Current Issue: Domus 962

Cover

Each time Diébédo Francis Kéré returns to his home village of Gando, Burkina Faso, he brings with him a treasure of knowledge to share with everybody. Photos by Kéré Architecture

Editorial: Min to Max

Ilka & Andreas Ruby

Op–ed: The quicksands of Common Ground

Joseph Grima

Journal

Edited by Elena Sommariva

Photoessay

The African Years (1980—85). Jean-Philippe Vassal (Lacaton & Vassal)

Long live the crisis!

The depression induced by world recession has not damped the creative spirit and innovative flair of the young architects at the Something Fantastic office in Berlin. Text and drawings by Something Fantastic. Edited by Rita Capezzuto

Clay-bound utopia

Gando is a village of 3,000 inhabitants, 200 kilometres from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. It is also the experimental architectural workshop of Diébédo Francis Kéré, who was born here. Text by Jeanette Kunsmann. Photos by Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk, Kéré Architecture. Edited by Laura Bossi

Artists as developers

How to preserve and regenerate an urban area that has lost its future because the market refuses to see its value? Text by Nathalie Janson Photos by Eric Hester, Rick Lowe. Edited by Loredana Mascheroni

Affordable by design

Recent work by Phipps Rose Dattner Grimshaw, Jonathan Kirschenfeld, Peter Gluck and Partners, and SHoP Architects contribute significantly to redefining the ins and outs of social housing in the heartland of capitalism. Text by Susanne Schindler. Edited by Laura Bossi

Cutting-edge home-owners

In Berlin, homeowners make residential buildings without the intervention of a developer. text by Jeanette Kunsmann. design by Zanderroth Architekten Photos by Simon Menges, Andrea Kroth. Edited by Rita Capezzuto

Network: Nature Room Sou Fujimoto

Sou Fujimoto proposed the students of Boisbuchet to conceptualise a new relationship between nature and architecture. Text by Grégoire Basdevant

From Dom-ino to Polykatoikia

A group of teachers and researchers from the Berlage Institute harks back to the precursor of infill architecture, Le Corbusier’s Dom-ino system. Design by Labour, City, Architecture Unit, Berlage Institute. Text by Pier Vittorio Aureli, Maria S. Giudici, Platon Issaias. Edited by Laura Bossi

A city within the city

Originally meant to be a commuter dormitory outside Rio de Janeiro, over the years Cidade de Deus has become an actual city inside its mother metropolis. Text by Rainer Hehl. Edited by Rita Capezzuto

Bauhaus and back

Launched as an online platform to allow to make lowcost diy furniture, the Hartz IV programme has become a globally networked virtual “factory”. Text by Julia von Mende. Photos by Van Bo Le-Mentzel, Daniela Kleint, Urban Zintel. Edited by Loredana Mascheroni

Network: Studio Visit 01 / Maio

In the new Studio Visit section we present Maio, a four-member team of Catalan architects whose entrepreneurship is unconventional, versatile and brave. Text by Carlos Mínguez Carrasco

Gun politics

Half a tonne of weapons, confiscated by the Mexican Ministry of Defence and donated to Pedro Reyes for artistic purposes, were turned into working musical instruments. Design by Pedro Reyes. Text by José Esparza. Edited by Loredana Mascheroni

The dream lamp

For Flos’s 50th anniversary, the latest lamp designed by Philippe Starck, the Light Photon, uses oled technology on the largest surface ever. Interview by Joseph Grima. Design by Philippe Starck. Photos by Delfino Sisto Legnani. Edited by Loredana Mascheroni

Common Pavilions

With a series of literary and photographic essays on the national pavilions, the Common Pavilions exhibition staged in Venice’s Giardini, invites visitors to become witnesses to the process of understanding architecture. Text and photos by Gabriele Basilico. Edited by Loredana Mascheroni

Rassegna

Edited by Rita Capezzuto

Panorama

Edited by Guido Musante

Cold Case

Canteen for the Olivetti staff. Edited by Luigi Spinelli