While the projects had wildly different end products, they both had a similar starting point: focusing on how to ease people’s lives. And that is a central lesson at the school, which is pushing students to rethink the boundaries for many industries.

At the heart of the school’s courses is developing what David Kelley, one of the school’s founders, calls an empathy muscle. — New York Times

"During that time, Ireland allowed a kind of honor code building inspection. The result is that many people paid high prices for houses that are fire hazards or sinking in bogs or are built with faulty foundations or missing drainage systems, a problem that is even harder and more expensive to solve." — NYT

Although superlative residential architectural works are elegant mirrors of their times and an important aspect of the city’s cultural heritage, the pressures of property values, changed styles of living (the craze for open kitchens and great rooms have doomed many period homes), and property owners’ rights often outweigh the glories of the past. The demolition of amazing, one-of-a-kind architectural homes is an all too frequent occurrence in LA, despite epic efforts by preservationists. — la-confidential-magazine.com

Last week, the city of Phoenix made a startling announcement. The Arizona capital had previously identified 222 chronically homeless veterans living in the city, more than half of them veterans of the Vietnam War. [...]

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said last week that every last one of them now had a roof overhead. The city has effectively ended chronic veteran homelessness, according to the mayor [...].

Phoenix did this – prioritizing housing first, then wrapping other services around it. — theatlanticcities.com

"Starting from small things", motto of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, we begin to grasp the view of a man's goal to "recover the traditional Japanese building." From philosophy of nature and materiality to personal taste in film and music, Kuma travels to San Diego to share his influences and insight on the world of architecture with design students from Woodbury School of Architecture.

Many of the contested demolitions in 2013 involved structures that were once considered innovative, but just a few decades later, have been labeled "obsolete." This fact heats up some food for thought: Just how future-proof are the "futuristic" buildings that are being proposed and built now? — theatlanticcities.com

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg Editorial Manager for Archinect features BI's inaugural publication, "FREE" in Screen/Print #3. Donna Sink LOVED "the cover of this periodical! So satirical".

In the summer of 2011, photographer Victoria Cohen heard that the Chelsea Hotel would undergo drastic renovations to the structure, which was built in 1884. She spent three weeks documenting every nook and cranny of the building and the result is Hotel Chelsea, a collection of photographs of the interior in its authentic, untouched state, as so many knew and loved it. — Fast Company

It is the fault of the public’s “indifference to good design”, rather than “corporate greed” of building companies, argues Mr de Botton, founder of Living Architecture and honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba).

“They merely want to make money and they have zero confidence (rightly) that we would follow them in the venture of delivering quality at the necessary price.” — independent.co.uk

MASS found a critical flaw in the ad hoc system: contaminated waste was being dumped illegally, frequently ending up right back in the water table. In response, MASS designed a facility with two distinct but equally vital jobs: it treats both people and their waste water. — Wired

Participants in Reality Cues' cheeky Eco-Porn Competition got to have some fun with the green architecture trend. But since there weren't enough submissions to go through with the full judging process, only Honorable Mentions were given. — bustler.net

The most visible legacy of Communist rule, the grand and often eye-catching buildings have become a source of heated debate in Poland with critics condemning them as an ugly and unwanted reminder of a past best forgotten. Defenders stress their architectural merits and argue that the buildings are now part of the national heritage. — economist.com