For the latest edition of the In Focus series Archinect talked to California-based photographer Peter Wegner. The piece starts off provocatively with this quote from Mr Wegner,

"More than that, I like the unbuilt environment – the place where the architecture leaves off. Is there way to structure that nothingness in a photograph?"

Meanwhile, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg ShowCase(ed) kadawittfeldarchitectur’s Archaeological Pavilion in Aachen, Germany.

News

The Living was selected to re-design MoMA PS1's courtyard this summer. The Living's proposal, titled "Hy-Fi", will feature circular organic brick towers made of corn stalk and living root structures. Set to open in late June, the temporary installation will be a memorable summer spectacle

In response Fred Scharmen (who thinks it is a "a gorgeous piece") commented "My initial reaction to this scheme centers around that phrase ‘self assembling’ that shows up in the video around the 00:36 mark...This is slightly problematic. The implication is that the tower will grow spontaneously, but as we know, these PS1 YAP projects depend heavily on the often donated labor of students, friends, and volunteers...Maybe there is a plan in place to organize and compensate the labor of the individuals who will lay the brick, and I'm being unfair to The Living, whose work I admire greatly. Maybe they'll build it with quadcopter drones?"...

5468796 Architecture’s Sasa Radulovic and Johanna Hurme reflect on the third installment of their Table for Twelve series, where they traveled to Tokyo to meet their dinner host and principal of frontofficetokyo, William Galloway, during Tokyo Designers Week.

Thinking about their meeting/conversation with Fumihiko Maki they write;

"This statement summarizes the flaws in our perception, and makes our task of finding out what makes design and architecture important around the world infinitely more complex. The difference in how architects and the public perceive the built environment in Denmark is entirely opposite to Japan. Where Europeans look at architecture as a cultural export, the Japanese appreciate it through craft and careful building that is completely un-exportable".

FarahTell recommended watching "Arab Women in Architecture" a documentary produced as part of the activities of the 2013 sixth cycle of the Omrania | CSBE Student Award for Excellence in Architectural Design.

The international 1 x ∞ Ideas Competition announced three Winners and four Honorable Mentions. Even though there aren't specific plans underway to actually realize the entries in Evansville, AIA Indiana chapter who hosted the event felt the site was "a representation of a common design problem in urban areas across the U.S."... Miles Jaffee flippantly queried "guess a hypothetical project doesn't require a buildable structure. So what's the point?"

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates

In a post titled THIS IS YOUR FATHER'S LICENSE, Orhan Ayyüce skewers the absurdities of continuing education tests and learning about Generation Y. 

Quondam added "advertise...educate...indoctrinate...today's [AIA continuing] education 1a? a pot-luck stew b? one size (of the above) fits all".

On Feb 7th Francine Houben (creative director of Mecanoo whose Library of Birmingham, opened in 2013) was named Woman Architect of the Year 2014 in the UK by Architects’ Journal.

Modular Variations - Prototype II in Minneapolis, MN by Variable Projects with students of Modular Variations Design Studio and Crematorium Heimolen in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium by KAAN Architecten were just two of the projects found in the post Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Concrete" Pinterest Board.

School/Blogs
BenC whose blog is on-going documentation of the work happening in Carleton University's semester-long work for the Directed Studio Abroad to Helsinki, Finland is using the the Aalto University FabLab "to explore the CNC as a representative tool for the bronze casting mold". This will be his contribution to a class project which will re-create Nolli’s map of Rome.

NewSchool of Architecture and Design announced Gregory J. Marick as its president, he brings more than 15 years of experience in the education arena to his new role at the school. While she has nothing against Mr. Marick, Donna Sink couldn’t help it "I'll drop this here and note that the interim president he's replacing is a Hispanic female. I wonder if she was included in the ACSA's count?". The "here" being an infographic from ACSA visualizing "Gender in Architecture School Leadership".

Brandon Featherstone, currently a fourth year architecture major at Cal Poly Pomona, shared that his fellow students are developing a plan to decarbonize the LA 2030 district in downtown Los Angeles, while generating and maintaining healthy urban neighborhoods.

Discussions
ordchicago wanted to know how Corten should "look as a new material"?

snooker-doodle-dandy helpfully chimed in "it should have some stamps on it which call out the metal..., A606.  If it hasn't been degreased then it will look  kinda slate black.  I would post you a picture but I don't recall how to post pictures here"....

However other commentator had a bit more fun, for instance Non Sequitur answered "I am a strong supporter that all corten steel should be painted bright pink" while Saint in the City added "Forget CorTen -- CorTen sucks.   All the cool kids are using CorEleven".

ghobbs is looking for precedent suggestions for "public buildings of any purpose which were built around about the 1920's and which have large glass roofs"? Thecyclists listed the Austrian Postal Savings Bank but noted it "was built between before 1910 " and citizen argued although built in 1893, the Bradbury Building is "sine qua non in any discussion glass-roofed spaces".

Finally, Aristotle started a thread to discuss Why do drawing people get type-casted? Specifically, "I am naturally skilled at drawing and every workplace I end up in, asks me to do drawing work".

SneakyPete thought it ironic "I found the exact opposite at my first job. Since then I have decided to stop pining for the greener grass and simply find joy doing whatever task I am asked to do. If I find that isn't working, I start looking for a new job". Similarly stone advised "It might be interesting to put together a credentials package that does not include - or does not emphasize so strongly - your hand drawing capabilities. Go on some job interviews with that credentials package and see how prospective employers react".

Additionally
Over at openDemocracy Sam Barton penned an essay Gentrification: how do we define it and who cares anyway? Therein he writes; 

"Does the destruction of the Heygate Estate (see here, here and here) ‘count’ as gentrification? Does each new restaurant mean an increase in rent? Does a Google shuttle bus make displacement inevitable? Is rural gentrification a thing? Who cares? The point is that people who live in these neighbourhoods are angry, and gentrification can be a word for what they are angry at - and nobody outside these places has the right to question that".