“The form was reinvented to an extent,” says Yanni Loukissas, a postdoc in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). And while the question of exactly which design changes should be credited to Utzon or Arup’s firm has been a matter of some dispute, the building, Louskissas says, stands as “an example where the engineer was instrumental in reshaping the project.” — web.mit.edu

After a series of acclaimed installations around the world, Munro will be bringing his Fields of Light back to the project’s birthplace at Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the heart of the Australian red desert in 2013. The installation will be his largest to date, and it will be powered entirely by solar energy. — Inhabitat

By now, many of us are aware of the Leap Motion, a small, $70 gesture control system that simply plugs into any computer and, apparently, just works. If you've seen the gesture interfaces in Minority Report, you know what it does. More importantly, if you're familiar with the touch modality -- and at this point, most of us are -- the interface is entirely intuitive. — Technology Review

I'm not an analyst nor economist, but my observations are as follows:

1. Private-sector construction as a percentage of total construction appears robust considering the state of our economy.

2. Without question, digital content consumption is no longer the future, but rather the present. More interesting, there are nearly more architects and designers consuming content on their mobile devices than in magazines. — huffingtonpost.com

French designer Patrick Jouin has shared with us his latest project for client JCDecaux – a high tech bus stop (free Wifi anyone?) situated at the corner of Boulevard Henry IV and Place de la Bastille in Paris. Jouin has collaborated with JCDecaux on urban furniture since 2007, most notably for Vélib, the public bicycle sharing system in Paris. — bustler.net

Remember Jimenez Lai's recent Kickstarter project, trying to turn his conceptual project Hefner/Beuys House into a reality at the Architecture Foundation in London? Well, it certainly worked out for him and his Chicago-based architecture practice Bureau Spectacular: the project got funded and the installation Three Little Worlds opened this week, just right on time for the London Festival of Architecture. — bustler.net

You'll also notice a bit of color coding on the maps. Apparently, Fischer was able to guess that the picture taker's mode of transportation--presumably using the time stamps and distance traveled between a user's pictures. He then created a color code: Black is walking (less than 7mph), Red is bicycling or equivalent speed (less than 19mph), Blue is motor vehicles on normal roads (less than 43mph); Green is freeways or rapid transit. — fastcompany.com

Mark Dery, reflecting on his recent life as a self-described ‘career patient’, implores hospital architects to collaborate with interior designers, psychologists and neuroscientists in order to eradicate forever the pain of ‘medical incarceration’. — australiandesignreview.com

The design centralizes all social and public spaces in a vertical stack at the south face of the building. This continuous space features a multi-story glass façade that maximizes light and offers exceptional views to the south. The interiors of the study cascade – a system of special alcoves reserved for social interaction – are complemented by outdoor gathering spaces and terraces that are clad in cement panels, wood, and other materials. — ps.columbia.edu

"I think that [austerity] is used as a cliche because people don't have ideas, they want to crib [old ones] to do bad stuff," she said, in a Q and A session with Guardian deputy editor Kath Viner. "Schools, housing, hospitals – I think the government should invest in good housing." — guardian.co.uk

Foreclosed is controversial because it suggests that the state, or the public sector — conceived along with civil society in terms of multiple, overlapping, virtual and actual publics — might play a more active, direct and enlightened role in the provision of housing and, by extension, of education, health care and other infrastructures of daily life in the United States.... Simply put, can we no longer imagine architecture without developers? — Places Journal

But despite the many and varied predictions of the death of criticism — of architecture as well as other forms of culture — it seems to me that a radical rethinking of critical practice might be prompted by the potentials of writing for online media, and that this rethinking might result in a new belle-lettrism. — Places Journal

As expected, a team of Toll Brothers and Starwood Capital won the right to develop Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park today. They will be building a new hotel of 200 rooms and a neighboring apartment building with 159 units, a complex that peaks near Fulton Street entrance and sloping down toward the park. The project is designed by Rogers Marvel Architects, whom Toll has initially tapped, with Dumbo-based Bernheimer Architects apparently getting the boot. — New York Observer

Yes, it's still a bus shelter, but the idea is to make it both more useful and more of a social space. People may come here for a range of things other than catching the bus, so that social interaction and the life of the street intermix with waiting to produce a more vibrant, interesting, and safe environment. — humantransit.org