Hard work does pay off. The above image is the competition boards submitted by a team of my third year students for the D3Space.org Housing Tomorrow Competition. This entry by Mark Lo, Tyler Laskowski, Sheena McNeice, Dane Knudson and Nick Belkowski recieved a special mention in the Alternate Typology category. As far as I can [...]

Over the past few weeks, my second year design studio has been diligently endeavoring to understand the architecture of death. The site for the project is a beautiful undeveloped area on the Spokane river in an appropriately bucolic cemetery. We visited the site again today and it was an interesting experience as the group was [...]

Ran across this. I think this is a very interesting take on integration of technology into building.  We were lucky to have been able to hear Tom Bieling talk about his work on the same principle last year in Spokane. He is from Germany too.  Something must be in the water there. Where his was [...]

Came across the site of Alex Roman for his short film “The Third & Seventh.” He describes the project as: “Architecture through the cinematographic lens. The visual fusion between the third and the seventh arts.” The entire film including the above image is a fully 3D animated work. He has modeled already built architecture and [...]

A friend of mine, Amanda Hallberg, received a fellowship from SOM to travel across the US mapping modern architecture in America. I’m looking forward to her completing the documentation of the project. mappingmodernism.com

The Institute for Mechanical Engineers are suggesting algea photobioreactors integrated into buildings. Inhabitat » Algae-Covered Buildings Boost Biofuel Production.

Nice to see that the university has built this program.  Now WSU students and faculty can borrow bikes, for FREE, to use around campus and town. I’m definitely going to be using them. WSU announcement of program

This is something that I didn’t expect to come across, a scientific paper that compared network complexity between brains and cities.  More interesting is that they found that as both the neocortex and cities grow in surface area, the interconnecting infrastructure scales up at the same rate. I’m still processing what this may mean. I’m [...]

This looks like a very cool exhibition concerning the future possibilities of ubiquitous integration of technology into the city.  Although it focuses on the city I can see application for the IDeX Studio at WSU which is exploring the creation of the smartFARM. Toward the Sentient City » September 17 – November 7, 2009.

Fascinating and thought provoking. Dark Roasted Blend: Living, Growing Architecture.

I’ve just discovered an amazing blog by Jack Self. His newest post “Specular Architecture” articulates a vibe I have been feeling for a while. I see many hours in my future reading his illuminating thoughts about architecture and society. The questions that he poses about what sort of role we as architects have as change [...]

A nice gallery or images of Peter Zumthor’s work. I am particularly fond of the protective housing for the Roman ruin in Chur. It reminds me of the cribbing used in old grain silos on the Palouse. Peter Zumthor – a set on Flickr.

Environmental Graffiti has several examples of vertical gardens. The big question is how this can be fully integrated into a holistic building system rather than another element tacked onto a conventional structure. Next thought is how this might be transformed from just a garden and into a vertical “Living Machine” that would close the water [...]

Toy fanatic builds a house from LEGO | ArchDaily.

From the people that designed the Gantenbein Winery… this site is for the Architecture Studio that they teach on digital fabrication and design. There are many images using very simple units to create complex dimensional walls. Very inspiring. Gramazio & Kohler, Architecture and Digital Fabrication.