The April issue of Domus hits newsstands with a steaming chair on its cover. Designed by a collective led by Thibault Brevet, the DRM Chair is a seat that self-destroys after it is sat on eight times, reflecting on the meaning of planned obsolescence. Another reflection on objects comes from Justin McGuirk, who identifies the obsession with functionality—introduced by modernism and amplified by the market—as the driving force behind the proliferation of super-efficient products, which instead of giving us more leisure create new forms of enslavement.

In Domus 968, Joseph Grima traces a remembrance of Gabriele Basilico, the great Milanese photographer who recently passed away, through his urban investigations; for him, photography was most of all a social activity. In Amsterdam, DUS architects reflect on the future of the architectural profession at the dawn of the third industrial revolution; the KamerMaker is the world’s first movable 3D-printer pavilion; and the Fogo Island Inn, designed by Todd Saunders, is the latest chapter in an ongoing effort to revitalise the local economy.

Meanwhile, in a rural area near Asunción, Paraguay, Javier Corvalán has created a country retreat for a film director: using a simple tilting mechanism, the architecture does away with windows by opening up to the surrounding landscape.

 The April issue of Domus documents Delfino Sisto Legnani and Giovanna Silva’s incursion into a post-Gaddafi Libya, identifying two opposite scenarios — one made of infernal ruins, the other surreally silent and calm. Domus 968 concludes with a preview of the 2013 Milan Furniture Fair, including seven projects demonstrating the constant search for new paths in the world of design.