This issue of Domus is entitled "Instant heritage". Winy Maas starts his editorial talking about urbanism, that "is all about thinking about the future and imagining how the present might be improved”, underlining the importance of our heritage, seen not as something to be demolished but something we should take care of. The cover of the issue shows Matter Design and CEMEX Global R&D project, Walking Assembly, made of concrete using 3D printing. We talk about digital innovation, the impact of networks in the production of objects and architectures, and we present five projects that, with digital innovation, can promote a return to the pre-modern ethos of community sharing.
Urban planning. In Baku, the past becomes a resource: the oil capital of Azerbaijan changes its shape through the construction of new buildings and the renovation of Soviet-era buildings, becoming the "Paris of the Caspian” once again. Europe, on the other hand, is the protagonist of Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer's novel, Grand Hotel Europa, which describes a continent that lives with the weight of the past and with tourism as the only revenue model. The future city is presented in "Frictionless urbanism", with five visions for urban aerial mobility.
Architecture: ZUS, the Rotterdam-based architecture and urban planning studio, recounts its "city of permanent temporariness", a place in constant transformation and always incomplete.
It tells the story of the construction of the Colón Towers in Madrid from 1969, which at the time was striking for the technical innovation of their construction process, and the landscape scale design of Vector Architects in China, which dialogues with the natural territory and industrial heritage.
In Belgium, the historic Sint-Jozef building, set in the campus of the already famous Melle psychiatric centre, has a continuous debate in the design process involving patients, staff and architects. In Niger, a market designed by Mariam Kamara (Atelier Masomi) with simple coloured metal structures strengthens the sense of community. "Artificial landscape poetry" talks about the beauty of projected nature, with a focus on Art Biotop Botanical Garden, a park rich in water designed by Junya Ishigami in Tochigi, Japan.
Working with local communities, the Cape Town International Public Art Festival uses graffiti as a tool against gentrification, while in London the next Serpentine Pavilion by Junya Ishigami is eagerly awaited. In this issue of Domus, a cataloguing of all the pavilions located in Hyde Park since 2000.
The photo of the month has as protagonist the urbanization in a peripheral area in Namibia taken by the Australian photographer Leah Kennedy.
Domus 1036 on newsstands: “Instant heritage”
Europe between tourism and nostalgia. A market in Niger strengthens the sense of community. The beauty of artificial landscape is shown through Ishigami's garden in Japan. Browse the gallery and discover the contents of the June issue.
Projects Matter Design, Emerging Objects, text Geoff Manaugh, photo courtesy of Matter Design
Text Eve Blau, photo Ilkin Huseynov
Text Irene Start, photo Federico Sutera/Parallelozero
Illustration Lex te Loo, The Why Factory @ TUDelf, year 2019
as a political and a design discipline, at the heart of architects’ agendas.
Text Diana Ibañez Lopez, photo Fréderic Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images
Text Elma van Boxel, Kristian Koreman, photo Ossip van Duivenbode
Project Estudio Lamela, client Osinalde S. A., dates 1967-1974 (project) 1969-1976 (completion) 1989-1992 (renovation)
Project GongDong–VectorArchitects, photo Chen Hao/Vector Architects
Project architecten de vylder vinck taillieu, text Gideon Boie, photo Raimond Wouda
Project Atelier Masomi, photo Maurice Ascani
Project and photo Junya Ishigami + Associates, courtesy of nikissimo Inc.
Text Neo Maditla, photo Melissa Cucci, Yaan Macherez
Texts Felix Madrazo, Alessio Lana, Andrea Cotrufo, photo James Harris
Director Luc Besson, production companies Columbia Pictures, Gaumont, Screenplay Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen, year 1997
Text, research, infographics Stefano Andreani, event dates 21.06.2019-6.10.2019, photo © Junya Ishigami + Associates
Presented by Giulia Guzzini
Presented by Raffaele Vertaldi, Photo © Leah Kennedy
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- La redazione di Domus
- 03 June 2019
Digital innovation can foster a return to the pre-modern ethos of community sharing, where residents network their printers to produce new objects and architectures.
With new urban development driven by the third oil boom, planners see the legacy of the past as a resource and Baku reclaims its title as the “Paris of the Caspian”.
In his second novel, Grand Hotel Europa, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer pronounces the death of Europe. The continent is going through a bad time, because it is wallowing in nostalgia and is being bought up by the Chinese. Tourism seems to be the only revenue model. How can the situation be turned around?
Venice
Any argument around sustainability must reintroduce planning
as a political and a design discipline, at the heart of architects’ agendas.
For ZUS, designing the city is a continuous process of adaptation. Rotterdam is their “trial-and-error” laboratory that could inspire a new type of urbanism.
Colòn Towers, Madrid, Spain
Vector Architects’ recent project achieves the difficult feat of harmonising the dominant natural landscape with a valued industrial heritage.
Patients, staff and architects are all involved in the continuous programmatic negotiation to transform the spaces of the building-square on the psychiatric campus.
The community itself is the client of the market, an infrastructure designed to reinforce a sense of belonging.
A detailed planning of nature lies at the centre of the latest project by the Japanese architect.
Working with local communities, the International Public Art Festival has reactivated the Salt River district in Cape Town, and now it must face the threat of gentrification.
A coherent theory of airbanisation can only emerge through an open- source simulation platform where visualisation of conflicts and friction lies at the centre of the operative potential.
The Fifth Element
Since 2000, the Serpentine Pavilion has been one of the ten most visited architecture shows. We’ve gathered the 20 designs, looking at their second lives.
A three-legged chair with a seat riveted to the frame, Rock emerged in 2018 from a drawing by Marc Sadler. New models, including a version with four legs, have been added to the range this year, maintaining unaltered the post-industrial image conjured up by the use of treated aluminium.
Leah Kennedy, Progress, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2016, from the Progress series