Filed under: Design
Following up on Arup’s new book about a new model of design practice–one less focused on creating iconic, heroic buildings–here is an article by Mimi Zeiger in Azure on collaboration. It focuses less on the oft-touted superband / synergy aspects of collaboration, but rather on the problems and potentials that arise from conflict among collaborators. 
Will it be the engineers who rescue us from the architectural icon?
Arup is publishing Unified Design, a manifesto that proposes a new model of design practic that sustains both the ecosystem and culture–tradition, religion, and what they call “the intangible components of humanity.”
Buy from William Stout books. 
Filed under: Design
From Ping
Magazine:
Parashell umbrellas and parasols by Canadia-born, Tokyo-based John Di Cesare of Di Cesare Designs Inc. have the shapes and forms of sea shells — or garden vegetables! It all began when he moved to Japan and taught himself how to make a proper umbrella out of abandoned ones — and came up with further nature-inspired shapes.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: economics
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- Construction spending by sector and region
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- Construction spending
This isn’t news to anyone working in the field but architectural billing is going down.
From the CIA:
Fifty years ago, the CIA embarked on a project to intercept Soviet and East German messages transmitted via underground cable. Intelligence was collected to determine the best place to hit the target, and then concrete planning for a new collection site was begun.
Kinda nuts.
Years ago when visiting South Korea, I went on a tour of the DMZ (yes, they give tours). Part of the site is a showcase to a tunnel the North Koreans had dug into South Korea. Who knew, the CIA tried similar tactics in Germany.
You know, it’s amazing (but not at all surprising) that the liberal blogosphere is getting annoyed at Obama now.
RMJM Hillier just released a list of the 10 best American cities for design.
The results:
- Chicago
- New York
- Boston
- Los Angeles
- Portland
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Denver
- Philadelphia
- Washington, DC
Who doesn’t wander into a public park and wish they were a landscape architect?
Crissy Field in the Presidio makes me think that. Large berms /landforms rise up, shileding visitors from the elements and creating a range of playing fields. Not bad for Hargreaves Associates.
Filed under: Politics
From one of my favorite bloggers, a member of the left-wing blogosphere:
If I were the benevolent dictator, I would make it capital offense for members of the punditocracy to opine ignorantly about the tastes and habits of “regular people,” who apparently have comfort zones no larger than their footprints, and who are unwilling to vote for anyone who doesn’t live their lives exactly like they (are imagined to) do. Unless that person is a obscenely rich Republican, of course.
–Atrios
Defpoints 