In the December issue 953, Domus surveys incidents of escape across the globe. In a new manifesto, 'IKEA Disobedients', Andrés Jacque and the Office for Political Innovation search for a society that transcends happy, apolitical consumerism. We aim high toward projects by prominent Japanese architects Sou Fujimoto, Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima that achieve vertical escape velocity from Tokyo's notorious density, and delve underground to Milan's expressively retooled Piazzale Loreto Metro Station. Minoru Takeyama discusses the projection toward a possible future skyscraper language in his iconic supergraphic towers Ichiban-kan and Niban-kan, built almost 40 years ago. Bjarke Ingels unpacks his library to reveal an imagination as hungry for dark comic books and science fiction as it is by contemporary philosophy. And we reveal the emergent creative class in Kabul, whose efforts configure an alternative to the seemingly endless story of crisis and war.
Contents:
Cover 953
Thursday 11 November
2011, Madrid: Andrés
Jaque Arquitectos stages
a performance of IKEA
Disobedients at the La
Tabacalera social centre
(photo Jorge López Conde)
Editorial
Joseph Grima
Op-ed: Wikileaks and the architecture
of data-loss paranoia
Roberto Costa
Mixtapes: Beijing
Matthew Niederhauser, Zhang Shouwang. Curated by Daniel Perlin
Journal
Edited by Elena Sommariva
Photoessay
Andrea Bosio
Tokyo's vertical thresholds
Three new projects by Sou Fujimoto,
Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima make dramatic
use of verticality and spatial theatrics to escape
the constrictions of a notoriously dense city. Text by Roberto Zancan. Photo by Iwan Baan. Edited by Laura Bossi
Superurban
1977: an enigmatic Japanese building, the Niban-kan, appears
on the cover of Charles Jencks' The Language of Post-Modern
Architecture. Its rise to the status of an icon of Supergraphics,
along with its adjacent brother building the Ichiban-kan, would
overshadow its great urban qualities. Accompanied by the
exceptional guides Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Yasutaka Yoshimura,
Domus visited and discussed the building with its architect
Minoru Takeyama.
A conversation between Minoru Takeyama,
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto,
Yasutaka Yoshimura,
Roberto Zancan. Photo by Matteo Belfiore. Research by Salvator-John A. Liotta. Edited by Rita Capezzuto
A perfect hexagon
Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus see designing a house as a way to
reflect on their own work. This villa set in a pine forest at Aroeira south
of Lisbon shows that the two architects are leaving their customary
geometries behind in favour of more sinuous forms. Text by Pedro Baía. Photo by FG+SG Photo bygrafia de Arquitectura. Edited by Laura Bossi
My house
is my castle
A small house in the Alps challenges preconceptions about Alpine architecture,
proposing—through the reassembly of its individual components, from the solar panels
to the larch planks—a new, intentionally imperfect high-altitude architectural language. Photo by Alberto Sinigaglia. Edited by Francesca Picchi
A walk underground
The Piazzale Loreto Metro Station is an important junction between two lines of
Milan's underground rail network. Originating as a technical space for rapid transit,
today this station has acquired a different quality thanks to its restyling project. Photo by Alberto Sinigaglia. Edited by Laura Bossi
Network: Spaceport
America
Foster + Partners
Network: Tree Pavilion
Salvator-John A. Liotta
Creative Kabul
Creativity is one way to survive in a war-torn country. In the
hands of artists such as Rahim Walizada and Aman Mojadidi, as
well as in the work of cultural centres and local artistic initiatives
in Afghanistan, creativity becomes a strategy for political subversion
and a means to preserve the past. Text by Francesca Recchia. Photo by Lorenzo Tugnoli. Edited by Loredana Mascheroni
A finely
woven Web
FabLab, an interesting and controversial
humanitarian project born in the Afghan
mountains and financed by the American
government, raises questions on
the exploitation of scientific research. Text by Francesca Recchia.
Edited by Loredana Mascheroni
This is not
a revolution
A dispatch from Cairo's contemporary arts scene
and contested public spaces near the one-year
anniversary of Tahrir. Text by Beth Stryker.
Edited by Loredana Mascheroni
A letter from Doha
In the Arabian Peninsula, most of the cultural limelight is enjoyed by Abu Dhabi.
But not far away, another artistic pole—Doha—is also growing at a frenetic
pace, largely thanks to the Qatar Museums Authority and the efforts of its dynamic
young director, Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Interview by Massimo Gioni. Edited by Loredana Mascheroni
Network: DesignTide Tokyo 2011
Matteo Belfiore
Network: Typo London: Places
Domus
Harmonious heating
If there is one component of the domestic landscape
that has resisted reinvention, it's the radiator.
In the past few years, however, the family-run firm Tubes
Radiatori has found a world of design possibilities—and
opportunities to improve efficiency—in the humble heater. Text by Marco Zito. Photo by Ramak Fazel. Edited by Francesca Picchi
Led: lighting the electronic era
led technology is changing domestic lighting, bringing greater energy
efficiency, miniature light sources and a life cycle measured in decades.
Domus explores the changes on the current production scene and identifies
new archetypes. Text by Jonathan Olivares. Photo by Jon Costello, Jonathan Olivares. Edited by Francesca Picchi
Anatomy of an
led headlight
After decades of research and countless concept cars, Audi's
R8 finally brings full-led headlights onto the road. As a new
frontier opens up to designers, Domus revisits the milestones
in the history of leds in automobiles. Text by Matteo Fioravanti. Photo by Andrea Basile. Edited by Francesca Picchi
States of Design 08: Après moi, le déluge
Has chair design really been done to death? From the informal seats of the radical movements of the
Sixties to Konstantin Grcic's exercises in technological elegance, a survey of one of industrial design's
archetypal challenges. Text by Paola Antonelli. Edited by Francesca Picchi
Unpacking my library: Bjarke Ingels
As his generation's anti-dogmatic thinker and charismatic communicator
par excellence, Bjarke Ingels, the boyish founder of BIG, proved that even in architecture
age is immaterial to success. Unsurprisingly, the books that inspired him are as
unorthodox as his own career, spanning the gap between comics and Nietzsche. Interview by Gianluigi Ricuperati. Photo by Yoo Jean Han. Edited by Rita Capezzuto
Rassegna: Ecological design
Edited by Rita Capezzuto
Panorama
Edited by Guido Musante
Horoscope: Sagittarius
Texts by Dan Graham, Jessica Russell. Edited by Elena Sommariva
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- 05 December 2011
- Milan