The latest edition of Showcase; featured a complete redesign of the Law Faculties and Central Administration Buildings at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), by CRAB Studio.

News
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Last week Bustler.net highlighted the winners from the 39th annual KRob Architectural Delineation competition, the longest running architectural drawing competition in the world. Six winners, three juror citations, and 21 finalists were selected this year.

While he thought it was "All awesome work" Harold-Sprague Solie was particularly impressed "The entry by Chris Bennett is probably my personal favorite".

Toronto’s The Grid, dug into the cost of a corner intersection’s infrastructure, as an example of "messy urbanism". Following a comment from observant, Non Sequitur posted "consider the nail to be hit square on the head. Your comments are dead-on".

Quiliano Riano pointed out there is a new tumblr blog that looks at "outrageously gender-imbalanced lecture series, etc." send observed inequalities to feministwall at gmail dot com. archinet quipped "that list is going to get looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong". citizen asked "Can we get outrageous racial imbalance in there, too"?

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
Over at the blog Starting up Awesome chronicling Richard and Stefano trying to start their dream practice: Osom Architects, bigness gives advice on How to lose a job. The moral "If you've done your work well, and recorded all decisions along the way, you are untouchable. Design with heart, work with brains, manage with balls".

observant lamented "Unfortunately, CYA documentation is part and parcel of good practice.  Some will flout it.  It doesn't need to be bureaucratic, just thorough".

Recently Jeff Greene worked on a photo of Liljestrand house in Honolulu. Architect Vladimir Ossipoff while Stephan Graebner worked on ...starting a new period of life...

Summarizing a self-filmed/edited short, Vat Jaiswal came up with a total of 41 points regarding Calatrava’s Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias in Valencia, Spain. observant argued "In his simpler compositions, meaning those with fewer geometries to study, Calatrava's work is more elegant and the starkness of one or two bolder forms make a stronger statement".

Schools/Blogs
Evan Chakroff discussed the process of map-gathering for his upcoming trip in December with several OSU professors and 30 students on a two-week architecture tour of Japan.

The problem - "over 400 buildings on our ‘master list’ and over 150 assigned as student research" the solution - a combination of online maps (for live navigation) as well a printed resource/handbook.

Alec Saline, a 5th year graduate student of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Architecture authored a post (only his second ever on Archinect). He wrote about his current project in Healthcare Design Studio, a proposal for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's new student health center.

lizziey who is currently pursuing an M.Arch and MCP from MIT writes "Given the many questions I've received lately on my foray into simultaneous dual degree land, I thought it might be useful to do a little Q & A with myself (which I hope is not too presumptuous)..."

Matthew Messner apologized for his almost two month absence, but he has "kept quite busy with competitions, writing, attending events and galleries, as well as sleeping more than in previous years.  I must say, my health has drastically improved".

Discussions
0e8r0908  started a thread looking for answers how to subvert the culture of pretentious bullshit at my school? Before answering Donna Sink wanted an example "Can you post an example? Not of work, but of what someone has said *about* work"? boy in a well reacted more harshly "you sound just as irritating as the asshats you're complaining about".

All in all Steven Ward had the best words of wisdom "if the discussion gets to opaque, just say 'i don't know what you mean,' until it comes out in a way that means something relevant...(note: i'm not picking on those who use difficult vocabulary)..."

archblah is thinking of "using House NA / Sou Fujimoto as the contemporary example" in a paper exploring Raumplan. crimsondream opined "The raumplan is interesting because of its experiential quality. The section is key. The hierarchy of spaces is defined at different levels...Ex. Practically any adolf loos project...I think the stuff that sou fujimoto does at house NA is closer to paul rudolph as stacking and interlocking volumes than what loos does which is to have a rigid exterior with staggered levels inside. (pezo von ellrichshausen is by far the best example and japanese tokyo apts with punctured windows)". Helpfully, gruen reminded Non Sequitur "Villa Mueller, Prague".

Finally, rdfrdf needs help "can someone find me the topographic plans of the ‘Casa de vidro (Glass House)’ of Lina Bo Bardi"?

Additionally
In a post titled finance fundamentals Stephen Becker, one half of architectural research, design, and development cartel Mammoth, penned a  piece in which he runs through a "few basic financial definitions and principles used in the real estate industry" including concepts such as Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Net Present Value (NPV), Discount Rates, Net Operating Income (NOI), Cap Rates, and Loan to Value (LtV).