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@coop-himmelb-l-au designs PANEUM - Wunderkammer des Brotes (Museum of Bread) as the first wooden building in free form! Check out the iconic form and full story and leave us your views…

Since time immemorial humans have complained that life is becoming more complex, but it is only now that we have a hope to analyze formally and verify this lament. This article analyzes the human social environment using the "complexity profile," a mathematical tool for characterizing the collective behavior of a system. The analysis is used to justify the qualitative observation that complexity of existence has increased and is increasing. The increase in complexity is directly related to sweeping changes in the structure and dynamics of human civilizationthe increasing interdependence of the global economic and social system and the instabilities of dictatorships, communism and corporate hierarchies. Our complex social environment is consistent with identifying global human civilization as an organism capable of complex behavior that protects its components (us) and which should be capable of responding effectively to complex environmental demands.

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells. There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports. What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

How often do we come across form-based architectural themes in our lives and what difference do they usher in, in terms of experience? Contemplate on the issue, while going through this feature on one such project and leave us your views.

Fashioned by PESarchitect , #TheFuzhouStraitCultureandArtCentreunravels and realises #China's #ceramic #heritage through its unconventional #form and materials, interlacing #abstracted #symbolismwithin its #design.

The new rehearsal building for the Oper am Rhein ballet company in Düsseldorf blends simple form with experiential ambience. Check it out and leave us your views…

Defying the straight-lined assemblage of four walls and a roof above, this residence in Greenfield Park, Montreal, is a sculptural composition that spreads in simple geometrical forms giving rise to a series of optical illusions... Check it out here...

One Plus Partnership, founded by designer duo Ajax Law and Virginia Lung bring the world of cinema to life, giving abstract form to the concepts that make up the film industry and the city.

Ar. Sanjay Puri infuses socio-cultural sensitivity in his sculptural forms to design a 15-storey apartment block in Ranchi; in the wake of the city's new wave of urbanization. Check out the story and leave us your views…

Can the digital medium bring to life your every whim? Check out the digital geometries that German artist Tobias Gremmler plays with for the upcoming Kung Fu Exhibition in September 2016. Do tell us what you think…

Versatile designer Constance Guisset has a light animated style, which almost instantaneously evokes a connection and warmth in the viewer.

The 3rd edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale that follows the thematic 'Forming in the pupil of an eye' seems to weave several threads of sensitivity by the 97 participating artists. IAnD picks three such intense musings to discover the creative processes behind their works…

Prioritizing nature over built form, hillside resort DuSaiResortSpa by VITTI.sthapati follows a hybrid typology of traditional tea estate architecture and standardised concrete construction.

Wall Street Isn't Winning - It's Cheating The two-tiered justice system: an illustration 9/10/2001: Rumsfeld says $2.3 TRILLION Missing from Pentagon  The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality The Quiet Coup "the finance industry has effectively captured our government" What OWS is about + data behind the movement Data privacy is now extinct in the U.S. "The problem that confronts us is that every living system in the biosphere is in decline and the rate of decline is accelerating. There isn't one peer-reviewed scientific article that's been published in the last 20 years that contradicts that statement. Living systems are coral reefs. They're our climatic stability, forest cover, the oceans themselves, aquifers, water, the conditions of the soil, biodiversity. They go on and on as they get more specific. But the fact is, there isn't one living system that is stable or is improving. And those living systems provide the basis for all life." The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery? How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich: The inside story of how the Republicans abandoned the poor and the middle class to pursue their relentless agenda of tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent

Abstraction in form; colour neutrality and fluid lines of curvature define workspaces designed by Delhi-based Kapil Aggarwal of KA Designs. IAnD profiles two of his recent projects. Check them out here...

Army barracks transform into a plush open-plan home, where warm natural materials and colours find a corresponding analogy in cuboid solid-surface forms and glass surfaces. Check it out here...

Accessorising one's interior spaces involves an imaginative blend of comfort and style, form and function. Check out some spot pointers and leave us your views...

It's extremely rare that we come across built-forms that deliberately yield to the power of the landscape they're set in. Agree? Read about one such modern boathouse, set in a Canadian landscape and leave us your views.

The design of this residential community by Ar. Zaha Hadid is very much unlike her other iconic fluid forms. Is she moving on to a new level of simplification? Check it out here and do leave us your views...

Form follows function at the new Zaanstad-Zuid sports centre by UArchitects. Read here and leave us your views…