Thoughts on Investigation Strands

This article might offer some direction to students interested in sustainability, performance, and occupant behavior posted earlier online. It is not in-depth but presents an interesting reflection on the impacts of LEED on not only environmental and economic measures but also the social dimensions of behavior.

To those interested in dealing with memory and architecture, it may be worthwhile to take a look at a few precedents most notably David Adjaye's Stephen Lawrence Centre. The building itself is an interesting response to the some of the UK's racist past and the death of an architecture student.

Some of you are also looking at the nature of iconography and symbolism in architecture which is rather serendipitous given the Harvard GSD exhibit "Icons of Knowledge: Architecture and Symbolism in National Libraries". A better article here speaks a bit more about the content and curation.

For those of you exploring multiple sensory effects, it might be worthwhile to look at the recent "Soundscape" exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. It is an interesting showcase of interpretations of distinct audio environments in notable New York buildings.

While some of you are looking at Adaptive Reuse and integration into infrastructure, have any of you come across the Reinventer Paris ideas competition? It is a competition pushed forward by several levels of government for "innovative urban projects"; a huge swath of opportunities lie in the architecture. Some interesting proposals have already started to come out including this one from Korean architects in the Gangam region (...block out that dance and song out of your head). Though it begs the question whether or not these are actually simply industrial designed products or distinct and unique architectural projects, the proposal for these "pods" is both provocative and clearly outline a position the artists have on the Parisian design challenge.

And finally, some of you have opted to go for a library despite picking sites that are fairly close to existing libraries (e.g. Bayview Village library is close to the Burbank site and the Ryerson SLC and Library are across the street from the Gould Street site). That said, those wishing to separate their functional program from the clearly "conventional" libraries nearby may consider this article "11 Things You Can Borrow from Libraries Besides Books". Borrowing musical instruments and tools is not uncommon however more unconventional things on the list included seeds and humans... yes, that's what the article states...