Orhan Ayyüce published an interview with José Oubrerie, who he met in February at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and later drove with to the Schindler House on Kings Road. Queried about the current state of architectural education Oubrerie, claims

"The job they do is even bigger problem because 95% what Americans build is not architecture. Nothing historic, they are big but they are not architecture".

Evan Chakroff commented "It's interesting that Jose mentions the French Cultural Center in Damascus. I've tried to find documentation of the project for years, without much luck. Jose includes a few faded slides in his lectures from time to time, but it remains a bit of a mystery....."

Plus, Petros Phokaides, Loukas Triantis and Iris Polyzos penned an editorial Response to Screen/Print #6, MONU's "Greater Urbanism".

News

The Guardian unveiled plans for Frank Gehry’s first buildings in England. 

Orhan Ayyüce couldn’t help wondering "From what I see, they are proposing to build a 700 unit wall around the power station. Somebody who is not that familiar with London I am not sure what it really means. Can anybody speak of this iconic building's blockage".

The ensuing discussion led curtkram to ask some commentators "are you suggesting idealistic architects who want to make the world a better place should drop out of the profession and become teachers instead?  not bad advice certainly, but it doesn't leave much room for a person to actually work in the field, does it?".

Later tammuz argued "now, in terms of how this reflects on architects: i think you should start with the larger picture that implies different levels of viewing architects - as an affiliated part of (currently near-non existent) society (explained below), as a group of affiliated professionals , as safeguards of the built environment, as safeguards of the local production forces in preference to global, as safeguards of local communities and their cultures AND, in their own right, as bearers of intellectual traditions...it is a sorry sight to see someone brandishing architects around as providers of service only".

Somewhat surprisingly, the NYT reported Applications Fall and Admission Rate Rises as Cooper Union Charges Tuition. Miles Jaffe quipped "It's only the poor who will miss out. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke".

Justine Testado released the news that David Chipperfield's "Nobelhuset" is the winning design for the new Nobel Center in Stockholm. Darkman was impressed "Those night renderings are some of the best i've seen in a while. So good".

Archinect was delighted to present the next edition of 5468796 Architecture's travelogue, in which architect Johanna Hurme reflects on the sixth edition of Table for Twelve, which took place in New York City on March 12th.
 

Firms/Blogs/Work Updates

Robert Hull, the creative force behind the highly successful and deeply respected firm The Miller Hull Partnership, passed away due to complications from a recent stroke.

Tristan Emig recently worked on Computational Architecture while Xueting Wei worked on Plastic Fabrication.

House Halffloors in Espinho, Portugal by 1+1 Arquitectos, Lda., 

and Le Saint-Jude in Montreal, Canada by T B A  were just two of the projects found in the post Ten Top Images on Archinect's "Stairs" Pinterest Board.
 

School/Blogs

onetwelveksa at Knowlton School - The Ohio State University shared Bigger Darby, a land use proposal for the 84 square mile territory, governed by Big Darby Accord in Central Ohio. The project proposes a "landscape-based approach to contemporary watershed planning".

Over at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture blog, ACSA Director of Research + Information, Lian Chikako Chang, released a new set of graphics from the ACSA Atlas project.

Of note "Our ranks of full-time tenure-track assistant professors are also much less diverse than our student bodies".

Donna Sink loved, "having this information from a reliable source and so easy to access..I'm shocked to see that while there was a huge drop off in architecture student numbers after the 1990 market crash, the numbers from 2008 until now have done nothing but go up".

NewSchool of Architecture and Design(NSAD) reminded folks of a public lecture on April 16 featuring Brigitte Shim, principal of the Toronto based design firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects.

Discussions
Young Architect posted an infographic which beautifully outlines the life of an architecture project and its relationships between: Owner, Architect, Contractor, Time and Money, during a typical architecture project. BenC appreciated the tip, as someone entering their "last year of M.Arch and looking to completing the IDP/ExaC process afterwards, this is incredibly helpful. Much appreciated". However, square had to gripe "wish this was more visual".

vytautas had a question about co-teaming culture. Based on experience "I'm finding, despite good intentions, is that the ubiquitous co-teaming model is not any different from a traditional/ corporate structure". grneggandsam suggested the real problem is "that people are selfish and will take as much domain as possible to gain larger responsibility and be promoted".

Finally, inspired by recent events, Volunteer started a thread Landslides and architects. chigurh believed "don't see how the architect would be responsible for factors outside of their control..Other than that, I would say they have no responsibility". jitter12 wrote "What we do is require a geotechnical investigation be provided by the Owner of the property with specific design recommendations".

mightyaa advised "Just learn to read a geotech report and know what you are looking at so you can raise that redflag and say WTF is this garbage".
 

Additionally
Professor Tom Slater (from University of Edinburgh) wrote Unravelling False Choice Urbanism wherein explains;

"The Columbian encounter was uneven development by genocide and false treaty: accumulation by colonial dispossession. Today it’s the world urban system of cities competing for investors and creative-class gentry on the new urban frontier...False choice urbanism, more than anything else, is a pure exemplar of what Paul Gilroy has called the 'poverty of the imagination' [18]. It thrives on the idea that more and more economic growth (represented by the mirage of ‘reinvestment’) is the answer to a crisis created by such greed, and thus it deflects attention away from the systemic failures and policy blunders that create, widen and reinforce urban inequalities".