Amelia Taylor-Hochberg Editorial Manager for Archinect, reviewed the exhibit Never Built: Los Angeles, currently on display at the Architecture and Design Museum in L.A. She concluded "When Los Angeles appears so often but rarely as itself, Andersen’s piece honors the city’s ability to be a kind of transforming icon -- each destination in conversation with its inhabitants.  It's impossible to know exactly what Los Angeles would be like today were these projects successful, but that isn't the point of "Never Built" -- it captures the collective consciousness of a city in the unrealized language of iconic architecture".

News

Justine Testado Archinect’s Editorial Intern highlighted the work of CARDBORIGAMI™, an effort started by Tina Hovsepian to "provide temporary, transitional shelter and connections to social services to help get people off the streets". Her Cardborigami shelter is currently on display at the Berkshire Museum's latest exhibit, "PaperWorks: The Art and Science of an Extraordinary Material" until October 2013.

anthad was surprised "This is absolutely absurd. Why not just make a big cardboard origami sign that says ''I'm a bourgeois architect who doesn't give a shit about the homeless.'  And what asshole would give this a grant? really? Wow". jla-x piled on "I think this exposes a much larger phenomenon in the current academic realm.  A sort of delusion of grandeur regarding the reach, scope, and effect of architecture".

Bustler.net announced the best architects award winners. Organized annually, the program recognizes outstanding architectural design in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the South Tyrol province of Italy. Donna Sink was impressed/depressed "Ugh, god, Europe you rock.  Every one of these projects is gorgeous, especially the warm water reservoir and the Vorarlberg Museum (and I've been to Vorarlberg)".

Over at the NYT, David W Dunlap reviewed the life and work of Natalie de Blois, An Architect Whose Work Stood Out, Even if She Did Not. Ms. de Blois died on July 22 in Chicago, at 92. The article quotes Beverly Willis, the founder and chairwoman of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (which seeks to raise the general consciousness about the role of women in the building industry) "Natalie and Gordon Bunshaft were a team...He took all the credit and she did all the work".

boy in the well responded "wow. Gordon sounds like a real douche".

A new prefab tubular addition to an original 19th building, designed by Jakob+MacFarlane for the Regional Contemporary Art Fund Centre (FRAC) in Orleans France, is now completed and will be inaugurated on September 14th. 

Steven Ward was curious "so the frame is made off site, fastened together on site, and then skinned and finished? except for the forms, is that unusual? not that this isn't cool: the story should have been about the process of translating the digital form-making into a viable building. i expect the frame wasn't actually the difficult part. it was the custom skin elements that could make this a more interesting story. but these are likely much more hand fitted than the 'prefab' label would suggest. thank goodness for sealant!"...

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Alec Perkins, an intern working for Tatiana Bilbao's office, visited the hillside town of Cuetzalan recently. This led him to reflect on cultures of public space. He wrote "The biggest question left for me, however, would this kind of space work in the US? I've seen so many of my classmates, and myself included, include public outdoor spaces in our site designs or masterplans labeled variously as ‘community space’, ‘public plaza,’ or worst, ‘event space.’ When was the was last time you deliberately went to a large public outdoor space in a US city? What kind of events do you expect people to have?".

Hedge House in Wijlre, the Netherlands by Wiel Arets Architects and River Safari in Singapore by DP Architects Pte.Ltd were just two of the projects featured recently on the Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Interiors" Pinterest Board.

do mal o menos posted photos and information re: a Swimming Pool in Chamusca da Beira by João Mendes Ribeiro. The pool house "is coated with polished stainless steel sheets that, by being highly reflective, allow the camouflage of the volume on its surroundings, dematerialising its presence and visually extending the landscape".

Aaron Willette the new coordinator of University of Michigan’s FABLab alerted interested readers to the fact that he and his business partner Rob Trumbour have started up SummerBuild a two-week computation/design/build workshop in scenic Rockport, MA. The final product of the workshop will be a temporary installation at Lumber (lum-bah) Wharf in downtown Rockport.
 

Schools/Blogs

Harold-Sprague Solie shared a link to a video of his team presenting their  Fall 2012 project entitled, deferentialCONSTRUCTIONS, at the [En]coding Architecture conference at Carnegie Mellon University this past February. He also attributed his blogging absence first to "a post-graduation malaise" and also "moving (back) to Boston and starting an exciting new job in the always eventful world of architecture".

Patrick Beseda, who along with a fellow student from University of Colorado Denver is working on FOUNDhouse a microhouse, for which the CNC work is almost done. They have been "simultaneously building the house on site  and cutting the pieces on the CNC".

Discussions
vipul_u wanted to discuss the "Use of paper modelling techniques in the study of architecture" and is planning on publishing "a book on the use of paper modelling in architecture". gruen asked for clarification "What do you mean by paper modeling?" Meanwhile lamp4036 agreed with Miles. "just finished up my second graduate semester studio at Illinois-Chicago and the entire studio was predicated on building paper models, establishing one concept through development of an idea that is a direct resultant of iterative process of paper modelling".

there is no there chimed in "When you say paper modeling techniques in architecture, it makes me think of topological studies, like Mobius strips (which I just noticed got a mention on Thread Central this morning too)...We had a good studio project where we had to choose a simple yet complex 3-D object (like a spoon) out of a flat piece of paper. I thought it was very beneficial".

S.Kirby needed helping sourcing "some inspiration and precedents in the area of underground, or partially underground buildings". marisco pointed to Make Architects Bolton Eco House as one example, while Janosh added "Malcolm Wells was the guy".

Finally, Evan Chakroff started a thread to get tips or a good map for Vancouver Architecture?

Additionally
Medium published The Ecuadorian Library
or, The Blast Shack After Three Years, an essay wherein Bruce Sterling explored the context and ramifications of the recent epic photo of "Richard Stallman — the Saint Francis of Free Software, the kind of raw crank who preaches to birds and wanders the planet shoeless – shoulder-to-shoulder with an unshaven Assange, sporting his manly work shirt. The two of them, jointly holding up a little propaganda pic of Edward Snowden".