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Situated behind Snøhetta's iconic Oslo Opera House is another set of buildings which mark out Oslo as a cutting-edge architectural hub. The Barcode Project is a masterplanning project consisting of a row multi-purpose high-rise buildings which largely make up the skyline of Oslo. Each of the buildings is the creation of different combinations of European architecture firms; however, together they form an enticing composition with the gaps between them creating the impression of a barcode—hence the project’s clever nickname.

Each of the resulting buildings pushes the idea of what a high-rise building can be. Whether they take the form of a giant staircase or resemble a 3D version of Tetris, each of the buildings has its own peculiarities. The firms involved in the project included Dark Arkitekter, A-lab, MVRDV, and Snøhetta adding their stamp on the architecture of Oslo. Read on to see German architectural photographer Rainer Taepper’s stunning set of photographs on the Barcode Project.

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Letters of recommendations are strange in that we all know what they are, but save for the people who are actually using them to evaluate a candidate, what happens with the letter is shrouded in mystery. Can a stellar recommendation letter make up for a less-than-stellar transcript? Are you going to be removed from consideration because your recommender didn't make you sound like Captain Awesome? It all depends—but as long as these letters are required for admissions processes and grants and other things, we'll shed some light on how to ask for (and/or write) a letter of recommendation.

Whether you're on the asking end or the writing end, there are some basic tips and rules that should be followed. (Why should you trust me? Because I've asked for letters and written letters and things have worked out pretty well for all involved parties.)

Thousands of people in Tel Aviv put together over 500,000 plastic building blocks to create the tallest LEGO structure in the world. The project was created in memory of 8-year-old Omer Sayag, who loved the toy blocks before he was taken by cancer in 2014.

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A discipline like accounting might seem very different from the world of architecture. In architecture, creativity is revered, but in accounting, it usually entails fraud. Still, you can’t work if your firm is failing, and accounting is vital to success. Beyond the upkeep of your business, though, there are other ways that accounting can affect your work in a meaningful way.

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