Domus 1012 on newsstands

In the April issue, the Fondazione Feltrinelli in Milan by Herzog & de Meuron with a text by Marco De Michelis; the Welcome centre and office building, in Shanghai, China, by Sergison Bates architects; the Chapel and wake rooms in Pescara by Patrizia Leonelli and Ettore Spalletti and a text by Lorenzo Pignatti remembering Predrag Matvejević.

After dealing with the issues of awareness and imagination, in his editorial Nicola Di Battista goes through the one of ‘profession’, deepening several aspects on the free vocation of the architect.

The key building of a new campus in Shanghai by London firm Sergison Bates Aarchitects provides food for thought on the fusion of traditions and cultures. Architect Patrizia Leonelli and the artist Ettore Spalletti worked side by side to restore the functional and architectural unity of the chapel and mortuary of a private hospital in Pescara, Italy, where the artwork interacts with the space so as to transform it into painting and sculpture.

Sergison Bates Architects, Welcome centre and office building, Shanghai, China. Photo Kristien Daem
Sergison Bates Architects, Welcome centre and office building, Shanghai, China. Photo Kristien Daem
Patrizia Leonelli, EPatrizia Leonelli, Ettore Spalletti, Chapel and wake rooms, Città Sant’Angelo, Pescara, Italy. Photo Werner J. Hannappel
Patrizia Leonelli, Ettore Spalletti, Chapel and wake rooms, Città Sant’Angelo, Pescara, Italy. Photo Werner J. Hannappel
Herzog & de Meuron, Fondazione Feltrinelli, Milan. Photo Paola De Pietri

  In homage to Pedrag Matvejević, Domus reproposes a conference held by the recently deceased Slavic intellectual at the Gabriele D’Annunzio University of Pescara Department of Architecture, Italy. This month’s school and feedback take us to Milan, with the Accademia di Belle Arti and the city seen by Antonio Monestiroli. Marco De Michelis talks about the new Fondazione Feltrinelli by Herzog & de Meuron: a structural repetition and abstract form are core themes of the architectural design in this major urban-scale project. Over 25 years after his first encounter with Domus, Marc Newson talks about his way of working, the main trait of which has always been a bodily approach.