Reconstruction is an exquisitely cultural issue
The reconstruction in the territory of Amatrice, devastated by the quake in August, should be afforded having previously seriously defined what does it mean.
In this issue
Domus 1006
Cover: graphic interpretation of a study by Marco Zanuso for the African-Italian institute Finafrica in Milan, 1971. © Mendrisio, Archivio del Moderno, Fondo Marco Zanuso
Editorial: Reconstruction is an exquisitely cultural issue
Once the tragic events that struck Italy in August, spreading death and destruction, once again drew worldwide attention, dramatically and violently, to the beauty and to the extreme vulnerabilityof our land.
Domus 1000. Domus has surpassed issue 1000
Orlando Furioso 500 years
Taking his cue from the courses on the Renaissance held by Manfredo Tafuri in Venice, Guido Beltramini introduces us to the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the publication of Orlando Furioso, the opera-world of the Italian Renaissance. The Ferrara exhibition, which we preview, looks at that which Ariosto saw while he wrote the work, examining, in a kind of archaeology of the imagination, that magical moment in which culture brought Italy out of a crisis.
City street house
The Potsdam School of Architecture, which Klaus Theo Brenner helped to found, sees the German architect involved for years in the elaboration of a long and complex didactic system which places the urban project in its various scales at the centre. in his courses, context, morphology, and type become the cornerstones of teaching.
Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich
Even today, the courses offered by the famous Zurich school – founded by Gottfried Semper in 1854 –, are shaped by the principles applied by its noble founder. The extraordinary quality of interdisciplinary excellence and the many structures present render the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology a unique place, where architects, engineers, art historians, landscapers and urban planners work together to educate the pupils on both a theoretical and practical level.
The flan and the knitting needle
In a conference held recently at the School of Architecture of the University of Texas in Austin, Alberto Campo Baeza examined and highlighted, with his usual authentic passion, the moments in which the intellectual pleasures generated by architecture are at their strongest.
Piero Portaluppi. Bourgeois epic
The fortuitous discovery of a trove of 16-millimetre films shot and mounted by Piero Portaluppi over the course of his lifetime allows us to view how a 20th-century protagonist of Milanese architecture wielded the new technique of cinematography to portray the world around him. Taking this material as a base and integrating it with current footage of his buildings in Milan, the director Maria Mauti made the film L’Amatore presented here.
L’Amatore
Delicate revolution
The important exhibition that the MUDAC of Lausanne has dedicated to Constance Giusset allows the young French designer to present her work, creating actual domestic spaces, as though they were ideal settings for her objects and furnishings.
Show apartment
Transforming a testimony into universal heritage
The story of the inclusion of Le Corbusier’s work in UNESCO’s lists begins in the 1960s when the architect himself requested their safeguarding. After various attempts, the happy ending finally came with the classification of 17 of his designs as World Heritage Sites.
Mouraria Square and mosque, Lisbon
In the centre of the Portuguese capital, the architectural work of Inês Lobo creates a new urban area which is a place of worship, a place of study, and a plaza. By opening a gap in a continuous facade, she has created a public space between two streets – the large urban high street rua Palma and rua Benformoso which lies behind – which were previously separated.
The 16th Art Quadriennale in Rome
Along with the Venice Biennale and the regenerated Milan Triennale, the Rome Quadriennale is being roused from its slumber. On the eve of the opening of its 16th event,we asked its president, Franco Bernabè, to air his views on what role Italy’s cultural institutions might play in the country’s growth, and to tell us more about the new Quadriennale scheduled to open on this month.
The Hill of the Buddha, Takino Cemetery, Sapporo
An unusual request – a more harmonious inclusion within its natural surroundings of a monumental Buddha statue in a cemetery near Sapporo – prompted the Japanese master and his assistants to produce a projecton landscape scale that adopts a few refined architectural features to celebrate
the solemnity and spirituality of the subject and its location.
Archivio di Stato, Gand, Belgio
In a mixed urban fabric where fine buildings of historical value coexist
with anonymous housing from the 1960s, the new project by this
Belgian office is a harmonious addition, thanks to its
refined formal identity
Structure and gardens, Brussels
A single, rigorous architectural element placed on aresidual site within a dense urban fabric manages to give
definition to the place and create a respectable, safe space for
neighbourhood social activities
Highgate House, London
Seeking resonance with the elements of local craftsmanshipthat characterise the eclectic architecture of the suburban context,
this London office has built a house with a strong tectonic character
and a high-quality spatial conformation.
Marco Zanuso. The centenary 1916–2016. Architecture lessons
A close look at the buildings designed by this Milanese maestro allows us to read the character of his work and the timeliness of its message, where the relation between architecture and industrial design is as fluid as ever.
Marco Zanuso. A not very milanese architect
Design? A programmed error
With the sharpness of a scalpel and the rigourof a philosopher, the most acclaimed French designer
ever speaks passionately and generously to Domus
about his job and the seminal changes forced
on it by our times. Starting from the ambitious
Generic project for Kartell which sees him involved
in a new adventure with major ethical implications,
Starck sets new objectives for today’s designers
that place creativity at the service of all mankind.
Marco de Michelis’s Venice
Elzeviro: “Proviamo?”
La nostra casetta trae la sua vitalità dalla nostra condizione affettiva condivisa.È un posto per valutare un mondo in transizione. I filoni della fantascienza si fanno realtà domestiche in maniera sommessamente infettiva.
