Domus 1061 is on newsstands: an issue dedicated to creative languages

The October issue focuses on the languages of art and architecture in relation to the space around them. Browse the gallery to discover the contents of the magazine. 

Frontiers of art and space “And so even if no verse ever emerges from the mute poet, even if the painter never sets brush to canvas, he is happier than the wealthiest of men, happier than any strong-armed emperor or pampered child of this vulgar world of ours – for he can view human life with an artist’s eye; he is released from the world’s illusory sufferings; he is able to come and go at ease in a realm of transcendent purity, to construct a unique universe of art.” Natsume Sōseki, The Three-Cornered World, Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington DC, USA 1989. 

Text Tadao Ando. In the picture Thomas Heatherwick, United Kingdom Pavilion for Shanghai Expo 2010. Photo Iwan Baan

The potential of creative languages  The irreverent oeuvre of Shūsaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins reveals the cohesion within their architectural and artistic practice, an alternative way of understanding and acting in space.

Text Tiffany Lambert. In the picture Arakawa + Gins, Ubiquitous Site, Nagi’s Ryoanji, Architectural Body, 1994, permanent installation, Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagi, Okayama Prefecture, Japan

London Cross Pavillon by OLI Architecture A charred timber rainscreen surmounted by skylights forms the specially designed home of Richard Serra’s London Cross, which is enveloped in soft indirect light.

Text from the project description. Photos Albert Cheung

Starting again from Mother Earth/ Agnes Denes, Mary Mattingly, Rebeca Méndez With efficient pragmatism, these women artist-activists use their work to invoke a new balance between humans and nature, driving change that starts from daily life. 

Text Caroline Corbetta. In the picture Swale, concrete park with plants, East River, New York, 2016. Courtesy of Cloudfactory © Mary Mattingly

Studio Visit/ Ultramoderne In a former warehouse in Providence, Vobis and Forrest pursue their experimental approach, supported by a division dedicated to research and their collaborations with the Rhode Island School of Design. 

Text Andrea Caputo. Illustrations Michele Tranquillini

Microstories  The close relationship between Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass tells a story of friendship and professional affinity, marked by acts of generosity and well illustrated by Kuramata’s projects for the founder of Esprit Doug Tompkins. 

Text Deyan Sudjic. In the picture the Esprit House in Tokyo, designed by Shiro Kuramata, 1983.

Process  The use of aeronautical engineering techniques reduced the time and cost of assembly for the Sunset Spectacular multimedia billboard in West Hollywood. 

Text Tom Wiscombe Architecture. All images Sunset Spectacular © Tom Wiscombe Architecture

Kramlich residence and collection by Herzog & de Meuron Alongside a residence, the Napa Valley complex houses a collection of video and media art distributed between a transparent pavilion and an underground labyrinth. Two structures with contrasting features, where art and landscape coexist. 

Text Nicholas Olsberg. Photo Iwan Baan, Marion Brenner, Luisa Lambri, Catherine Wagner

Roden Crater by James Turrell  The American artist’s most ambitious work is set in a remote location, beneath the crust of an extinct volcano: an observatory for viewing interactions with the celestial movements. 

Text James Turrell . Photos Florian Holzherr

Ecology/ A carpet-statement on recycling and pollution The Plastic Rivers n. 6 carpet by Álvaro Catalán de Ocón.

Text Loredana Mascheroni. Photo Marco Menghi

Kids / Windows, framing stories and landscapes to invent Lunette, pavilion by Federico Babina for Edilpiù in Lugo (Ravenna).

Text Elena Sommariva. Photos Gianluca Gasperoni

House like me / Carlo Benvenuto The house in which the artist seeks refuge every day to escape the endless distractions of the city is inside a building designed by Elio Frisia near Milan’s Stazione Centrale. 

Text Carlos D’Ercole. Photos Carlo Benvenuto

Sacred A baroque and organic church, in dialogue with the locals. 

Text Alessandro Benetti. Photos Duccio Malagamba

Landscape Piet Oudolf’s 4D garden lands at the Vitra Campus. 

Text Loredana Mascheroni. Photos Marek Iwicki

Good reads/ Imago 1960-1971. A magazine between experimentation, art and industry The volume edited by Giorgio Camuffo with the picture used for the editorial in the first issue of Imago.

Texts Elena Sommariva

Talents Thinkk Studio: resemanticising waste with the imagination. 

Text Silvana Annicchiarico

Ergonomics When design is the result of a process of reflection and balance. In the picture the Filo chair, designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Mattiazzi.

Text Loredana Mascheroni. Photos Gerhardt Kellermann

Mnemosine Aldo Rossi’s La Conica with a handle from popular tradition. 

Text Cristina Moro. Photo © Eredi Aldo Rossi. Courtesy of Fondazione Aldo Rossi

Round table/ Making space public The debate on renegotiating and redistributing public space represents, during this dramatic pandemic, a great resource. We discussed this with Kristian Koreman, Fabrizio Prati, Gideon Boie and Ma Yansong. 

Coordination Giulia Ricci. Illustrations Anna Sutor

Coffee break / Andrea Carandini: “A home shows people’s soul. And it never lies” Aristocrat, archaeologist, intellectual, politician, traveller and man of letters, Andrea Carandini explains why homes are so important, in the existential and cultural journey called life. 

Text Walter Mariotti

Influences The contemporary classicism of Alessandro Sartori for Zegna. 

Text Valentina Petrucci

Bahrain Pavilion by Christian Kerez A filigree of extremely slender metal profiles structurally supports the building and characterises the spatial experience inside. 

Text from the project description. Photos Maxime Delvaux

Creators/ What are the frontiers of art and space? In the picture Sou Fujimoto Architects, Shiroiya Hotel (art area by Leandro Erlich Studio). 

Photo Daici Ano + Tomoyuki Kusunose

Domus 1061 opens with an editorial by guest editor Tadao Ando, presenting the theme of the October issue: the frontiers of art and space. A reflection “on the history of artistic and architectural expression”, from the most renowned artistic movements, such as Cubism and Futurism, to the student revolutions symbolic of their time. Ando includes some historical examples, including Thomas Heatherwick's UK Pavilion for Shanghai Expo 2010 and Frank Gehry's house designed for himself in Santa Monica. Casey Reas and Ben Fry’s essay entitled “A Synthesis of Art and Technology” tells the story of Processing, the software they created in 2001: a programming language created to promote the use of visual arts, a digital and graphic library for artists and designers. 
Tiffany Lambert’s essay focuses on the works of artists and architects Shūsaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins, “extravagant or kitsch, not to say dysfunctional” but always coherent and ambitious. 

In the Architecture section we explore five projects: Herzog & de Meuron's Kramlich residence and collection, James Turrell's Roden Crater, Michael Heizer's City, OLI Architecture's London Cross Pavilion and Christian Kerez's Bahrain Pavilion. Projects with small and large spaces, artistic and architectural, natural and artificial.  The Art section explores the work of artists and activists Agnes Denes, Mary Mattingly and Rebeca Méndez who, working with various resources and technologies, invoke new balances between the artificial and the natural, between man and nature.
The Design section presents Yoshiyuki Miyamae's new collection that draws on the art of Tadanori Yokoo and his historic collaboration with Issey Miyake. “Jackets and trousers, cut from a single piece of fabric, become canvases for the Japanese artist's paintings”. The Creators column poses the question “What is the frontier between art and space?” to renowned artists and designers: Steven Holl, Manuel Aires Mateus, Paul Smith, Balkrishna Doshi, Sou Fujimoto, Thom Mayne, Bijoy Jain, Bosco Sodi, Dominique Perrault and John Pawson, who elaborate on their ideas through drawings, photographs and words.

Round Table with Fabrizio Prati, Gideon Boie, Ma Yansong, Kristian Koreman. Illustration Anna Sutor

The Microstories column recounts the artistic partnership between Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass  “well illustrated by Kuramata’s projects for the founder of Esprit Doug Tompkins”.  In Process we discover the construction of the Sunset Spectacular in West Hollywood, a multimedia billboard created in collaboration with Orange Barrel Media for a competition promoted by the City. 
In Studio visit we meet the founders of Ultramoderne, a small and dynamic architecture studio founded in 2013 in Rhode Island, by Yasmin Vobis and Aaron Forrest. 

The issue closes with Ando's wish to create an invisible architecture,  “perceived through fragments of light and wind”. 

In this month's Diary: Round Table with Fabrizio Prati, Gideon Boiea, Ma Yansong and Kristian Koreman, with whom we discuss how  “the renegotiating and redistributing public space represents, during this dramatic pandemic, a great resource."

For the column House Like Me we enter the home of Italian artist Carlo Benvenuto. This is followed by pages on fashion, hospitality, sustainability and architecture for kids. And also: design, companies and new (and old) talents in the world of design. A  “baroque and organic church, in dialogue with the local community”, carpets, landscapes and finally Aldo Rossi's iconic Conica coffee maker. 
The Diary closes with a dialogue somewhere between humanism and extistentialism between Domus' editorial director Walter Mariotti and Andrea Carandini,  “aristocrat, archaeologist, intellectual, politician, traveller and scholar”. 

Frontiers of art and space Text Tadao Ando. In the picture Thomas Heatherwick, United Kingdom Pavilion for Shanghai Expo 2010. Photo Iwan Baan

“And so even if no verse ever emerges from the mute poet, even if the painter never sets brush to canvas, he is happier than the wealthiest of men, happier than any strong-armed emperor or pampered child of this vulgar world of ours – for he can view human life with an artist’s eye; he is released from the world’s illusory sufferings; he is able to come and go at ease in a realm of transcendent purity, to construct a unique universe of art.” Natsume Sōseki, The Three-Cornered World, Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington DC, USA 1989. 

The potential of creative languages Text Tiffany Lambert. In the picture Arakawa + Gins, Ubiquitous Site, Nagi’s Ryoanji, Architectural Body, 1994, permanent installation, Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagi, Okayama Prefecture, Japan

 The irreverent oeuvre of Shūsaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins reveals the cohesion within their architectural and artistic practice, an alternative way of understanding and acting in space.

London Cross Pavillon by OLI Architecture Text from the project description. Photos Albert Cheung

A charred timber rainscreen surmounted by skylights forms the specially designed home of Richard Serra’s London Cross, which is enveloped in soft indirect light.

Starting again from Mother Earth/ Agnes Denes, Mary Mattingly, Rebeca Méndez Text Caroline Corbetta. In the picture Swale, concrete park with plants, East River, New York, 2016. Courtesy of Cloudfactory © Mary Mattingly

With efficient pragmatism, these women artist-activists use their work to invoke a new balance between humans and nature, driving change that starts from daily life. 

Studio Visit/ Ultramoderne Text Andrea Caputo. Illustrations Michele Tranquillini

In a former warehouse in Providence, Vobis and Forrest pursue their experimental approach, supported by a division dedicated to research and their collaborations with the Rhode Island School of Design. 

Microstories Text Deyan Sudjic. In the picture the Esprit House in Tokyo, designed by Shiro Kuramata, 1983.

 The close relationship between Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass tells a story of friendship and professional affinity, marked by acts of generosity and well illustrated by Kuramata’s projects for the founder of Esprit Doug Tompkins. 

Process Text Tom Wiscombe Architecture. All images Sunset Spectacular © Tom Wiscombe Architecture

 The use of aeronautical engineering techniques reduced the time and cost of assembly for the Sunset Spectacular multimedia billboard in West Hollywood. 

Kramlich residence and collection by Herzog & de Meuron Text Nicholas Olsberg. Photo Iwan Baan, Marion Brenner, Luisa Lambri, Catherine Wagner

Alongside a residence, the Napa Valley complex houses a collection of video and media art distributed between a transparent pavilion and an underground labyrinth. Two structures with contrasting features, where art and landscape coexist. 

Roden Crater by James Turrell Text James Turrell . Photos Florian Holzherr

 The American artist’s most ambitious work is set in a remote location, beneath the crust of an extinct volcano: an observatory for viewing interactions with the celestial movements. 

Ecology/ A carpet-statement on recycling and pollution Text Loredana Mascheroni. Photo Marco Menghi

The Plastic Rivers n. 6 carpet by Álvaro Catalán de Ocón.

Kids / Windows, framing stories and landscapes to invent Text Elena Sommariva. Photos Gianluca Gasperoni

Lunette, pavilion by Federico Babina for Edilpiù in Lugo (Ravenna).

House like me / Carlo Benvenuto Text Carlos D’Ercole. Photos Carlo Benvenuto

The house in which the artist seeks refuge every day to escape the endless distractions of the city is inside a building designed by Elio Frisia near Milan’s Stazione Centrale. 

Sacred Text Alessandro Benetti. Photos Duccio Malagamba

A baroque and organic church, in dialogue with the locals. 

Landscape Text Loredana Mascheroni. Photos Marek Iwicki

Piet Oudolf’s 4D garden lands at the Vitra Campus. 

Good reads/ Imago 1960-1971. A magazine between experimentation, art and industry Texts Elena Sommariva

The volume edited by Giorgio Camuffo with the picture used for the editorial in the first issue of Imago.

Talents Text Silvana Annicchiarico

Thinkk Studio: resemanticising waste with the imagination. 

Ergonomics Text Loredana Mascheroni. Photos Gerhardt Kellermann

When design is the result of a process of reflection and balance. In the picture the Filo chair, designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Mattiazzi.

Mnemosine Text Cristina Moro. Photo © Eredi Aldo Rossi. Courtesy of Fondazione Aldo Rossi

Aldo Rossi’s La Conica with a handle from popular tradition. 

Round table/ Making space public Coordination Giulia Ricci. Illustrations Anna Sutor

The debate on renegotiating and redistributing public space represents, during this dramatic pandemic, a great resource. We discussed this with Kristian Koreman, Fabrizio Prati, Gideon Boie and Ma Yansong. 

Coffee break / Andrea Carandini: “A home shows people’s soul. And it never lies” Text Walter Mariotti

Aristocrat, archaeologist, intellectual, politician, traveller and man of letters, Andrea Carandini explains why homes are so important, in the existential and cultural journey called life. 

Influences Text Valentina Petrucci

The contemporary classicism of Alessandro Sartori for Zegna. 

Bahrain Pavilion by Christian Kerez Text from the project description. Photos Maxime Delvaux

A filigree of extremely slender metal profiles structurally supports the building and characterises the spatial experience inside. 

Creators/ What are the frontiers of art and space? Photo Daici Ano + Tomoyuki Kusunose

In the picture Sou Fujimoto Architects, Shiroiya Hotel (art area by Leandro Erlich Studio).