HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ARCHITECTUREWEEK

All of us at ArchitectureWeek wish you a joyful Solstice, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanza, and a Happy New Year for 2003. In observance of year's-end holidays, ArchitectureWeek No. 127 is a two-week jumbo issue. ArchitectureWeek No. 128, including the articles previewed here, will be released in the first week of January, 2003.

NEW WORLD TRADE CENTER DESIGNS UNVEILED

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has released nine new designs for the World Trade Center site created by seven teams of internationally known architects. The new plans reflect the public's call for a respectful memorial setting, a bold new skyline, and an inspiring vision for the 16-acre site. In the next issue of ArchitectureWeek, we’ll take a look at the new proposals.

ARCHITECTURE ON THE MOVE

When "civilization" halts nomadic cultures, it inserts the idea of living in one place and freezing buildings in place and in time. But architect Jennifer Siegal and her Office of Mobile Design is challenging current models with designs that are flexible and mobile and that reach toward a more sustainable mode of thinking about how we live. Michael Cockram will explain how Siegal hopes to reinvent the mobile home, retaining the concept of affordability and flexibility but shaking up the bland design notions that dominate the genre.

BORROWING TECHNOLOGY FROM MANUFACTURING

Just as early 20th-century modernist architects adopted manufacturing technology as the underpinning for the Modern Movement, early 21st-century architects are investigating the digital tools of manufacturing to seek ways to improve processes in the fragmented construction industry. The Digital Research and Imaging Lab at Mississippi State University’s Engineering Research Center is currently researching such technologies and their potential for technology transfer to architecture. MSU professor Larry R. Barrow will describe their work.