Just before winning this year’s Pritzker Prize, the Japanese architecture firm SANAA (see 032c #13, 2007) unveiled a sensational enclosure for the École Polytechnique in Lausanne. more – ‘Our Future Could Live Here’

RAY KURZWEIL is an American scientist, health guru and futurologist. He is known for his invention of the flatbed scanner, for the 200 pills he eats every day to prolong his life, and above all for “The Singularity is Near,” a bold and controversial prediction of a not-too-distant future in which artificial intelligence will overtake the human brain in processing power, leading to a merging of man and machine, and an irreversible transformation of our being in the world. BJARKE INGELS is a precocious Danish architect. Six years ago, aged 30, he won the Golden Lion in Venice with his then partner Julien de Smedt. Shortly after, he opened his own office, BIG, in Copenhagen, and more recently in New York, and published his architectural manifesto “Yes is More” in comic book form. Ingels has since taught at Harvard and Columbia, and is currently working on buildings in Mexico, Azerbaijan and China, where BIG was responsible for the Danish Pavilion in Shanghai’s EXPO 2010. The building does justice to the mantra “Better city – better life” in the form of a giant bicycle loop, at the heart of which the little Mermaid of Copenhagen presides over a pool of water taken from the Danish capital’s harbor. Ingels founds his work on a utopian spirit not seen since the decades immediately following the last world war. Yet he is determined not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. One of the strategies of his “pragmatic utopian architecture” is not to rely on ideologies, but simply on the best available research. Frustrated with the timid and backward-facing spirit of contemporary architecture and urbanism, Ingels turns outside of his own field for hints of what the future – as it is being built today – might look like. Nobody offered a vision as simultaneously daring, methodical and researched as Ray Kurzweil. more – ‘Singularity is plural: The Optimism of BJARKE INGELS and RAY KURZWEIL’

"While the architectural field has changed more in the last 30 years than in the previous 3,000 - thanks to the rapid acceleration of globalization and the convulsions of the market economy - architectural education has mostly failed to keep pace. The Strelka Institute proposes a different way of looking at architecture: not only for the general improvement of design, but with the intention of introducing research as the most essential basis of architectural education." (From the program description of the Strelka Institute). This conversation traces the movements of this project from Rem Koolhaas's (b. 1944) own education at the Architectural Association in London in the late 1960s to his Office for Metropolitan Architecture OMA and its counterpart AMO, which developed Strelka as a non-profit, independent, experimental space for new ways of learning. more – ‘Consistent Modesty. REM KOOLHAAS on the new Strelka Institute in Moscow’

Check out www.vogue.it/en/uomo-vogue x  www.rivistastudio.com more – ‘Team Italia in the beer garden: GIANLUCA CANTARO, editor-in-chief of L’UOMO VOGUE (the mother of all men’s style magazines), and FEDERICO SARICA, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the new Italian culture magazine STUDIO (mama mia, let’s learn Italian quickly to read the great features!), Berlin/ Germany, July 9th, 2011’

HIROKI NAKAMURA’s eyes light up, becoming near obsessive when asked to describe the products he makes for Visvim, the under-the-radar Japanese brand with a cult-like following. “Good crafts-manship makes us happy, so we naturally want to make things,” says Nakamura during a recent conversation at the Visvim A/W10 collection trunk show in Hong Kong. The VIP customers at the show spent between three to six hours obsessing over every single piece, and carefully placing their pre-orders. more – ‘Hiroki Nakamura’

ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA. From above, Mongolia is a swath of desert, its red soil blending seamlessly from the northern border of China. Eventually, sharp but minor peaks occur, abutting serpentine streams. A sliver of valley appears, just between ridge and rill, bearing an orderly grid of short, white buildings – Ulaanbaatar, the modest capital of a scarcely populated nation. Sandwiched between an erstwhile protagonist to the north and an unapologetic competitor to the south, Mongolia is accustomed to attention from global forces. Recently, an interest from afar touched down on its vast terrain, a presence distinctly french. On October 23, 2009, Louis Vuitton unveiled its bi-level Double Damier façade on the northwest corner of Central Tower, a newly erected commercial highrise in Ulaanbaatar’s main Sükhbaatar square. The Louis Vuitton Ulaanbaatar store both heralds the wealth to come in a burgeoning market, and bears witness to LV’s manifest expansion. more – ‘Diplomacy and Monograms’

In 20 years, ARC'TERYX took outdoor clothing to an extreme level of perfection, setting the golden standard for an entire industry. With VEILANCE, a fashion-oriented line created in 2009, the company from Vancouver is bringing its advanced brand of performance to the city. Is menswear ready? Designer CONROY NACHTIGALL is in charge of the task. more – ‘Archetype’

Curator and director DIMITRIOS ANTONITSIS with his dog in a room dedicated to Juergen Teller’s photographies of Kristen McMenamy for 032c at the current exhibition of HYDRA SCHOOL PROJECTS. Every summer he produces an exhibition with an eclectic mix of artists in an elementary school on the Greek island of Hydra. This year’s exhibition MASH... more – ‘HYDRA SCHOOL PROJECTS, June 17 – September 18, 2011’

Check out www.nude-paper.com ! more – ‘BOOOM! Just mention “cats” and we are flooded with cat pictures. Nude Paper’s UWE JENS BERMEITINGER features his cat Isolde Michelberger. We are opening up, people, but we are are still more like a dog magazine, you know?’

Check out www.thejournalinc.com! more – ‘The Journal editor MICHAEL NEVIN on Hydra/ Greece (and for the first time a cat is featured at 032c!), 21.06.2011’

more – ‘FUTURE ARCHEOLOGY: 032c at the Acropolis, Athens/ Greece, 19.06.2011’

Photo ULI SCHÖBERL Check out www.joshuadavis.com and www.hort.org.uk more – ‘Digital artist JOSHUA DAVIS and graphic designer EIKE KÖNIG at the OFFF conference in Barcelona/ Spain, 11.06.2011’

more – ‘Impressaria ANNA DYULGEROVA (032c’s cheerleader #1 in Russia) at the Motherland monument in Kiev/Ukraine, May 2011’

POLARISING IS GOOD! RT @xoxSNP Mais non, I love her. Tell it to Kate RT @ghostfeed Again, that Juergen Teller 032c story is nauseating… more – ‘POLARISING IS GOOD! RT @xoxSNP…’

more – ‘Writer ZAC ROSE in Florence, Italy, June 12, 2011’

RT @models Juergen Teller and Kristen McMenamy team up for a raw story in 032c http://models.com/feed/?p=22363 http://fb.me/OVAOmSA7 more – ‘RT @models Juergen Teller and…’

If you are in Berlin tomorrow, join us for the opening of EXPEDACTION show and Société de 032c bar night. http://on.fb.me/jHBXhB more – ‘If you are in Berlin tomorrow,…’

Swiss wisdom pt I! true, true – miss you! RT @maximebuchi @ @032c winning bronze at lead awards is like winning cheese at a pastry contest. more – ‘Swiss wisdom pt I! true, true …’

Congratulations to HEJI SHIN for winning BRONZE in Best Fashion Photography for 032c story at GERMAN LEAD AWARDS. http://www.heji-shin.com/ more – ‘Congratulations to HEJI SHIN f…’

Congratulations to ANA & DANKO STEINER for winning GOLD in best fashion photography for their 032c stories at GERMAN LEAD AWARDS last night. more – ‘Congratulations to ANA & DANKO…’