime minister himself ...should this not observe and be controlled by municipality regulations (or suchlike?) in the first place?" while 18x32 was surprised "Interesting to hear. If they do come down they'll be among the tallest buildings ever demolished".

Last week Sanjay Bhatt, the Seattle Times business reporter wrote  "Whatever you make of them, the three glass-and-steel spheres Amazon.com has proposed as the ‘heart’ of its high-rise complex in Seattle’s Denny Triangle drew instant reaction Tuesday from online commenters and at a public hearing before a city design review board".

Given had a lot to say "what is with design firms sphere obsession on the west coast?? I could buy an argument of utopian revivalism, but its instantly corrupted by the actual program of a project: a private space for elite workers. I hope that at least it retains a program accessible to all amazon employees, and doesn't become an exec dining/conference area, because that would get even more ridiculous. Also while I agree with the sentiment expressed by the review committee in their aims to try and be more architecturally competitive with the rest of the world, 3 booleaned spheres + 10 minutes in paneling tools or grasshopper aint the solution... Anyways, the negative comments by architects on the review committee are already spot on, they don't need more repeating here”.

In the June 10-17, 2013 edition of The Nation, Michael Sorkin asks Why is Léon Krier defending anew the work of the Third Reich’s master builder? Quondam argued "there couldn't possibly be two easier targets for Sorkin to fire at--like shooting fish in a barrel empty of water. Ironic, too, that the one paragraph were Sorkin actually addresses Speer's architecture is so generic and unspecific that some other critic could use the same sentences to describe any of Sorkin's projects".

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Mitch McEwen documented a quick trip to Istanbul and the Bosphorous.This included a stop at Rex's Vakko headquarters which Mitch believed held its own next to the New Mosque of 1597, "The interior of the Vakko, not so much.  One reads the hurriedness of the project, which was, however, a major aspect of its intelligence".

Haus W in Frankfurt am Main, Germany by Ian Shaw Architekten;

and Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague, The Netherlands by Claus en Kaan Architecten; were just two of the projects featured in the latest post Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Interiors" Pinterest Board.

David Stamatis recently worked on Glitch Gradients

and Margaret Kirk recently worked on Parasitic Technologies.

everydayintern penned Well Hello Graduate! Welcome to the Rest of Your Life in which everydayintern offered some advice "I'm sure there are plenty of graduates who have found the perfect job right after graduation, but I don't think this can be a reasonable expectation for the majority of graduates. You'll have to find work that may not be ideal, but will still help you out as an intern and teach you valuable lessons about yourself and the career in general".

Schools/Blogs
The SCI-Arc/Caltech team will be hosting a Media Day on Wednesday, May 29th at 11:00 AM. They will be giving media and sponsors a sneak preview of what project DALE will look like, give interviews and answer questions pertaining to the Solar Decathlon and the project. Michael Jantzen liked what he saw writing "Very nice"!

Cristopher Sjoberg participating in the G30 course at University of Tokyo, shared "captioned photos of some of the results of our efforts in the G30".

In the last 10 days or so members of design/buildLAB at Virginia Tech surveyed the site and installed concrete formwork for the foundations of their bridge.

In the last semester of Taubman College, hsolie had the privilege "of taking an amazing drawing class with one of the school’s foremost experts on drawing and representation, Perry Kulper. His work has been published extensively, in addition to several posts here on archinect".

hsolie continued "For the purposes of the drawing seminar, the work was split up into (4) drawing assignments which explored various methods of using drawing as a generative operation, instead of merely a representational one". Donna Sink chimed in "Such beautiful work! And the commitment to creating something slowly and by hand is still a resonant practice. Great luck to have taken this course!".

Discussions
jla-x started a thread titled How 3-D printing will change the world.

However, Miles Jaffes threw cold water over the notion "Your basic assumptions are incorrect...As to your molecular printer, very futurologistic, but you've ignored critical issues such as the power necessary to run such a hypothetical device...As for printing an apple, who knows how they are programmed? I'll stick to the ones that grow on trees".

juventus7 replied "I do believe 3D printing WILL decentralise many industries, and I hope it does. To what extent I don't know, and I don't think anyone does. To TRANSFORM common materials in a region to different kind of matter may be possible in the future, I don't see why not” plus accesskb added "I personally know about 5 individuals who are pulling in an easy 100K/year due to 3d printing technology which has allowed them to open up their own businesses".

Manuel Roman started a thread Cookie-cutter - Taboo to say in an arch. office?? He explained "I've always thought of that type of work contradictory to the type of work a ‘design’ architect would do but I guess someone's gotta do the dirty work right?..I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that you have to start somewhere - even if it means baking cookies for a year or two"...

marisco answered "Just because something is designed as a pattern (cookie cutter) does not mean that you cannot use your skills to design it intelligently. Take it as a design challenge to make a better cookie cutter".

A couple of commenters pointed out the profitability angle. For instance bowling_ball shared "I've worked in an office where everything was redesigned for each project (boutique firm) and in a corporate office where standard layouts, patterns (and to some extent, details) are reused where they make sense - which is a balance between hours spent / profitability and the apparent quality of design.  You can guess which firm is profitable". Another wrote the dreaded phrase "maisons de spec".

Finally, Wendell was looking for tips regarding "a manufacturer in the U.S. that makes fiber cement panels similar to Oko Skin by FibreC"?

Russell Higgins provided a clarification "I don't have a U.S. suggestion but I wanted to note that Fibre-c is not the same as a Hardie board or Certainteed product. Fibre-C is a glass reinforced concrete panel whereas Hardie/Certainteed is cementitious fiber board...Fibre-C does not require edge sealing after cutting (though you may see the glass fibers)". Rusty! suggested "Petrarch by CEP. Not sure if manufacturing is done in Florida or UK..."