Yesterday, we received an overwhelming number of reader responses to David’s post regarding how much architects make per hour. To follow up, we found a list, via @casinclair on Twitter, of the top jobs for 2011. The list places an architect at spot 108, just under a vending machine repairer (107), a cashier (105) and an insurance agent (103). On the survey’s measure of stress, how’s this: a surgeon (spot 101) received a score of 30.580 for stress, while an architect received a score of 39.930! Yet, we were surprised to see that an architectural drafter places at spot 66 on the list (with a stress measure of 17.410). By the way, in case you were wondering, the list rated a software engineer as the best job for 2011 (stress measure=10.400), followed by a mathematician and an actuary.

Back in 2009, over 150 firms across the world entered the Glasgow School of Art competition which was seeking an architect-led team to create a building opposite Mackintosh’s masterpiece. Steven Holl, in collaboration with Glasgow-based JM Architects, proposed a submission that capitalized on the changing quality of light throughout the spaces. Holl’s vision responds to Mackintosh’s sectional emphasis by implementing large voids of light – the “circuit of connection ” – that slice through the spaces to “encourage the creative contact central to the workings of the school.”

When we visited Holl’s office, we talked Senior Partner Chris McVoy about the importance of the section for this particular project (we also chatted about their latest Shan-Shui master plan). One hundred years have passed since Mackintosh’s building opened for the School of Art, yet, as McVoy explains, although the structures represent completely different times, their attention to architectural elements, such as light, materiality and proportion, will create a relationship between the two.

Enjoy the video! Credits after the break.

For their latest residence, Japan-based TSC Architects have designed a minimalistic house situated in Hinomiya. Similar to their House in Mukouyama, featured previously on AD, this residence shares the same strategy of a softened aesthetic thanks to a limited, yet thoughtful, material selection and color palette.

More about the house after the break.

When we stopped by Steven Holl’s office in New York, Senior Partner Chris McVoy spoke to us about the firm’s latest project in Hangzhou – an International Tourism Complex. The firm has a growing presence in China and, arguably, some of the team’s strongest works (such as their Linked Hybrid and Horizontal Skyscraper) are situated throughout the region. With their most recent win, the firm will redevelop the site of the oxygen and boiler plants in Hangzhou to create a master plan comprised of residential and cultural components.

More about the project, including an video with McVoy, after the break.

We shared PRAXIS’ ninth issue with you a few days ago, and we are excited to feature their tenth issue today. Entitled Urban Matters, this issue focuses on the challenges hyper-metropolises present – specifically, as editors Amanda Reeser Lawrence and Ashley Schafer comment in their introduction, how “to mediate between expansion and liveability” to define and shape the ever changing, and ever growing, urban condition. Architecture and the urban are encouraged to be in constant dialogue; an interconnected network which balances the macro “environmental, topographic, social/political, and technological” to form, and potentially, uplift the micro urban quality of our metropolises.

Check out this video of a tour through Taliesin West, FLW’s desert masterpiece and architectural campus for apprentices.  Located in the Sonoran desert of Scottsdale, Arizona, the project sits in perfect harmony with its surroundings with regards to scale, materiality, and aesthetics. Dating back to the 1930s, Taliesin has been a place of learning, and currently, the building serves as the main campus of the FLW School of Architecture and is home to the FLW Foundation.

Competing against shortlisted firms Shigeru Ban, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Smiljan Radic, and Mauricio Rocha, Snøhetta was awarded first prize for their museum design for the University of Guadalajara. Scheduled to begin in 2011, the new Museum of Environmental Science will be part of the cultural district adjacent to the main campus and planned wilderness preserves in Mexico. Snøhetta’s winning design was developed in collaboration with ARUP for structural MEP, sustainability, acoustics and theater planning.

More images of the winning proposal after the break.

While we have featured dozens of small residences and minimalistic projects on AD, these studio apartments by Tokyo-based firm AAT+Makoto Yokomizo Architects are confined within an exceptionally limited area and designed in an exceptionally minimalistic fashion. Sharing a motorcycle garage on the ground level, the transparent residences float above the street and put each unit’s activity on display.

More about the residences after the break.

During the summer months, Renzo Piano’s satellite design for the Whitney was in the midst of juggling a touch combination of obstacles (as we reported earlier) – the economic downturn, pressure from the community and of course, the indecisiveness of the museum board. Piano had been redesigning his original vision – a stone clad museum which floated above a glass lobby – to lower construction costs. After selling property, including six brownstones on Madison Avenue and two on 74th Street, for an estimated $100 million, the Whitney has raised $475 million of its $680 million goal. Finally, the expansion – an idea which has been 25 years in the making – will breakground on the 24th of May.

More about the updated museum after the break.

We featured a review of PRAXIS’ eighth issue, and within the next few weeks, we’d like to bring you up to speed with their most recent publications. Today, we’ll take a look at their ninth issue which focuses on the surface. The issue is particularly interesting as we cannot deny that the term “surface” has been tossed around in many projects, and yet the meaning behind the word can become so general and all-encompassing that it soon becomes meaningless. The editors’ note expresses the division of architects based on the concept of surface; those who designed formally expressive buildings with materially mute surfaces versus those where the materiality was fully developed on a formally mute surface. The issue seeks to highlight projects of our era that reach a compromise. The projects presented illustrate formal projects with articulated surfaces, and materially intensive projects manifested on a developed form.

More about the issue after the break.

The annual make-over of PS1′s courtyard is one of our favorite summertime events, as the competition brings fresh, crazy and creative proposals to the table. The NYTimes recently shared that the MoMA and PS1 have asked MAXXI – the National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome – to be the third partner in their Young Architects Program. MAXXI will take part in transforming the Long Island City site, but there will also be a separate installation displayed in Rome.

Copenhagen-based JAJA Architects recently placed above 40 Scandinavian firms with their proposal, Landscape Loop, for Norway to receive a shared first prize for an idea competition. The proposal incorporates the existing contextual qualities of Andalsnes and develops ways to improve and connect the area into a unified entity for the future. “It is a project that gathers the city’s development within a belt that wraps around the town core – creating a series of “blue” and “green” urban spaces while establishing natural connections between city and landscape,” explained the architects.

More images and more about the proposal after the break.

While visiting New York, we had the chance to stop by Brooklyn-based kOnyk Architecture to speak with the firm’s principal, Craig Konyk. The architects categorize themselves as a creative architectural design studio – a characteristic that is evident in all of their work ranging from the smaller scale designs, such as their Hybrid House, to their larger scale proposals for the Museum of Polish History.

As we shared in September, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) reported an ever so slight increase with the index shifting from 47.9 to 48.2 in August. Now, the index shows a 52.0 – a 3 point increase from last month. This is great news for our profession as this billings marks the strongest point we’ve reached since December of 2007. As the New Year approaches, we’re hoping that this trend can steadily climb higher and bring prosperity for 2011; especially since firms across the country – from the Northeast to the West – reported increases. However, the New Year will bring mixed feelings to firms as Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, AIA Chief Economist stated in his report of the ABI. “Both residential and commercial/industrial firms are more optimistic about business conditions over the coming year. Half of the firms in each group are expecting revenue increases in 2011…In contrast, almost half of institutional firms are expecting revenue declines over the coming year, with only 38 percent expecting growth,” stated Baker.

More information about the recent ABI after the break.

Special thanks to our reader, John, for informing us about the 2011 Topaz Medallion which was recently awarded to Larry Speck, FAIA of the University of Texas-Austin. The Medallion, awarded by the AIA/ACSA to an outstanding architectural educator who has been involved in the teaching for at least a decade, recognized Speck for his pedagogical ways and his ability to make architecture “accessible and vital to a wide community of students.”

More about Speck and the Medallion after the break.

We’re always excited to bring you news on the latest awarded architects for their contemporary achievements and advancement of the field – whether it be our coverage of the Pritzker, AIA Honor Awards, or the Aga Khan awards, to name a few. Yet, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize is one prize that recognizes architects whose work embraces the ideas and theories of the past. Specifically, the prize is bestowed upon those who work ”embodies the principals of traditional and classical architecture and urbanism in contemporary society.” Robert A. M. Stern, dean of Yale School of Architecture and principal of his firm, has been named the 2011 recipient of the Driehaus Prize for his commitment to incorporating classical theories into his projects of all scales. According to Stern, the firm is grounded in the belief of “…continuity of tradition and strive in our work to create order out of the often chaotic present by entering into a dialogue with the past and with the spirit of the places in which we build.”

More about the award after the break.

Our friends from Manhattan-based Weiss Manfredi have shared their museum design for Ithaca, New York’s Paleontological Research Institution, which houses one of the United States’ largest paleontological collections. Situated in the Finger Lakes region, the natural landforms of the site inspired the architects to take advantage of the existing gradual 40 ft slope – a feature which resulted from a receding ice sheet more than 20,000 years ago. Rather than considering the site as distinct and separate from the museum, this project creates a new topography: a continuous, terraced landscape that fuses architecture and ecology into a cohesive expression of the geologic processes involved in the region’s formation.

More images and more about the museum after the break.

Amanda Levete Architects, AL_A, has just shared the news that their Central Embassy building is set to start on site this February. Situated along Ploenchit Road, Bangkok’s primary commercial artery, the 1.5 million sq ft project merges a 7 storey luxury retail podium and a 30 storey 5 star hotel tower into a twisting shape. The form marks a grand gesture for the city, as the curved mass climbs high into the sky creating an identifying mark for the area. The interiors are flooded with natural light as the form wraps around two vertical light wells, revealing stepped terraces and vertical gardens.

More about the project after the break.