I just accepted a job offer from Steven Holl Architects!

Steven Holl's architecture tends to be whimsical and playful, using odd juxtapositions, strange forms, and new materials. He has been practicing for probably 25 years now, and recently he has forayed into China. His projects here seem to all be very large in scale, but the intellectual and poetic density of his earlier work still exists. His first project- a high-end residential complex- is currently under construction in Beijing.

In all his work, the main material is light itself, which manifests itself in all sorts of ways. In the St. Ignatius Chapel, several light "bottles" cast tinted light onto the whitewashed walls below. In the MIT dormitory, light is crystallized into chambers of public space. In his most recent museum in Kansas City, the buildings themselves become lightboxes that cascade down the hill.

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Interesting student competition just finished at the Mall in Washington D.C.- the 3rd biannual solar decathlon. The German team won with a very elegant box solution. Although Cornell didn't win, their website is very useful if you want to learn more about ecodesign.