The latest edition of Student Works: highlighted three different pop-up shops designed and built by some students at Tsinghua University in Beijing for their "Tectonic Studio". Constructed for under 2500 RMB (569 USD or 412 EUR), the program was to store and sell t-shirts.

arllita felt they were "beautifully designed and provide an efficient solution to rolling storage! Do you know if they or something similar are available for sale and, if so, are you able to direct me?"

Meanwhile, the ninth edition of Screen/Print: featured: The Air from Other Planets: A Brief History of Architecture to Come  by Sean Lally. The featured excerpt is from the introduction where Lally proposes;

"Instead of thinking of architecture as a mass of inert and ossified energy—even stone and steel were not always solid masses—standing as walls in opposition to their surroundings and carving out interior space, why not look to intensify those very energy systems we know are capable of creating microclimates and distinct ecosystems so as to make them architectural materials themselves?"

News
Gregory Walker called attention to the announcement that Freelon Group has bought by Perkins + Will. Mr. Walker lamented "This one just hurts. Even though we'd run across the Freelon Group on project RFP's occasionally, I've long admired how he's built up his firm and was able to compete against the bigger companies, especially in the cultural arena...is there anyone left who they haven't acquired?"

Over at the Huffington Post, Monica Gray talked to Travis Price a professor of architecture at Catholic University and fellow of the American Institute of Architects about his work, which focuses on restoring the "spirit of place" to modern design.  By providing an alternative to the "sprawl, mall and tall" trend, of generic suburban architectur,e today

curtkram believed "we could use better architects, not more bullshit.  talking about sprawl in units per square foot, residents per square foot, usable square foot per mile, or something like that would be more helpful...maybe leed 4.0 can include a credit for 'soul.'" Responding to some earlier commenters, Steven Ward suggested "it's goofy to say that this is a modern/non-modern argument. it's an ill-considered, careless developer-driven building economy vs architecture argument...price's is an argument for people to pay attention to their environment...'give the people what they want' is obviously not always the right answer...'get people to think and learn and work toward a better, richer answer' may be".

Editorial Manager Amelia Taylor-Hochberg recapped Wolf D. Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s, 4th annual Raimund Abraham memorial lecture last week  at SCI-Arc. She noted "Wolf’s lecture focused on the lasting futurism of Abraham’s work and its continuing relevance in the context of a digital society". Donna Sink was freaked out by one of the images from the post "That Janus figure slide is freaking me out.  Note they can both talk but neither can hear - is this symbolic of architects?"

Bustler.net published the Winning results of the Çanakkale Antenna Tower competition in Turkey. Orhan Ayyüce responded to the win by asserting, "the best one won".

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates
The Los Angeles Biennale in Shenzhen posts a teaser, for a "upcoming book of what happened in Shenzhen and what and who we are".

Kevalin by Royd Zhang and Old City Public Library by Nikos Nasis were just two of the projects found in the latest Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Student Work" Pinterest Board.

XML Architecture Research Urbanism have been appointed course directors of the new temporary masters program ‘Designing Democracy’, that will start this September at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.

Chris Teeter started a blog to document his interviews with "OBO" Olaf "Design Ninja", a man full of random thoughts and legendary type of architectural experiences. The first post is titled Interview: June 9, 2013, 2:30pm and includes an editorial note - (based on true stories).
 

School/Blogs
On their UIC School of Architecture affiliated blog cfearo2 writes about some of the excellent undergraduate work coming out of our building’s west wing.  As well as the privilege of being a student worker at the Laser Lounge and attending a review of Grant Gibson’s studio.

This past Friday February 7th, the Abedian School of Architecture building - designed by Peter Cook/Gavin Robotham of CRAB Studio, London - was opened by local Australian dignitaries, guests, and students.

Currently completing an MIT M.Arch, lizziey took some time to reflect on Architecture, Equality and the Feminist Wall of Shame. archinet shared her own view from the trenches "I feel really dismal about the whole situation. Its bad, men want to mentor men...I have a male mentor but he's gay...I don't know what the solution can be. I try every day but its bad".

Discussions

Patrick Beseda had a question - Why are we talking about construction cost in studio?Further "in a hypothetical project with no budget, why are we talking about the budget?" LITS4FormZ  answered "Sounds like your professor might have actually spent some time in the real world, a rarity in academia...I can't see an incredibly detailed cost breakdown being necessary but a reasonable $/SF limit would refreshing in studio". 

jyount10 argued, "Every decision you make in school should be focused on adding value, and if it adds value, cost should not be an issue. Considering it any further short circuits the creativity & problem solving you're trying to learn"

Zenning wanted to know if "Sequential Tendering" was allowed in Shanghai? midlander answered "I've worked in China for about 4 years - in my experience tendering has always been handled by the Local Design Institute with little involvement from foreign design consultants. By law foreign-owned design firms are limited to work up through DD stage, after which the LDI takes over". Geok Ser Lee wasn’t sure "what exactly do you mean by sequential tendering. What I do know is sub-sub-contracting is banned. ie A sub-contractor who had won a nominated sub-contract cannot further sub-contract the work out to someone else thereby making them a mere middle men".

Finally, liznieve complained I don't want to be my office's BIM manager. Unfortunately liznieve loves "Revit and really championed our conversion to it. However, I am the only one in the office who has really used it in a professional setting".

Saint in the City recommended "from what you've mentioned, I would sit down with the partner(s)  -- soon -- and have a initial discussion...At my last job the same thing happened -- get the big job, THEN figure out the necessary Revit skills.  The project got done, but this was not a good approach...Definitely worth bringing up the subject in the next office meeting so you can manage some expectations as to your role".

Though Non Sequitur noted "I know a few large offices that have hired full time BIM managers and their wages easily cross into the 6-figure mark" legopiece also advised, "If you are in a position to demand a higher salary do it..Just a small piece of advice don't try to over control every aspect of your project file".