Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Editorial Manager for Archinect, traveled to Aedes Network Campus Berlin as a fly-on-the-wall, and reported back with 7 Lessons from the 3rd International Architectural Education Summit. These were; 1) The relevancy of the “Architect” is fleeting, 2) Kids today don’t know a thing about radicalism, 3) The powers that be are male, and architecture is a gender-divisive practice, 4) Architects need to be “strategically naive”, 5) Architectural authority is not above democratic authority (?), 6) Form before finances and lastly 7) The student has become the master (at least regarding computers).

In response Thayer-D opined "The main problem with architectural education isn't the lack of branding or radicalism, or even male dominated pedagogy (although that does suck).  It's the lack of faith that tackling the myriad of issues associated with any given project will result in the most compelling and present project possible, regardless of one's aesthetic proclivities"...

The latest edition of Archinect’s In Focus series, dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better, featured Los Angeles-based architectural photographer Nico Marques. Therein Nico, relates his joy at discovering that "LA is of course somewhat of an ‘epicenter’ of high design architecture in the US and in the world.  The amount of renowned and lauded architects who live and practice in this city is staggering...Then there is an amazing amount of younger architects who are hungry...Being an architectural photographer in Los Angeles is like being a kid in a candy store, after drinking a super-sized Coke"…

News
The National Film Board of Canada and the NY Times released a four-part interactive documentary about the fascinating past, present and future of high-rise living in cities around the world. Titled A Short History of the Highrise the project is an interactive documentary "inspired by the ways pop-up storybooks have been reinvented for digital tablets like the iPad".

18x32 criticized "The decision to animate historic photos is really distracting, especially when the image opens with something removed, like a crowd or building, only to have it grow or skate into the frame. It's very misleading. Similarly when parallax or focus effects are introduced, I really cant trust the sources, and to a lesser degree when flags, laundry, or smoke starts blowing in the wind, it just distracts from the content of the photograph...It's especially unnerving given the NY Times' strict stance against photomanipulation"....

Over at Architect the magazine, Thomas de Monchaux waxed poetic regarding the Sydney Opera House's 40th anniversary and Jørn Utzon. Fred Scharmen was moved to comment "Utterly fantastic drawings" with which Quilian Riano agreed "Right? I have always had the suspicion that this building is awfully underrated and these drawings are strong evidence for that".

Justine Testado posted a link to "Gone with the Fog" - winner of the ArchTriumph Venice Biennale Pavilion 2013. peacedong couldn't understand "Why block the perfect view of the sea?" and citizen chimed in "That titular nod to the Civil War South (fog > wind) just seems odd…"

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Vat Jaiswal started a blog Not shown for clarity. Originally from Canada but currently traveling in Valencia, Spain, he "will be traveling to Brazil, Taiwan and South Korea for the entire upcoming year". For his first post Burning Man 2013: City, Culture, Art & Architecture he wrote "Burning man is pretty much an architect’s dream playground. There were around 8-10 large building like experimental structures and 10-15 smaller ones- all made of wood so they could burn. It must be exciting to design structures that not only function and look good, but also burn well!...I was quite impressed with the structural engineering and was wondering if they were all approved by professional engineers for safety reasons. Anybody knows?". He also shared a video he made of his time there.

Justin Wang pointed out "Iowa State actually (used to?) run a Burning Man summer studio involving construction of installations for the event, I think the only academic course in the world involving a visit to Burning Man" and posted links to some of the work.

Residence in North Haven, NY by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership; and Net-Zero Energy House in Cupertino, CA by Klopf Architecture; were just two of the projects found in the recent post Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Interiors" Pinterest Board.

Alec Perkins who until recently was an intern working for Tatiana Bilbao's office, finally had a chance to visit CENART, Mexico's National Center for the Arts, a large campus of many of the national art schools. The campus features buildings designed by Legorreta, TEN arquitectos, and Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon all in the same place and he laments "I am a bit disappointed that I only made it here on my last weekend in Mexico City after living here six months".

Schools/Blogs

In his post titled Architecture Art and Earthquake, Will Galloway writes about the studio he is teaching this year at Keio University with Kazuyo Sejima and Hiroto Kobayashi. The studio is focusing on Japan's aging and shrinking population, and the island of Inujima, thus he writes "As studios go, it is the first time in a while that we are not looking to find new ways to deal with disaster".

Quondam offered up a small correction "It seems that the Bennesse Art Site is more [about] muse[um]ification ‘has saved the day’ rather than ‘architecture has saved the day’".

Alec Saline a 5th year graduate student of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Architecture started a blog.

jesusmaldonado provided an update on how his M.Arch studies at Columbia University were affecting his mental health, "Breakdown count increased from four to eight since the last time I updated...I am having a difficult time at the school, but trying to keep a positive attitude throughout the experience".

This semester at CCA, Jeffrey Maeshiro is enrolled in Jason Kelly Johnson's (co-founder of Future Cities Lab) Creative Architecture Machines advanced options studio, "Co-taught with Michael Shiloh, a community manager with Arduino, this studio's focus is on operational architecture through robotics...The first three weeks was concentrated on engineering a machine that produces two-dimensional drawings".

Discussions
MountainBoy noticed a posting for an internship at KLINGMANN Architects & Brand Consultants which led him to declare Archinect needs to ban Unpaid Interships Postings.

For his part won and don williams believed "Ummm... archinect, I think this one deserves a response".

Meanwhile, at Thread Central Steven Ward relayed some news "vindication is good. a project of ours has leaked since it opened two years ago...today we got to cut a hole in the wall at the area in question and - lo and behold! - the base track of the stud wall was full of water at exactly the condition i had pointed out back then...of course i won't be compensated for the hours and hours i've put into this situation over the past two years...i hate this business".

Donna Sink couldn’t believe it "Metal studs below grade.  Lovely.  Glad you were vindicated, Steve; sorry it means no financial remuneration for you". Summing up the situation Miles Jaffe explained “Common practice is to sue everyone. Then the architect and the builder get to spend money blaming each other in an attempt to escape liability while the owner sits back and watches. If you approved contractor invoices for work that didn't meet spec ...In any case, not a cheap and easy fix now".

Finally, Jeffrey Dunn was curious if anyone else has heard anything here on Archinect re: The Storefront for Art & Architecture's Competition of Competitions? "My team submitted a proposal nearly 2 months ago and they haven't made any kind of announcement regarding jury selection or when decisions will be made. I've tried contacting them a number of times but no information".

Additionally
Barry Lehrman announced the arrival of the Aqueduct Futures Video which was "Filmed this spring with students from LA499 Aqueduct Futures Practicum" at Cal Poly Pomona.