Though unemployment is widespread among designers and architects, there exists a world of products, places and processes in desperate need of redesign. Imagine if designers — uniquely trained to listen and observe, and to improve the way things function, feel and look — were, like the Enterprise Rose fellows, embedded in schools, nonprofit organizations, health clinics, religious institutions and government offices, where they could experience community needs and behavioral patterns firsthand. — John Cary and Courtney E. Martin (NYT)

The main basis of his fame isn't built work but imaginary projects and sculptures and installations that might be called architectural art. An artist was what he wanted to be as a child, and when he graduated as an architect during the Brezhnev era he wasn't interested in working for "one of the big state institutions" which were the only likely sources of employment. So he started dreaming up "paper architecture", imaginary projects, in collaboration with the artist Ilya Utkin. — guardian.co.uk

Sometimes when you are new in a place you can really see it — Brian Eno

He may look like a kid in a hoodie, but Bradley Garrett has a degree in anthropology and history, a PhD in social and cultural geography, and is about to take up a research post at Oxford University. But away from his lofty academic work, this bespectacled American is a trespasser – "urban explorer" has a nicer ring – who infiltrates abandoned buildings, sewers, bridges and office-block rooftops, filming and photographing them to bring these hidden spaces to public view. — guardian.co.uk

The heroes of public interest design are bringing the benefits of good design to those who need it most. Join us as we celebrate these design pioneers and unveil 12 new exhibits about their work. — publicinterestdesign.org

In his own unique graphic language, he details his extensive creative pursuits, including clothing lines, jewelry, and accessories designs for Louis Vuitton, furniture and other product design, limited-edition toys, graphic designs, skate graphics, and collaborations with Moncler, Marc Jacobs, the artist KAWS, and with architects Zaha Hadid and Masamichi Katayama/Wonderwall. — rizzoliusa.com

In 1972, Herman was serving a 25-year sentence for bank robbery when he was accused of murdering an Angola Prison guard and immediately thrown into solitary. Many believed he was wrongfully convicted. Then in 2001 he received a letter from art student Jackie Sumnell, who posed the provocative question:

"What kind of house does a man who has lived
in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell for over 30 years dream of?" — hermanshousethefilm.com

The Miller House and Garden Collection includes correspondence, drawings and blueprints, textile samples, and photographs that document design, construction, and maintenance of the Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. — Indianapolis Museum of Art

Cartoons have been a major genre of popular entertainment  in Japan dating back to 1917. The country’s unique style of animation, or anime, came into its own in the 1960s — notably in the pioneering work of Osamu Tezuka. In the 1990’s, a generation of architects, who came of age watching anime cartoons on television, were granted license to build fantastic creations fueled by the excess and lack of restraint that characterized Japan’s asset bubble. — japlusu.com

The ability to observe the private lives of strangers from the windows of my home is one reason why I’ve chosen to reside within a dense urban fabric. I am not a voyeur: I do not receive sexual satisfaction from watching the daily lives of others. But I do like to imagine the many meaningful “relationships” I have created with people that I will never meet or even recognize on the street. — Places Journal

Vancouver hosted a fascinating hybrid of public spatial art and waste material upcycling in its downtown area this summer: Pop Rocks, a temporary installation that covered a full city block. The project is fabricated entirely from post-consumer and post-industrial waste from the metropolitan Vancouver region. — bustler.net

A literal advertisement for reading: MVRDV completes Book Mountain and Library Quarter Spijkenisse. — mvrdv.nl

1977 Contemporary Addition and Renovation was the first built work of Architect Eric Owen Moss. Zoned as Duplex, but divided into 3 Spaces, all with Kitchen Area, Guest Bath, W/D, and Fireplace. Top Space is light and bright multi-story Luxury Loft with 1.5 Baths, 4 Outdoor Decks, and Ocean Views Throughout. — socallistings.marketlinx.com

It’s hard to say which is more startling. That a developer in Phoenix could threaten...to knock down a 1952 house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Or that the house has until now slipped under the radar, escaping the attention of most architectural historians...a spiral home for his son David. — New York Times