February 2

Urban Flux issue 2009-4 review

Filed Under architecture, ideas 

(Text by Gaia Bianchini, all images of Gantenbein Vineyard Façade courtesy of Gramazio & Kohler, Zurich, photos © Ralph Feiner)

Conceived as a bimonthly issue, the Chinese magazine published by the Academy of Architectural Design & City Planning of Tianjin University and by Tianjin School of Architecture is dripping architecture from every edge of its rectangular, compact volume. Starting from the cover graphics, the “UrbanFlux” on the top left, challenging the border, to the minimal, rationally composed interior pages, the architectural structure of the magazine is above all reflected in the articles treated.

With a schematic index, thought like an underground map, the 2009/4 issue is mainly focused on Switzerland and ARCH/SCAPES, the Swiss exhibit contribution to the 7th International Architecture Biennal in São Paulo, 2007, whose theme was “Architecture – the Public and the Private”.

Urban Flux’s aim is to clearly present national urban strategies and architectural experiences to make them short-circuit in a common global debate on the thematic pair landscape/urbanization. The Swiss well-known, but compromised, relationship between architecture and landscape is here analysed with didactic approach. Besides country and canton maps, a selection of recent projects featured at ARCH/SCAPES are shown to follow and combine 5 different strategies of possible intervention: disruption, accentuation, dimensional dialogue, confirmation, injection. Which is the best approach – if there is one – I can’t tell for sure. Meanwhile, though, the several expert essays give the reader important clues and the projects shown definetely catch your eye.

Among the most noteworthy projects: Peter Zumthor’s “tailor-made” house and studio in Haldenstein (2005); the stable for 30 cows by Local Architecture (2005), which combines low budget and sustainability with an elegant shape and a flawless formal reasoning; the extension of Gantenbein Winery by Bearth&Deplazes with a sensational façade by Gramazio & Kohler (2006). This latter building, intended as a fermenting room for processing grapes, has a robotic 20,000 brick façade engineered at the ETH Zurich. It is designed according to precise parameters to guarantee a specific light and air flow, while giving a truly poetic light effect on the interiors and a changing pattern outside.

Gantenbein Vineyard Façade, Fläsch (Switzerland), 2006  © Gramazio & Kohler, Zurich; photos © Ralph Feiner

Another example of virtuous architecture is the expansion of a holiday chalet (2006), by Bonnard/Woeffray Architects. Starting from a regular plan, the intervention doubles the size of the living space with two underground floors, whose plans are shaped according to the roots of the surrounding trees. So the space turns out to be a continuous surprise, accentuated by the sophisticated urban design of the interiors.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was the 4-page schematic analysis of every possible Switzerland related data. Morphology/fluxes/anthropology/politics/economy were scanned in order to acquire the necessary knowledge and data for any kind of intervention within the Swiss borders. And outside too, since we think they were at the basis of the reasoning leading to the sensorial, vaguely videogame-inspired project for the Swiss pavilion for Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Two sharp articles close the magazine offering cues to other serious subjects: the first is about “Leisure Colonies of the Third Age”, by Deane Simpson, analysing the springing up of communities entirely dedicated to retired people from the same country, creating micro-Englands, micro-Germanys or micro-Switzerlands in places with slightly different habits (Southern Spanish coast, for all), causing curious anthropological effects.
The second one by Markus Miessen, “The (im)possible Border: where is ‘east’ east from?”, is about the ECE (East Coast Europe) project dealing with the perceptions of contemporary European identity and its relation to spatial practices and international politics. The 2008 compound project tried to locate the notorious border between West and East, speculating on whether it is possible to define a western place and an eastern one.

A section dedicated to competitions comes at the very end, showing the first two prizes for the Crystal Island in Shenzen Central District, Shenzen, China, won respectively by OMA and SZUPI+ZHUBO. Surreal atmospheres.

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
  • Facebook

Comments

Leave a Reply




 

You need to log in to vote

The blog owner requires users to be logged in to be able to vote for this post.

Alternatively, if you do not have an account yet you can create one here.

Powered by Vote It Up