The main themes of Domus April 2018 issue are Silence, Emptiness, Sacredness, Unknown. Silence and emptiness lead to the sacred, to the divine, or simply to the concept of a higher essence that goes beyond the borders of the physical, the perceptible and the known. It is the most alive and attractive place to the intellect, a point you would like to arrive at to understand everything, yet it is a place you can never reach. However, it is to this place that we all aspire, the only conceivable place without objects, materials or forms.

The Focus on minimalist architecture features four projects by Hans Van Der Laar, John Pawson, Claudio Silvestrin Architects and Vincent Van Duysen. The Church in Hiroo by Tadao Ando exacerbates the perspective with converging walls to focus the attention on the Christian symbol. Miyake’s work is based on technological research, where the idea gives rise to a process that can last for many years and is independent of market logic. The anechoic chambers (from the Greek term meaning “free of echo”) at the Joint Research Centre in Ispra are lab spaces created to minimise the reflection of sound off the walls.

Among the many colums: “Portfolio” features Giulio Iacchetti and Emmanuel Zonta’s latest project Ossi/Ossimori; in “Cinema” Pierre Huyghe raises basic issues, by filming a desolate city and empty buildings: the value of silence, the emptiness around us and the search for sacredness; in “Meterology”, Philippe Rahm analyses why sustainability is generating a new colour theory. This month’s Rassegna is about Furniture and decorative lights. The Lux Facta Est supplement is about natural light: an ancient, vast and strongly inter-disciplinary issue. Domus Paper focuses on all facets of design, that the real engine of our era.

Cover image The Blue Chemist