Under Mr. Mendini, the number of articles will be reduced, the expressive power of illustrations increased, and readability of contents improved. The new format, with its crisp and “spectacular” layout conceived by Mr. Mendini with Stefano Casciani and the art direction of Giuseppe Basile, will optimize communication with experts, professionals, students, recent graduates and enthusiasts alike.
Special attention will be given to the architecture and design situation in Italy, where an emerging generation of architects and designers has been delivering praiseworthy results on a range of different scales. Their particular approach is contributing to international critical debate and the reconstruction of a new language and Italian design identity, indispensable for survival on the global market.
This focus on the new will be matched by ample space for critical and historical analysis. Generally speaking, the magazine will distance itself from the frenetic chase of the latest news in order to focus on psychological, philosophical and social aspects of events, including ones from the past, that can shed light on and give perspective to ways of working in the present, whose difficult condition is a result of an ethical and ideological void.
This is the reference-frame of the new Domus subtitle, La Nuova Utopia. As a “manifesto” of Alessandro Mendini’s editorial stance, the word Utopia conveys the construction of a progressive vision, as optimistic as possible, offered as a way out of the global recession in design, production and the marketplace.
Cover & Interview
Each cover of the magazine under Mr. Mendini will be a portrait of a personality whose work over the years has represented distinction in the arts, architecture or design, in recognition of creators of utopias both realized and imagined who have contributed to the evolution of design culture. The celebrated illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti will be drawing all of these portraits.
The first issue, April 2010, will feature Tomás Maldonado as the protagonist of the cover story - formerly an avant-garde painter, then head of the Ulm School of Design, designer for Olivetti, university professor, but especially theoretician and “philosopher” of design.
Architecture
One of Domus’s mainstays since the beginning, architecture will now come to the forefront, analysed in depth in its theoretical and historical aspects, but also in its immediate relevance, with particular focus on projects in the most problematic corners of the planet.
And so, for example, the architecture feature of this issue is a reportage at once succinct and devastating on the barrios of Caracas, the equivalent of the Brazilian favelas, where 600,000 people live in dramatic conditions. Here, Hubert Klumpner and Alfredo Brillembourg (Urban Think Tank) devised and built a transit system called Metro Cable that connects different parts of the San Augustín barrio, one of the most densely populated areas of Caracas.
Then, in an essay by Fulvio Irace, we see a close confrontation between the evocative quality of drawing found in work by the great Giovanni Michelucci and the fantasy worlds that can be made today using sophisticated rendering techniques. Finally, there is the “Microrealities” project by Aldo Cibic. Through workshops, educational activities and a multitude of miniature models, he proposes a work method (evaluated in an article by Kurt Forster) that allows architecture to incorporate current important changes in our way of living, starting with daily life itself.
Art
This section will explore artwork developed directly in relationship to the space it will inhabit, or where it originates. In this issue, the entire segment is dedicated to Dennis Oppenheim, recently in Italy with a large show at the M.A.R.C.A. in Catanzaro. Working outside conventional artistic categories, for many years Mr. Oppenheim has been producing large structures (sculptures, to use a traditional word) that contain references to architecture. His constructions are often ironic transformations, yet intended to allow the observer to experience the same kind of visionary emotion as an architect feels from the moment he conceives a project to the moment it appears before his eyes in its finished form.
Design
As Mr. Maldonado states in this issue’s interview, design needs to reconsider issues and ambits that lie beyond the conventional fields of interior furnishing, lifestyle and luxury goods. This is the direction of the magazine’s new design contents. Objects will be examined no longer as status symbols or narcissistic representations of designers themselves, but as suggestions on how to relate to and interpret the material world.
In accordance with this viewpoint, April features two main design subjects: a detailed analysis of learning instruments for the blind developed at Milan’s historical ‘Istituto dei Ciechi’ in Via Vivaio, and an initial introduction to the third exhibition held at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan – a vast anthology of objects ranging from the hand-crafted to art and industrial design, entitled Quali Cose Siamo (the things we are).
Opinioni, Belvedere and Periscopio
The new Domus will not only analyse, explore and discuss, but also inform, entertain and inspire with light-hearted seriousness. The magazine’s main contents are interspersed and introduced by columns where simply visual information is alternated with articles by experts and opinion leaders on current affairs and cultural phenomena. Among others, this issue features Carlo Guglielmi and Rosario Messina on the recession and the options in store for the furniture industry; Emilio Ambasz on Modernism; and Emilio Battisti on the delicate subject of recent urban planning in Milan. ‘Belvedere’ is a rich selection of visual news on subjects that range from jewellery to small residential buildings. Topical news from the world of manufacturing is found in the ‘Periscopio’ section for projects and products. Concise updates on the industry’s latest achievements are combined with experiments, projects and research by independent designers and emerging companies.
All columns and sections, new or revamped, carry Italian names in homage to the special Italian way of looking at the world, for which Domus has always been recognised and admired internationally.