"The [Butaro] project has a high relevance, since it can be applied as a solution to similar regions with limited opportunities and high risks of infection. [...] Also remarkable is the excellent quality of the buildings that were built exclusively with local workers.” — Zumtobel Group Award

“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

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

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

Günther Domenig passed away on June 15, 2012. Wolf D Prix, design principal at Coop Himmelb(l)au, released the following statement "I insist that Günther Domenig was one of the most important Austrian architects. Important in terms of being weighty. Meanwhile our own tammuz felt "his steinhous is an beautiful and seminal poem of architecture"

It took Dubai more than five years to build the 828-meter Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building (for the moment, anyway). But Chinese architects and engineers reckon they need a mere 90 days to leave the Emiratis in the dust. At least, that's what they've claimed. — cnngo.com

Sumit Jain has fond memories of his childhood in a small town where everybody knew everybody. But as a young man, he moved to a big city for work and began living in an apartment building. Jain said he soon missed feeling connected to a community.

That sense of loss led him to create Commonfloor.com, a “neighborhood portal” for Indians whose lifestyles have changed with their nation’s economic transformation but who still crave neighborhood life. — washingtonpost.com

In the future the wisest zone entrepreneurs will question this central feature and ask: Why enclave? What types of incentivized urbanism will actually benefit from physically segregated infrastructure—from being separate and even distant from the dense and dynamic central spaces of existing cities? Given that the zone is now generating its own urban programs — aspiring to be a city—what economic and technical benefits can result from constructing what is in effect a double or shadow of the city? — Places Journal

A developing focus on chemicals of concern in the LEED rating systems could make federal buildings less energy-efficient, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC). — www2.buildinggreen.com

Orhan Ayyüce penned Review: Carlson-Reges House, RoTo Architects. In it Orhan described how Carlson-Reges House has grown out of logistics and a "story within a story". Steven Ward waxed nostalgic about the fact that he had an "opportunity to visit this house with mr rotondi in 2003. stunning - and completely unique. there really could never be anything else like it. and the brewery is a magic little 'neighborhood'."

Developed in Europe in the 1990s, cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is among the latest in a long line of “engineered” wood products that are strong and rigid enough to replace steel and concrete as structural elements in bigger buildings. Already popular in Europe, CLT is only beginning to catch on in North America, where proponents say buildings made with the panels could be a cheaper and environmentally friendly alternative to structures made with those other materials. — New York Times

A bunch of bees is inspiring what seems to escape so many people in Buffalo: waterfront development.

With the help of a group of University at Buffalo architecture students, a local entrepreneur hopes to build on a giant bee hive he discovered in an abandoned office and turn a portion of Buffalo's historic waterfront into a design campus where manufacturers, architects and others will collaborate and mastermind new ways to use locally made materials — Buffalo News

An architectural Time Machine by architect Heechan Park explores how to create an architectural time-based event.

As the machines blow vapour rings that double as ephemeral scent zones, the public not only experiences a visual performance of smoke vortices travelling through space, but they also perceive scents that are temporally spatialised and visualised. — We Make Money Not Art