Current Issue: Domus 979

In this issue

Cover

Sketch taken from a study by Fumihiko Maki
for the 4 World Trade Center, New York

Editorial: A new point of view for architecture


Does architecture criticism matter?

Crowning an outstanding career as an architectural historian and critic, Joseph Rykwert this year received the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects, in recognition of his major role in advancing the discipline. We publish an article by him on the importance of militant criticism.

Thought as the basis for design

The use of art and nature as construction materials for design lies central to Michele De Lucchi’s way of teaching – first at the IUAV in Venice and then at the Milan Polytechnic. His focus is on a procedure for interior design that combines manual skill, experimentation and their constant foundation on critical thinking.

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design

At Jerusalem’s renowned Fine Arts Academy, the teaching of design embraces both craftsmanship and technology. Its particular geographical and historical condition orients the school towards theoretical and practical forms of training directed primarily at emergency-related design.

The patient experience

Concluding the in-depth reflection on architecture that led him to examine the relationship between practice and theory, and between architecture and history (see Domus issues 976 and 978), the Swiss scholar invites us to consider experience as adding constructive value to the architect’s doing.

Free dimension

Inspired by the large exhibition Milan is dedicating to the extraordinary work of one of the greatest Italian artists of the second half of the 20th century, we are happy to publish his most programmatic text and tell the story of the project we feel closest to, Linee.

Italian design beyond the recession. Autocracy, austerity, autonomous production

The history of Italian design as recounted by the seventh Milan Triennale Design Museum exhibition, previewed here, speaks of the kind of creativity that originates in hard times. It is a history made up of seemingly minor events, with at its centre the artisan-artists and experimenters of the past 80 years, all of them seeking new visual languages and new markets.

On the concept of structure in architecture

In architecture, the word “structure” is mostly used to designate a building’s load-bearing system. This Swiss architect, however, forms his work on the basis of highly original structures, where the bearing frame, access routes and spatial layout are an inseparable, architecturally distinguished unit.

Smart office. Smart living

Having ceased to be a static space of communication, the office has become a place of interpersonal relationships, exchange and representation. The SevilPeach studio works for large companies that see the design of workspaces as a new way to suggest their own philosophy of life.

Thinking and doing

Listening to and translating a line of thought, discovering forgotten craft techniques, working with people in different countries, and transforming ideas into works of art. All this is the task assumed by Altofragile, a Milanese group working as a right arm to artists.  

2+2+2 is much more than just 6

In his “declaration of poetry” Alberto Campo Baeza confesses that the thing dearest to his heart is beauty, which he pursues armed with reason and imagination, and by cherishing the words of illustrious predecessors such as Cervantes and Goya, Plato and Saint Augustine, Vitruvius and Keats.

The name of the present

An aesthetic and philosophical reading of design places it at the centre of transformations in technology, production, economy and communications, all of which are influencing our sensitivity and finding synthesis in the aesthetic dimension.

4 World Trade Center, New York

In New York, on a site that has attracted more international attention than any other, the first building has been completed in the master plan which will redesign part of the city’s skyline after the terror attacks of 9/11. With its linear and elegant proportions, the new tower by the Japanese master architect blends into the city while allocating the first floors of its base to public facilities.

Medical company headquarters in Switzerland

Situated in the Canton of Solothurn, along the banks of the River Aar, overlooking a historic building, the new architecture by Peter Märkli is defined by its strong tectonic presence, which successfully reconciles the monumental order of its facades with the human scale of its interiors.

Row houses for a resort, Óbidos

Last month, Inês Lobo won the second edition of the prestigious “arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture”, promoted by the Italcementi Group. The accolade acknowledged the quality of her work distinguished by geometric rigour and the human scale. Featured here is one of her recent projects.

Artisans galore


Art calling design

Five masters of contemporary Italian art tell Domus about their way of inhabiting space. By showing us how and where they live, they reveal a remarkable fragment of Italy’s universally acknowledged capacity for living.

Useful furniture

The question of habitation has always been a central theme for Domus, and here it is explored with a brief inventory of domestic furnishing elements. From the modern to the present day, these furnishings were all conceived as everyday objects capable of suggesting choices of good taste and good form to their users.  

Furniture


Pierluigi Cerri’s Milan


Crossing the doorstep


Contributors