INSPIRED BY GAUDI, BUILT BY HAND

It's not the only house in Oregon hand-made by its owners. But it's probably one of the few that's of concrete and half underground. Beth and Will Hathaway live in an organically shaped structure with curved walls, meandering hallways, and a garden on the roof. Their house evolved over twelve painstaking years, as the couple and their young sons learned about sculpting with cement and designing for the sun's heat and light.

VIRTUAL TRAVEL THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

Architecture students at Iowa State University can explore the Roman Forum as it would have appeared during the time of the Roman Republic. As they maneuver through the three dimensional virtual world, they can manipulate virtual time to study its evolution through history. Since June, the university has been home to a new $6 million virtual reality facility, a unique VR theater that surrounds users with images on all four walls, ceiling, and floor.

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON FORMING THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

How are American suburbs formed? Through creative urban design, or by the accidental effects of bureaucratic decisions? In a 1913 competition to design a residential Chicago subdivision, Frank Lloyd Wright and others came up with imaginative schemes that were never built. Instead, suburbs are more often shaped by the Federal Housing Administration's guidelines for mortgage insurance. Next week, we review "Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways and Houses in America" by Keller Easterling.