Poetry (straw-bale-y) jam

This month our friendly neighbourhood library is hosting their annual Poem-a-Day contest.

It's open to all ages, all styles, and holds the possibility of prizes and publishing!

To celebrate the event you'll find an inspiring, architecture-related poetry display on the counter in our library. Drop by and learn more about architects who are poets, poetry in architecture, architecture in literature and the construction of poetry.

You will also find poetic interventions throughout the library as you browse for books!

Good on paper

Check out the latest edition of Spacing magazine. Their fifth anniversary issue focuses on the "Next generation of city builders" (psst....that's you guys) and features the winners of their thinkTORONTO urban design ideas competition (you guys again).

Some of them wanted to shine a light on the subway, and others wanted to get people reading on the rails...but all of them are about making the city a community.

Of the 20 winning ideas, many were from current and former UW Architecture students. Check out those entries on our bulletin board, or flip through the whole issue on our magazine rack!

New Books...on natural and fashionabe technology

For more about these books, check out our New Book Spotlight!

Free floating

Online mag FLYP features Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut's idea for a new kind of island getaway. It is expected that global warming, and the resulting rise in sea levels, will create hundreds of millions of refugees. Callebaut's solution to this devastating problem are self-sufficient, amphibious cities called "lilypad".

A little (fish) food for thought...

To learn more about this looming crisis, and how it is already affecting millions of people around the world, check out the documentary "The Refugees of the Blue Planet" available in our film collection.

Able to leap tall buildings...

UW Urban Planning student, Michael Lee discusses the rising popularity of Parkour at UW and in the Waterloo Region in today's Hamilton Spectator.

Should you go to the AGO?

The dawn of a 'new' gallery is upon us. Is it a good thing? or a bad thing?

You could find out by reading Toronto Star Architecture critic Christopher Hume's lauding review of the renovation. Or by reading the criticism it's drawing from local contemporary artists. Or, find out what Frank Gehry thinks of his own work here.

You can also view 360 degree virtual tours of the Galleria Italia, and Walker Court Stairs. And another sort of tour here.

Or, you could find out yourself! This weekend the AGO is open to all...with events and entertainment for free!

Want to learn more about the AGO, Frank Gehry, or some of the AGO's featured artists, like Frank Stella? Check out the display of books, DVDs and articles on the counter in the library!

Watch more Yahoo! Video videos on AOL Video

More on the new AGO here, here (with our own Anne Bordeleau!), and here.

I am a woman blogger...

...who noticed this, posted the other day by one of my favourite women bloggers:

"Science Books and Films gave You Can Be A Woman Architect by Margot Siegel and Judith Love Cohen (ill. by David Katz) their Recommendation. Their review stated in part: Margot Siegel, the architect profiled describes in her own words what made her want to become an architect and how she proceeded toward her goal. After telling of her schooling and current work, she asks, "Do you like to draw? Do you like to make things? Can you visualize three-dimensionally? Do you like to work with people? Then you can do it too. You can be a woman architect!"

...hmmm. I knew I wanted (had to) to blog about this, but even after days of thinking about it my mind still can't find the words.

I could make a joke about it...it's not like the hundreds of women I work with every day are here to get their WMArch degree. It's not like they'll be applying for different positions. It's not like being a 'woman architect' is a career that is any different from being an 'architect'. Aside, of course, from the fact that it's likely they will earn less than their male counterparts.

But what I really want is to hear what YOU have to say about it. So lets hear it...

Around and about...

Inspired by the extraordinary installations around the school made by ordinary objects?

Check out artist Tara Donovan, who is doing similar things...

Down the rabbitt hole...

Urban adventurer and human geographer Michael Cook will be lecturing at the School of Architecture on Tuesday, October 28th at 7pm.

Cook chronicles his adventures through underground tunnels and waterways with striking pictures on his site The Vanishing Point. If you want to dig a little deeper, check out this interview he did with the BLDGBLOG.

For more about urban exploration in the Toronto area you can look here or here or check out the book display in the library.

Interested in a more gentle introduction to urban exploration? UW School of Architecture alum Emma Cubitt will be guiding a walking tour this Saturday of the alleyways in my Hamilton neighbourhood. And that's not all she's up to...

Learn from experience...

With these NEW BOOKS!