Architecture was fun for one night as LVHRD’s ARCH DL IV pitted two teams of architects against each other in a live one-night mystery challenge. Last night’s brief:

Build an Alaskan Wildlife Research Facility using drinking straws – a representation of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline.

Konyk and FXFOWLE faced off in front of attendees who were asked to dress as bears or a lumberjacks. To further set the tone, LVHRD provided suggestions for proper dress and this fine video of a lumberjack in action, although we have to say we were confused because we thought that’s how all people in Brooklyn dressed anyway.

We think there was voting and a winner declared somewhere in there, but we can’t really see beyond all the drunk people in plaid shirts. Luckily Mimi Zeiger at loud paper has the party report, Archinect has some amazing play by play live coverage and Architectural Record has video interviews with all the teams. FXFOWLE’s strategy: “No preparation. Don’t take it seriously. Stay in character.”

After a decade existing as potentially marked-for-death printed matter, Mimi Zeiger‘s zine loud paper has finally succumbed to its more natural blog form. But bringing the potent blend of architecture, pop culture, design, art, and music to the world wide web wasn’t an easy call, sayz Miz Z:

Since the zine is a proto-blog of sorts, it seems inevitable that loud paper would end up in this format. I tried to resist, I had my excuses, but the call of the keyboard was too great.

In this new incarnation loud paper is part per-zine, travelogue, marketing machine, and wunderkammer, but it will also remain true to the original mission to provide a forum for multiple voices. This summer I resurrected the nearly-forgotten Boring Issue from obscurity, posting several essays and updates from a few contributors. More installments to come. Also, get ready for a new call for submissions later this fall.

An archive has interviews with people like Doug Aitken, Jorge Pardo and Shepard Fairey, but you’d do well to stick closely to the new stuff: Zeiger definitely knows how to make herself heard.