domus 953 on newsstands now

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

Latest on News

Latest on Domus

Read more
China Germany India Mexico, Central America and Caribbean Sri Lanka Korea icon-camera close icon-comments icon-down-sm icon-download icon-facebook icon-heart icon-heart icon-next-sm icon-next icon-pinterest icon-play icon-plus icon-prev-sm icon-prev Search icon-twitter icon-views icon-instagram