CalPoly

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  Contemporary Housing
  By: Maria Allesandra Segantini

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  Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism
  By: Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford

• There are lots of other brand new CAED books at the library – check them out!
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This is the New York Times’ gift guide to the best Art, Architecture, and Design books of 2008. Enjoy!

The Cal Poly Writing Lab, located in Building 10, Rm 138, has announced its fall hours. This is a free resource for all Cal Poly students, to help with tasks like:

• Organizing your ideas
• Identifying your thesis
• Developing your topics
• Writing lab reports and research papers
• Reviewing grammar and punctuation

I would encourage CAED students to make use of this service to help you express your thoughts in the written components of your assignments!

Mimoa (which stands for “mi modern architecture”) is a really interesting database of architecture, landscape, and urban projects, contributed by users. Project profiles generally include photos, a brief description, a map of the building’s location, and information on visiting if the site is open to the public. Currently the database is heavy on European projects, but you can create an account and add profiles for important buildings in other parts of the world.

The American Planning Association is compiling a list of the “100 Essential Books of Planning”, and is seeking input. If there is a book that has inspired or challenged you, that you’d like recognized, visit the APA’s website to view recommendation criteria and submission instructions.

I’ve just been notified that Pony Prints hours for the first part of the fall quarter will be slightly less than what is posted on their website, which will affect access to large-format printing. Here are the hours for at least the next few weeks:

Monday-Thursday: 8am-10pm
Friday: 8am-8pm
Saturday: 10am-8pm
Sunday: 10am-10pm

I’ll keep you posted if I hear of changes!

The other day I ran across Worldmapper, which offers up a variety of unique maps of the world, where the size of countries are altered to reflect the way they compare to each other based on a particular indicator. Check out maps of “Passenger Cars“, Fuel Exports, City Growth, and many more.

Image: City Growth Map from worldmapper.com © Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

Here’s a funny little tidbit – a reality show about architecture students!

A plan was recently announced to build two solar energy plants, totaling 800 megawatts of power, in San Luis Obispo County. This power will be sold to PG&E to help it fulfill its state mandate to obtain 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2010. For more information, check out articles in the Tribune and the New York Times.