A 28-year-old Richard Meier received his first and by far most modest commission from the artist Saul Lambert back in 1962. “Lambert had purchased a very small site on the ocean, on Fire Island,” says Meier, “and said, ‘We don’t have very much money—actually, we have $9,000 to spend on the construction of this house. Could you design something for us?’ ” — New York Magazine

China's wealthy patrons like Mr. Lu's family are underwriting a major cultural boom, spending billions of yuan on grand buildings to showcase impressive collections of art, antiques and other cultural rarities. Their largesse and ambitions echo American industrialists who sponsored the arts in the early years of the 20th century... — online.wsj.com

Following a strong architectural language of repetition, movement, rhythm, and proportion the ‘weeksville heritage center’ designed by American firm caples jefferson architects PC serves as a gateway to a 19th century african-american freedman’s settlement. the sustainably built complex is located in brooklyn, new york and features a new two-story, 23,000 sq ft building and 41,000 sq ft of landscape that redefines the site’s context. — designboom.com

3xLP by Christopher Romano and Nicholas Bruscia has been announced as the winner of SKIN, the international digital fabrication competition from the TEX-FAB Digital Fabrication Alliance. The competition began with 68 entries from 14 countries from which four finalists and four honorable mentions were selected by the First Round Jury back in July.

Out of the four finalist entries, which were all exhibited at the ACADIA Adaptive Architecture conference, the Second Round Jury decided on 3xLP. — bustler.net

"As Autumn Leaves" by the Laboratory for Computational Design (LCD) is an art installation that mixes the emotive with precise computational design. The piece was installed during Beijing Design Week 2013 from Sept. 26 - Oct. 3. — bustler.net

After passing to the widow of Barragán’s business partner, it was sold in 1994 to a wealthy Swiss couple, Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Vitra, the international furniture company and design museum, and the woman who was to become his wife, Federica Zanco, an architectural scholar. In the years since, Ms. Zanco has devoted her life to promoting Barragán’s legacy. But her determination to keep the archive at Vitra headquarters near Basel has rankled many in Mexico... — nytimes.com

"I saw churches from the many different denominations that shaped this city’s skyline: a squat Armenian cathedral from the 14th century with a jumble of intersecting roofs; a huge 17th-century Baroque church built by the Jesuits and modeled on the Church of the Gesù in Rome; Ukrainian Orthodox three-dome churches" — NYT

A German biohacker by the name of Tim Cannon has cut open his arm and embedded a Circadia 1.0 computer that transmits his biometric data to his Android devices. [...]

“I think that our environment should listen more accurately und more intuitively to what’s happening in our body,” Cannon explained. “So if, for example, I’ve had a stressful day, the Circadia will communicate that to my house and will prepare a nice relaxing atmosphere for when I get home: dim the lights, let in a hot bath.” — Geeky Gadgets