The International Symposium on Projected Light will be hosted by the Department of Architecture at Portland State University on April 9th. The second annual symposium, ‘Illuminated City: A Light with Content Symposium’, will explore the experiential, spatial, technical, political and interactive qualities of projected light media.

During the earthquake last week this video was taken from the inside of the Sendai Mediatheque. The interior is heavily damaged, however the structure appears to hold up quite well.

Photos and drawings following the break.

Recently it was reported that the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) were confronting 200 illicit architects who never obtained any recognized architecture qualification and 100 more who are qualified but have not obtained registration. Believe it or not, Ireland has just started to aggressively protect the title of architect as of late 2009, enforcing the Building Control Act 2007.

Awarded by the Interior Design Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), the prestigious Lawrence Israel Prize for 2011 has been awarded to David Rockwell. Given annually to an individual or firm whose ideas and work enrich FIT Interior Design students’ course of study. Past winners include Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis, Billie Tsien, and Charles Gwathmey.

Pratt Institute School of Architecture will feature four lectures this month as a part of their 2011 Spring Lecture Series. Architects and Artists will lecture about their influences, works, and careers at the Institute’s Brooklyn and Manhattan campuses. The lectures are free and open to the public.

Debate continues on the design for the Glasgow School of Art by Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Glasgow based JM Architects. Last month William J.R. Curtis shared his critical thoughts on the new extension, referencing the diagrams by Holl as ‘cartoonlike’, the surface choices of glass ‘monotonous’, and the external volumes as ‘clumsy’. As we all know architecture is subjective and debate should be welcomed, hopefully resulting in a smart discussion focused on providing the best design solutions for a project. A critique of an extension to a building with such importance as Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, a design that masterfully manipulates light into spaces and skillfully the nature of different materials, is expected. However, this review almost seemed personal and a bit uninformed. Curtis, during his critical rant even asks “where was the client during these intervening months?” referring to the initial announcement and presentation of Holl’s winning design and then later released drawings.

Continuing, “The unsatisfactory state of Holl’s proposal perhaps reveals what may happen when a star architect drops in from another planet and blinds a building committee with the “smoke and mirrors” of popularized phenomenology. Some good old Scottish common sense would have been in order to insist on greater rigor and a more appropriate response to the context.”

Holl took time to respond to Curtis’ article stating, “We welcome criticism as long as it’s based on an accurate understanding of our design. Unfortunately William Curtis’ article is not knowledgeable about our design,” and Holl also shares specifics about both the design material choices for the new extension (his full response following the break).

The Academy of Art University, the nation’s largest private accredited art and design university, has announced the addition of the School of Landscape Architecture.

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) will launch Studio-X Rio this week with Dean Mark Wigley in attendance. Studio-X Rio is GSAPP’s global network of advanced research laboratories for exploring the future of cities. With locations in Amman, Beijing, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, and now Rio de Janeiro, it is the first truly global network for real-time exchange of projects, people, and ideas between regional leadership cities in which the best minds from Columbia University can think together with the best minds in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Already mobilizing teams in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, Architecture for Humanity has begun to initiate an immediate response to the Sendai earthquake and tsunami. Currently AFH is searching for individuals to join a coalition to update foreign nationals in Japan with the latest information regarding unfolding events (currently being done via twitter #honyaquake).

In the Spring 2010 academic semester, Wiel Arets and Robert McCarter co-taught “A Wonderful World,” an advanced architectural design studio at Washington University in St. Louis. The students were asked to consider the following:

To understand the world we are living in at this moment, we have to redefine the “Map of the World,” a mental construct which at least since 1492 has undergone many reinterpretations. We could read the world anno 2020 as a collective living space for all of us, in which all the continents are in reach within 288 minutes, and the maximum travel distance at each continent will be 72 minutes, the time in which every city on each continent will be able to be reached. During the studio research, the world will be our territory, the continents are our daily living space, and the metropolitan three-dimensional city our home, surrounded by an untouched green/blue environment. The basic question we should put forward is: How will the city develop within our extremely exciting, complex, but “shrinking” world?

Washington University in St. Louis shared with us work from the studio. Follow the break for a description and drawings.

Students Featured: Andrew Buck, Shaun Dodson, Stephen Kim, Meredith Klein, Wai Yu Man, James Morgan, Aaron Plewke Images: Courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis

We also suggest you look at how students responded to the same questions proposed by Wiel Arets at the Berlage Institute Postgraduate Research Laboratory “A Wonderful World” class.

Imagine a vibrant, connected and green Kansas City region. Highlighting local communities, Imagine KC discuses how members of the community are working together to provide a more sustainable and vibrant place to live, work and play. Episode 2: Energy Efficiency and Conservation aired in January and is the latest of the 12 part series from Kansas City Public Television.

Tune in March 24th at 7:30 p.m. for Episode Three: Quality Places and Vibrant Centers. More information about Imagine KC following the break.

We are sharing this with you in response to the Japan earthquake earlier today. Building earthquake resistant structures is an ongoing challenge and Japan is continually designing for and sensitive to its earthquake prone location. Their research includes the E-Defense Shake Table in Japan which is one of the most prominent shaking tables associated with earthquake engineering research.

Where does your State rank among the USGBC’s Top 10? Comparing LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings per capita within the United States the District of Columbia turned in the highest per capita/per person ratio of 25.15 square feet. Commercial office type and for-profit organization owner type where the most common, as was Chicago and Washington DC for the most represented cities on the list.

Designed as collaboration between Oyler Wu Collaborative and Michael Kalish, this traveling installation is built as a tribute to the life and cultural significance of Muhammad Ali. The project is aimed at exposing a new generation to this larger than life character by building an appreciation for the nuanced emotional, aesthetic, and technical principles that collectively form experience – a concept that holds true as much for human persona as it does for architecture.

Conceived of as an experiential 2-D image, the core of the project is a seemingly random field of 1300 boxing speed bags that, when viewed from a single vantage point, form a pixilated image of the face of Muhammad Ali. The structure is designed with the intention of simultaneously supporting the clarity and focus from that vantage point, while enriching the experience of the piece from all others, through a combination of dense structural bundles, material effects, and geometrical repetition.

Oyler Wu Collaborative Project Team: Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu, Mike Piscitello, Jacques Lesec, Vincent Yeh, Paul Cambon, Huy Le, Nathan Meyers, Han Zhang, Scott Starr, Jake Henry, Vincent Yeh, Ehab Ghali, Sanjay Sukie, Chris Eskew, and Matt Evans Michael Kalish Project Team: Michael Kalish, Robert Lepiz Engineering: Buro Happold Engineers Photography: Dwayne Oyler

Follow the break for further description and images.

What will the architecture profession look like in 2025? According to the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) think tank Building Futures new survey, we have a tough road ahead of us. The year long study asked, who will design our built environment, what role will architects have, and how might practice change by 2025.

Our global economy and the economic recession have effected our business practices and the RIBA has taken a look at how these factors have transformed our profession and what trends we may see continuing in the future. The survey suggests that not only will architecture firms have to focus on a financial and business approach rather than predominantly design-led offices, but also company names are predicted to drop ‘architect’ altogether and insert ‘spatial agencies’ and ‘design houses’.

“Material beyond Materials: A Composite Tectonics Conference on Advanced Materials and Digital Manufacturing” combines progressive presentations in the fields of architecture, the arts, engineering and materials research. The conference participants will present and discuss their most innovative ideas, projects and positions concerning materials, technology and the impact on the architecture and construction disciplines and professions.

Designed for approximately 200 people the new facility optimizes passive design strategies and is projected to demand only 12% of the electrical power and only 10% of the potable water that a conventional, code-compliant building would demand. All irrigation is provided by recycled and reclaimed water. The NASA Sustainability Base is a two-story 50,000 sqf building that is scheduled to be completed this spring with occupancy expected in May.

Design Architect: William McDonough + Partners Architect of Record, Structural Engineering, Civil Engineering: AECOM Daylighting, Lighting, Energy Consultant: Loisos + Ubbelohde Landscape Architect of Record: EDAW Landscape Architect: Siteworks Materials Assessment: MBDC Wastewater Treatment: Todd Ecological

University of Pennsylvania School of Design boasts one of the Top 10 Graduate Architecture Schools in the United States. This month their Spring Lecture Series, More and More, is hosting Qingyun Ma (M.Arch), dean of the USC School of Architecture. This event is free and open to the public and PennDesign is a registered provider of continuing education programming for the American Institute of Architects.