In the February issue, guest editor Winy Maas talks about the importance of water and a new generation of designers working on visionary proposals aimed to save the Earth.
The issue starts with the Discussion section with a contribution from Dutch water ambassador Henk Ovink, which gives a realistic – and dramatic – insight into the water situation in Europe and the world, but concludes with a message of hope: we can still save the planet but have to do it collectively.
The Landscape section is dedicated to the speculative work Geostories by Design Earth, composed by the duo Rania Ghosn + E, Hadi Jazairy. Their illustrations are projected into the future and offer new ideas for living in space and the abysses. Also presented is the low-budget urban decoration project for Avenida Carles Buïgas in Tarragona, Spain.
In Urbanism we talk about the Greater Bay Area in China, the largest metropolitan area in the world, with ‘creative’ borders and characterized by colossal infrastructural works. The second focus is on the proliferation of hipster aesthetics, defined by a stereotyped imaginary in a gentrified world, which has made cafes all over the world homogeneous.
The Architecture section is populated by a series of projects designed for a community, from the social housing of LIN Architects in Germany and the projects of EM2N in Zurich, to the urban veranda of Brasil Arquitetura in Recife, Brazil. An article recounts the work of the Belgian collective Rotor, and their radical approach to the concept of reuse in architecture.
The chapter on Future city products highlights the sliding shutter systems used for the facade of Herzog & de Meuron’s Meret Oppenheim Hochhaus in Basel, the digitized Data Kitchen in Berlin – the first automatic restaurant in Europe designed around high-quality slow food – and the strategies to safeguard the Coin Street district in London.
The issue closes with the case of the eviction of ADM, one of the last independent communities in Amsterdam, crushed under real estate speculation. The city loses one of the most representative architectural complexes of a radical and visionary housing approach.
The key event covered in this issue is the Super Bowl LIII Atlanta: for the American football final, an ephemeral city works its way into the urban fabric, offering its inhabitants a unique opportunity.
This month’s Rassegna is dedicated to thresholds, best represented by the work of dutch designer Petra Blaisse.