Blurred boundaries. Steven Holl and Toshiko Mori’s manifesto

Toshiko Mori and Steven Holl's manifesto is on newsstands along with the monograph dedicated to them and published as a supplement to Domus 1074, December 2022.

As two individuals with independent interests, we share common knowledge, beliefs and the intention to collectively challenge and advance the state of architecture of our time. We want to steer our dialogue away from extreme polarisation and instead aspire
to form a community that can promote the informed and nuanced exchange of ideas. Rather than traditional categories of architecture, art and design, we would like to recognise that everything is connected. Our planet’s changing climate is connected to social migrations, to the preservation of natural landscapes, to urbanisms. Likewise, the boundaries between art and design are blurred. When the artist Olafur Eliasson designs and builds architecture, is that to be categorised as art? When Matisse built the chapel in Vence, is that architecture? 

Beyond the blurred boundaries of architecture, art and design, all the arts are connected to sciences and social struggles. We hope to introduce reflective and refractive perspectives for thinking about the lives we live, going back to the original meaning of Domus. Architecture is a discipline of broad knowledge as well as intellectual and aesthetic pursuits. It establishes moments of connectivity in civilisation, between nature and humans, and through time. We are all individuals on this fragile planet, and we are all connected. As architects, we serve the planet and community, therefore we are forming a collective platform to promote open dialogue in 2023. 

Opening image: Toshiko Mori, Blurred Boundaries