ARCHITECTing
We’re very much digging the fresh look of the work from San Francisco architect Craig Steely. Most notably are the sleek modern homes set within lunar-scape lava flows.
-thanks to 2modern

A new residential village project by Collins Woerman at Bastyr University caught our eye. We like that the built-work is kept dense and tight, allowing the adjacent nature to remain, well natural.
-thanks to Brian C

[Photo by Lara Swimmer]

Our hero Jonathan Segal recently introduced his new development project, The Q. It’s ambitious, it pushes the envelope and it’s screaming hot modern. Huge respect to our favorite architect/builder/developer and we hope the building fills up with a great community.
-thanks to Nicholas W.

We pretty much love everything about this studio and boathouse by gh31 architects. The icing on the cake is that they used a monkey for the photo shoot. Bravo to gh31 for raising the bar.
-thanks to 2modern

Ever seen this chapel before in Taiwan by artist Chen Chi-Kwan and architect I.M. Pei? Neither had we. It’s really quite lovely and we were glad to be introduced to it.
-thanks to ArchDaily

The Hotel Portillo by dRN Architects is one of those projects that makes us look like we all build with Lincoln logs here in the northwest. It’s hot, modern and sophisticated. Huge props to a weekly dose of architecture for getting it on our radar.
-thanks to John H.

PHOTOGRAPHing
Check out Lost Treasures of the City, a collection of photos from Eric Holubow documenting abandoned buildings and urban ruin.
-thanks to Beth

Another great site for architectural decay, with a side dish of graffiti is the Ruin’arte site.
-thanks to The Belly of an Architect

RESEARCHing
Jonah Lehrer interviews the physist Geoffrey West for the New York Times and arrives at some fascinating data points about cities. For instance:

A human being at rest runs on 90 watts. That’s how much power you need just to lie down. And if you’re a hunter-gatherer and you live in the Amazon, you’ll need about 250 watts. That’s how much energy it takes to run about and find food. So how much energy does our lifestyle [in America] require? Well, when you add up all our calories and then you add up the energy needed to run the computer and the air-conditioner, you get an incredibly large number, somewhere around 11,000 watts.

Wow, we’re in big trouble. If you’re an architect, an urban planner or a human being you should read this article.


[Photo Illustration by Hubert Blanz]

DIAGRAMMing
The Visualizing Friendships diagram is generated entirely from the 500 million Facebook members. It’s a pretty darn accurate map of the world given that it’s entirely derived from Facebook connections – areas missing include most of Asia and Africa where Facebook has little presence. It was created by Paul Butler, Facebook intern; and we think it’s time for Zuckerberg to extend a job offer. The high-res version can be found here.
-thanks to William L.

BLOGGing
The F#cked Architect site may very well have replaced cheap shit condos as our new favorite blog for calling out bad design without inhibition. FA calls it like it is and they seem to have fun doing so. We dig the public shaming bit and agree that it’s high time to bring back the social custom -kudos to FA.
-thanks to Jim M.

Plastolux showed us some love recently and we’re showing it back. They run a smoking hot design blog and you should get your eyeballs over there pronto!
-thanks to David

The Cold Hard Truth About Starting Your Own Business is an excellent read. And it shouldn’t deter you from starting up your own design firm, insteady it’s intended to put you squarely on your feet.
-thanks to Nicholas F.

DESIGNing
We couldn’t be more excited about the release of Tron: Legacy. Light cycles, identity disks and Olivia Wilde, Rrroww! As it turns out the director, Joseph Kosinski, taught our Form-Z modeling class back in grad school. We’re reminded of the wrong turn we took each time we’re putting together a window schedule and Joseph is, well… hanging out with Olivia Wilde and talking about conscripts with Jeff Bridges. Damn you architecture, damn you!

The Matthew Hilton site demands your full attention and respect. It is serious business and for fans of modern design it doesn’t get much better than this. Everything about the experience is well crafted; the web design, the photos and the furniture are all master works. We’ve got mad respect for Hilton’s work.
-thanks to Terence

The Wishbone Chair by Toby Howe has got the right mix of function and poetics. We’re big fans.
-thanks to Aaron N.

TJ OKeefe is up to some solid modern design. We love the minimal and unassuming nature of the pieces. Hats off to the inspiring photos and straight-forward website as well.
-thanks to Boo

We just met the design savvy folks over at Urban Case the other night and we were thrilled to go check out their work; most notable is the cleverly designed Emergency Cocktail Station.
-thanks to Darin

It can be tough for us taller types to find modern clothes that fit us well. Recently, we were happy to find that Seattle based Longshot is producing cool threads well tailored to the elevated.
-thanks to Sally

INOVATing
The MicroVision SHOWWX allows you to hook up a variety of devices (including an iPhone) to a fully functioning pocket projector. We’re liking the idea that we could give spontaneous lectures about architecture anywhere, anytime and best of all when the audience least expects it.
Thanks to Brian T.

Hey students, the bar for promoting yourself and applying for jobs has just been raised to a new  height. An acquaintance of ours, Adam Bamford has a really slick video resume and design blog. The video communicates so much more than a resume ever could. Two thumbs up.
-thanks to Adam

LISTENing
Here’s what we’re pumpin in the office lately:
Zero 7, Yeah Ghost,  The XX, Tame Impala, InnerSpeaker, Four Tet, There Is Love In You, School of Seven Bells, Disconnect from Desire , Phoenix remix by Olga Bell

Merry Christmas from team BUILD
click here for the Twitter hookup