Opinion: KPF's attempt to recreate the allure of a red Porsche on the facade of Los Angeles automotive museum has left us with an eyesore, says Mimi Zeiger. But can it teach us anything about our architectural now? More about "The Petersen isn't a good building, it's a western-town front posing as architecture"
Opinion: the Volkswagen emissions scandal has exposed how the car industry's obsession with data is preventing it from designing for real people, says Luis Cilimingras of design consultancy IDEO. More about "This noxious story highlights the car industry's obsession with technology instead of humans"
Opinion: is the idea of the smart city really just another way for big businesses to make even more money, asks Reinier de Graaf, who revisits the subject against his own better judgement. More about "The smart city is the ultimate free-for-all"
Opinion: in the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict, the most mundane forms of architecture have become political and ideological battlegrounds, says Eleanor Jolliffe. More about "The political influence of the family home should not be underestimated in Israel/Palestine"
Opinion: the Chicago Architecture Biennial stands out from an avalanche of pointless events by doing things its own way, says Sam Jacob. But can it be sustained? More about "Chicago boldly imagines its own definition of what a biennial might be"
Opinion: while many architects are designing slippery "architexture", Norman Foster and Alejandro Aravena are unlikely allies in the pursuit of real architecture, says Will Wiles. More about "Foster and Aravena are moving architecture out of the shallows and into deeper water"
Opinion: former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili may be wanted on multiple criminal charges in his home country, but his architectural legacy has helped him win political favour in Ukraine, says Owen Hatherley. More about "Saakashvili didn't need interesting architects to design the New Georgia"
Opinion: Manhattan's rash of skinny towers for the super rich is helping turn New York into an extreme work of art. It's a Capitalist Jerusalem made real, says Aaron Betsky. More about "Manhattan is theirs, we just get to admire it"
Opinion: controversial computer game Prison Architect offers a grim lesson for real-world architects, whose good intentions often count for nothing, says Will Wiles. More about "Prison Architect is a graveyard for the utopian spirit where noble ambitions go to die"
Opinion: dominated by old boys who think their view is the only one that matters, architecture academia in the US has become insular and out of touch, says Reinier de Graaf, who finds a perfect illustration in a recent debate at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. More about "Academics need to break out of their loop and get back into the real world"
Opinion: sci-fi films, comic books and wild hypothetical ideas by architectural theorists like Archigram and Cedric Price have helped shape the world we live in today. Darran Anderson identifies the next wave of unwitting futurists who could change the way architecture functions. More about "Architecture's eccentrics and outsiders can be retrospectively recast as prophets"
Opinion: as London's Barbican gallery launches a major retrospective on Modernist designers Charles and Ray Eames, Sam Jacob wonders whether it matters that the Eames name has taken on a life of its own. More about "Eames has become a vaguely suggestive word applied to alchemise junk shop remnants"
Opinion: the Chicago Architecture Biennial's diverse range of participants and mediums offers hope for the future of the discipline, despite protestations from self-appointed "gatekeepers" of the profession like Patrik Schumacher, says Mimi Zeiger. More about "Architecture is finally moving beyond a homogeneous status quo"
Opinion: SANAA's new river-inspired building in New Canaan may be beautiful, says Alexandra Lange, but it is still unclear whether its community-focussed programme will be useful to anyone. More about "Grace Farms is a trophy building, not a light-on-the-land wilderness retreat"
Opinion: Chicago may have been the birthplace of the modern skyscraper, but the city is now more interested in landscape projects that make New York's High Line look like small fry, says Jonathan D Solomon, director of architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. More about "Chicago is a living laboratory of future infrastructure"
Opinion: we must dispel the myth that design is a predictable and sequential process, says Lucas Verweij, because creativity can't be duplicated in laboratory conditions. More about "Prescribed design processes are for bad designers"
Opinion: charisma can't be learned, but it is often the architect's last line of defence against demanding clients and unsavoury economic realties, says Reinier de Graaf. More about "Charisma allows the architect to speak with authority, even when he has no clue"
Opinion: London's creative classes are caught up in an urban renewal hamster wheel that's affecting property prices across the capital – and there's no way off without leaving the city entirely, says Will Wiles. More about "Creatives are mythologised as the tooth fairies of urban renewal"
Opinion: when the Tour Montparnasse was built in Paris, its residents were so appalled they banned all high-rises. Londoners should do something similar in the wake of Rafael Viñoly's walkie talkie, says Owen Hatherley. More about "Massive, horrible and unavoidable"
Opinion: by destroying ancient architecture, ISIS is waging an ideological war on cultural history – it is our responsibility to respond with yet more culture, says Sam Jacob. More about "The destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra is an assault on human culture"