An appeal to entrepreneurs
In November’s issue Nicola Di Battista calls the Italian industrialists and entrepreneurs inviting them to become actors of a renewal through their unique knowledge.
In this issue
Domus 996
Cover: taken from a sketch by Kazimir Malevich for the display of his paintings Black Square, Black Cross and Black Circle (all 1923) at the 14th Art Biennale in Venice, 1924. © The State Russian Museum, Saint PetersburgEditorial: An appeal to entrepreneurs
If we want to better understand the spirit that moves our times, we might agree that the word that best sums it up is the word renewal. Ours is a time in which the desire and the demand for renewal can no longer be held back and are at last within our reach.
Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism – Architecture
Eighty years after his death, this great Russian master who revolutionised 20th-century art is being honoured by the GAMeC in Bergamo. Domus has translated one of his masterful articles into English for the first time, where he speaks of architecture as being “in its fundamental elements, a pure art form”.
Kazimir Malevich: a new world
The close observation of place
In illustration of his teaching method at the School of Architecture, University College of Dublin, John Tuomey presents student projects developed for the repurposing of the Folding Landscapes premises. His approach is based on the conviction that creative thinking can take flight from the study and knowledge of the conditions of place.
School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB)
The balance between technology and humanism, in addition to a tight relationship with the city, are the hallmarks of this Catalan school of architecture that has always prided itself on having the best professionals as teachers, and offering students holistic training in an increasingly global sphere.
Redesigning urban space
The Conference of Italian University Rectors recently held an important congress on the close connection between universities and their host cities. Here we present a contribution by the dean of the University of Pavia, which organised the event. He proposes the “Pavia protocol” as a working agenda for the coming century that will lead to more liveable and beautiful cities by placing universities at the forefront.
Walter Pichler: the platform over the stream
The last project to be made by this South Tyrolean architect allows us to remember his interesting approach to design: the tectonic process of composing by pieces, and a fascinating way of communicating it through powerful, earthy drawings.
Latitudine 43° 13’ 37.2”N Longitudine 5° 26’ 10.5”E
To give something back to stone, which has provided sculptors with the material for their work since the beginning of time, is the main objective pursued by the creator of the Latitudine Longitudine project. It started in Prato, Tuscany in 2001 and has now arrived in Marseille for its sixth instalment. Aiming for a feeling of “cosmic brotherhood”, Esposito fits local boulders with a convex steel disk that reflects the sky’s mutations.
Transformers
The curator Hou Hanru presents to our readers an exhibition at the MAXXI dedicated to designers and artists who are inventing a new total creative work. By seeking solutions to resolve the schizophrenia of our times, they bring us back to a more humane realm, one that is social, collective and democratic.
The language of light
In this International Year of Light, we present readers with an essay on “good light”, seen as a spatial building-block that can improve the environmental, perceptual and social quality of life. Natural light, in tandem with the artificial kind, is an essential element for our planet.
Collections, archive and museum: what future?
A permanent exhibition of the architecture collection belonging to the National Museum of the 21st Century Arts is now open to the public, making the MAXXI Italy’s first architecture museum. We hereby publish for the fist time in Italian and English an important essay by Aldo Rossi that is part of this collection.
Realism as education
Renewal of the Austrian Parliament, Vienna
For Austria’s most important public institution, Jabornegg & Pálffy Architects unveils yet another intelligent approach to a historic landmark building that had been adapted many times before. The office has succeeded in preserving the spatial structure of the 19th-century Parliament while updating its functional programme.
Architecture in Italy during the Postwar Reconstruction
After having published some time ago an expertly crafted overview of Italian architecture during the Fascist era, Carlo Melograni now enthrals us with an in-depth account of the country’s postwar reconstruction in his new book, written from his own viewpoint as an architect who experienced and contributed to those years, and presented to Domus readers here.
McMurtry Building, Stanford University, California
A recent university building by this famous firm from New York shows how the composition of space can determine new forms of collaboration. Specifically overlapped areas for “making” and “studying” create a central third volume that is the library, seen as a meeting ground for the sharing of knowledge.
Ecclesiastical parish complex in Trezzano sul Naviglio, Milan
For the new parochial complex Santa Gianna Beretta Molla, the architects shaped the entire available space of the lot into a domestic-scale low-rise composition, from inside which the strong volume of the church soars upward. The interior of the nave is filled by an unexpected veil-shaped apse that sweeps down to skim the floor, and a great skylight in the form of a cross entering from above and flooding the space with light.
Cala House in Madrid
In his most recent endeavour, this Spanish architect confirms his great talent in the invention of concatenate spaces. Here is a clear example of a spatial plan, a Raumplan, where the complexity of inhabiting is the red thread of the project.
How I honoured Giotto with iron and light
We’re back with another article on Giotto – not to discuss his supreme art this time, but how it was presented in the exhibition at the Palazzo Reale. To display the work there, the architect Mario Bellini opted for a sort of “zero degree” design, using only two elements: rolled black iron and painstakingly positioned light. The result is surprising: both the architect and the Palazzo stand aside, letting the pieces speak for themselves.
From drawing to photograph
Considering design a result of collective intelligence, the Bouroullec brothers tell Domus about their modus operandi. Their approach makes their atelier similar to a Renaissance workshop, where they work on highly diverse projects that take a long time to get from the first ideas to the final object.
Rassegna: Lighting and home automation
Feedback: Hans Kollhoff’s Berlin
