Two young minds decided to start a blog on architects and construction. Read on to know what became of it

David A. and David B. were in a bit of a tizzy. They had just realised that their hugely popular website for architects, http://www.archdaily.com, had generated clones in China. Their content was being lifted, translated, uploaded. They didnt know what to do. They lived literally at the other end of the world Santiago, Chile. So they sent mails: cease and desist, you will hear from our lawyers. It didnt make a difference.

Then came an invitation to the Pritzker Prize ceremony in China the Pritzker is the Nobel of architecture. Immediately they sent the main clone, http://www.archgo.com a mail saying they were coming. Sure, he responded, Id love to meet you. When they were fact to face, he said, Look, Chinese architects really need your information. And youre not giving the information in Chinese, so Im doing that job. I dont have a business model, Im not making money. I just want to help Chinese architects. The Davids were stunned. They understood.

What is it that was considered so important for Chinese architects? Lets rewind a little, to the story David Assael, 33, shared with this writer over breakfast in Moscow recently.

Discovering urbanism

When David discovered urbanism, or city studies, as a student of architecture in Chile, he felt a sense of belonging. With the same time and effort that you need to make a home for a single family, he says, you can make a park for a lot of people, or a city plan.

Later, when he began teaching, he realised that all the amazing projects his students did remained only on paper. On an exchange programme in Barcelona, Spain, he had seen an exhibition on the next 10 years of urban projects in that city. It was the first time I saw an exposition about cities for citizens, not urbanists, he says. Then he heard what ordinary people, such as his friends grandmas, had to say about a new building a French architect was doing there. It sort of resembled a cucumber and the elderly women were offended. It looks like a big dildo, they complained, it ruined the look of their city.

When he returned to Santiago, he started thinking about the relationship between cities and citizens, about how citizens had no clue what buildings and structures would do to their cities. Or even if they did, they didnt know what to do about it. And so, along with David Basulto (David A. and David B., isnt that funny?), a computer whiz from college, he started a website to give information about cities to Chilean citizens. They called it Urban Platform (Plataforma Urbana), and with the permission of the university, uploaded ideas that came from students.

It was 2006, about the time blogs were getting popular, and very soon, their platform with information from and about architects, became the most recognised blog in Chile! But they wanted something else a site where my grandmother could go and understand what was happening in her city. Thats when they started taking the work happening in private circles, mostly to do with homes for high income people because that was good work you dont see on the street, and loading it on the site. They hoped this way to raise the level of public works, and a new site was born, in 2007, called Plataforma Architectura.

Now, with the growing visibility of the site, it was time to get more professional. So they asked architects to send information about their projects. If youve done good work, you want everyone to see it, says David A. The projects began pouring in. Next, they approached companies to send information about products that would be useful to architects, and pay for it. The companies too saw something in this proposition. They complied.

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A window into the world of architecture

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Giselle architects of air
Architects of air glimpse of the future.

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Plans for Solstice - Earthships and Architects
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New Zealand's largest supplier of Southland beech for the residential and commercial construction market is seeing increasing acceptance of the use of the native timber by architects.

While architects and homeowners may have been showing reluctance in using some native species, Southland beech is harvested by Lindsay and Dixon under a Ministry of Primary Industries sustainable management plan and carries independent certification from the Forestry Stewardship Council.

The fine-grained medium-density hardwood has featured recently in finishings in the Supreme Court building in Wellington, Air New Zealand's Koru lounge in Christchurch and Auckland's Novotel Hotel.

Tuatapere-based sawmiller Lindsay and Dixon, in western Southland, is a Southland beech supplier certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. It

accounts for 80% of the sawmilling output of all native timber in the country.

The company recently commissioned a survey of architects to determine if there were concerns undermining the use of Southland beech, traditionally known as silver beech and also sold as maple and cherry beech, Lindsay and Dixon's managing director, Bernie Lagan, said the architects surveyed about using indigenous timber had highlighted the need to protect native trees and also raised concerns about habitat destruction.

''We found that the opportunity to specify native timber was often muddied by a general trend to avoid native timber.

''People feared for their business reputation and wanted to be regarded as an environmentally friendly business,'' he said.

Lindsay and Dixon's permissible annual harvest volume is 23,628 cu m, of all species and log grades, which equates to a sustainable yield extraction volume of 1.8%, the international standard being 10% of a forest stock.

Timber totalling an estimated 1.32 million cu m is taken from seven blocks in the Longwood and Rowallan forests, which are second-generation regenerating forests covering 11,582ha in Southland.

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Sustainably supplying native beech

In an open letter to Minister for the Environment the architects call for the introduction of a latent defects insurance scheme to protect homebuyers against a repetition of the Priory Hall disaster. Photograph: Alan Betson.

More than 550 architects have joined seven former presidents of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) in calling for implementation of amended building regulations to be postponed.

In an open letter to Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, they call for the introduction of a latent defects insurance scheme to protect homebuyers against a repetition of the Priory Hall disaster.

The letter says widespread concern among the profession was not reactionary or vexatious but based on a deeply held view that the regulations needed to be improved to produce better buildings and protect consumers.

It notes that these views on the regulations, due to take effect on March 1st next, were reflected in an almost unanimous expression of concern over 500 votes to eight at the recent RIAI egm, probably the largest ever gathering of architects in Ireland.

The architects say they are worried that premature implementation does not end up in confusion or in a delay in the roll-out of badly needed construction projects, forming an essential part of the Governments overall economic programme.

Accordingly, they call on the Minister to postpone implementation until the building control authorities have tested IT systems, the relevant building contract forms are amended and a full registration system is completed for all building contractors.

They are also seeking a meaningful independent inspection system overseen by the building control authorities.

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The American Institute of Architects has broken the gender barrier for its highest award, the gold medal. The 2014 medal is going to famed California architect Julia Morgan nearly 57 years after her death in 1957 and more than 100 years after the first gold medal was conferred.

Morgan, whose most famous building is Hearst Castle at San Simeon on Californias central coast, was a pivotal figure in the history of American architecture and American women, according to an article the AIA published on its website announcing the award -- the eighth gold medal awarded posthumously.

Morgan practiced nearly 50 years before her retirement in 1951, designing more than 700 homes, churches, hotels, civic and commercial buildings and museums.

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But the AIA's online article noted that her reputation eroded as the more austere modernist movement became dominant and the more lavish Beaux-Arts tradition informing Morgans work fell out of vogue.

The award, open to residents of other nations as well as Americans, honors a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Its voted on annually by the board of directors of the AIA, a professional organization headquartered in Washington, but with chapters across the nation. The AIA will celebrate Morgans life and work in late June at its annual convention in Chicago. The 2013 award went to L.A. architect Thom Mayne.

Among other winners, 1993 medalist Thomas Jefferson, who died in 1826, waited the longest to be recognized for enduring designs such as his home, Monticello, the Virginia Capitol and original structures at the University of Virginia.

The AIA article noted that Morgans candidacy was championed by several celebrated architects who had backed her with letters of recommendation.

Frank Gehry, the AIAs 1999 gold medalist, disputed the notion that Morgans achievement was irrelevant to later architectural advances: Looking at her work, one can find her playing with symmetry asymmetrically, slipping forms vertically and horizontally, orienting her buildings for climate and daylight, and expressing structure in new ways, pointing the way to Modernism on the horizon.

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Hearst Castle's Julia Morgan is first woman to win AIA's gold medal