I want one of these atop a serene Thandiyani hilltop. Why is it that we don’t have experimental architecture like this in Pakistan? Architecture that draws attention, while not making the background irrelevant. I asked my dad the same question and he said its the memon-inspired economics of utilizing every single square-foot. It makes good money-at the expense of aesthetics and culture.

Be sure to look at the slideshow.

A Decade’s Most Remarkable Homes – WSJ.com

The Wall Street Journal talked to 15 experts, including leading architects and the chief curator of architecture and design at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, to assemble a list of the five most influential and inspiring houses produced during the housing boom. Here they are:

Imaging building cost effective pre-fab houses with excellent designs. Imagine if we could replace our kachi abadis with these houses. If we have local talent to design and efficiently build these prefabs then it would be one hell of a market.

Upwardly Mobile Homes: Is This Architecture? – WSJ.com

One of the biggest debates in architecture is whether prefabricated homes are the new cutting edge of design — or a flimsy platform for aspiring Frank Gehrys to make their mark. Instant homes are increasingly going high-style with geometric shapes, flowing interiors and lots of steel and glass, in the process attracting some renowned young architects across the country. They include Jennifer Siegal (her “Swellhouse” has walls finished with recycled newspaper) and Rocio Romero, who offers a recreational “tree house” for grown-ups. Established builders are getting into this, too, with one hiring the architect who did Bill Gates’s mansion. Overall, upscale designs are now 10% of the $6.5 billion modular-home market, five times the share a decade ago, according to Fred Hallahan, a modular-home consultant in Baltimore, with some selling for more than $1 million.

A feel-good article by Alan Greenspan, the man who, arguably, laid for the foundation for the financial crisis today. Let’s hope he is right this time.

What Greenspan thinks | Banks need more capital

Markets are being suppressed by a degree of fear not experienced since the early 20th century (1907 and 1932 come to mind). Human nature being what it is, we can count on a market reversal, hopefully, within six months to a year.

Op-Ed Columnist – The Madoff Economy – NYTimes.com

We’re talking about a lot of money here. In recent years the finance sector accounted for 8 percent of America’s G.D.P., up from less than 5 percent a generation earlier. If that extra 3 percent was money for nothing — and it probably was — we’re talking about $400 billion a year in waste, fraud and abuse.

Meanwhile, how much has our nation’s future been damaged by the magnetic pull of quick personal wealth, which for years has drawn many of our best and brightest young people into investment banking, at the expense of science, public service and just about everything else?

Most of all, the vast riches being earned — or maybe that should be “earned” — in our bloated financial industry undermined our sense of reality and degraded our judgment.

Entrepreneurship in India | A suitable business | The Economist

Their enthusiasm for entrepreneurship represents a growing willingness on the part of highly educated Indians to turn their backs on careers in brand-name companies and strike out on their own. “In my early years, your business card was very important,” says Kanwal Singh, one of the competition’s advisers, who has carried the cards of Hindustan Lever and Intel in his time.