February 2

Urban Flux issue 2009-4 review

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(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. Read more

February 1

Yearbook Magazine on Architizer

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Better late than never, we finally subscribed to Architizer, the social network for architects, firms, and architectural projects. The site was officially launched a few months ago with partners such as Cool Hunting, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and Abitare.

As you can see, the design is simple and slick. The tabs are few and well located, which makes surfing the site easy and clean, and intuitive search is a major usability factor. A notable feature are the filtering handles, to narrow down search ranges in terms of budget, year of completion, and other parameters. The map showing project previews by location in the homepage is definitely a nice web3.0 twist, and there is also a Facebook-style Archifeed to follow the people and firms you want. Users can also submit competition and job offers, which makes using the site even more practical and useful. Read more

January 29

Blueprint, issue 286 review

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(Text by Gaia Bianchini)


Blueprint has traditionally made its readers well accustomed to sound explanations on design mechanisms and processes, what’s exactly up with design today. And, of course, by “today” we mean “now”. And, possibly, tomorrow.

Thinking of some attribute to generally define the thin, large format magazine, I can’t avoid stressing its most peculiar features: young and independent.

Under the wise guidance of Vicky Richardson (who’s recently been appointed as director Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council) and Tim Abrahams, Blueprint goes on giving its lucid, 360°- oriented glance on our world through specific sections dedicated to people/objects/exhibitions/installations/processes and meanings.

This month’s issue gives a challenging assessment on the 25 people among designers, architects and campaigners who will change architecture, design, graphics and communication in 2010. Of course – since the borders of the architect and designer profession are more and more blurring into somewhere else – the list includes personalities from researchers to graffiti artists; from economists to sculptors. Just keep an eye on architectural firms like  Toh Shimazaki Architecture, or sculptor Richard Wilson; or even the think tank Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today, which is “exploring the consequences of fantastic, perverse and underrated urbanisms”, to see what’s in store in Innovationland for 2010. Read more

January 15

Yearbook Survey 2009 #6
Last year’s best according to THE PLAN

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This is the sixth part of our survey on the best of 2009. Today we present you a response from THE PLAN, an Italian architecture and technology magazine. Here’s their selection from the best of last year’s architecture. More responses are coming next week, so hang around.

(When not specified otherwise, all images are courtesy of THE PLAN)

What do you think of the past architectural year? are there any topics your magazine focused on the most (and why)?

2009 has been a demanding year for everybody, even for architects, who may have suffered the general crisis even more than other professional categories. These are the moments, though, in which to stop and reflect in order to find new ways of development. Quality becomes vital from every point of view, and this is positive. These are occasions in which the working slows down, but creativity and intellectual commitment grow. New challenges open up. THE PLAN dedicated its 035 issue, the June/July 2009 special, to Latin America. For us studying South American architects and their projects has been a beautiful experience: their approach is far from the European one, intellectually more free and definitely more creative from certain points of view. Latin America will have a central role in the international scene in the next years, not only in architecture. Read more

January 13

Yearbook Survey 2009 #5
Last year’s best according to Arquine

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This is the fifth part of our survey on the best of 2009. Today it’s Arquine’s turn, a Mexico-based international design and architecture magazine. See what they liked best of the past year, and come back soon because we are not finished with our survey yet.

What do you think of the past architectural year? are there any topics your magazine focused on the most (and why)?

The four issues of Arquine in 2009 were dedicated to: Art&Architecture (47) – Sustainability (48) – Sao Paulo (49) – 50 Emergent Talents of the Americas (50). Coming issues will be devoted to: 51) the concept of RE- (rethink, reload, recycle, reshape), 52) Latin American cities in the 200th Anniversary of Iberoamerican coutries independance, 53) new Chilean Architecture…
With the exception of the Art&Architecture issue, all the other issues reflect a specific perspective and analysis upon topics which don’t seek to be original by themselves, but in terms of a view point and cultural condition: the architectural dimension as seen from Mexico and Latin America in a dialogue with the world. Read more

January 11

Yearbook Survey 2009 #4
Last year’s best according to Abitare

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This is the fourth part of our survey on the best of 2009. Today we present you a response from Abitare, an Italy-based international design magazine which doesn’t really need any presentation. But we’re not finished yet, come back soon for more responses to our survey in the next days!

What do you think of the past architectural year? Are there any topics your magazine focused on the most (and why)?

Last year, between 2008 and 2009, has been marked by the economical crisis. This caused the big projects to freeze, maybe because too excessive and outdated. Abitare focused on the way the crisis has stricken architecture, and also on how new practices to rethink the relationship between politics, architecture and society have vigorously emerged.
The ongoing renovation processes in Medellín, the political activism carried on by Madrid’s young architects, the several non-profit interventions in New Orleans, a new attention to social and public infrastructures and facilities (such as The High Line or The Cooper Union in New York), these are all symptoms of this trend. Read more

January 7

Yearbook Survey 2009 #3
Last year’s best according to Maja

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This is the third part of our survey on the best of 2009.  Today we present you a response from a paper publication: Maja, the leading Estonian architecture magazine. Enjoy the reading and hang around, we’ll be posting more soon.

What do you think of the past architectural year? Are there any topics your magazine focused on the most (and why)?

There were many architecturally interesting buildings completed in 2009 -  mostly residential buildings, offices and renovations. One of the 2009 key topics featured in MAJA has been the implementation of architectural policy, open competitions as ‘good practice’ of the policy, its problems and advantages (chance for young offices to start their own practice, transparency of selection process etc.). Among other topics: the ‘passive house’ theme and the regulations’ and codes’ introduction for the ‘green buildings’. A quite successful theme was also the ‘milieu’ — how new architectures relate to historical urban regions, what qualities are important to preserve and what kind of new regulations on municipal level have been recently implemented to protect historical regions. Read more

August 26

L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui is coming back next month

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“The birth of AA goes back to the Thirties, and curiously enough arose from the invention of synthetic rubber, so-called industrial or artificial, which had interested a young engineer just out of the Ecole Centrale after one year of studies. A rare phenomenon, which would have enabled this young prodigy named André Bloc, born in Oran, I think, to become a student of the Ecole Polytechnique, or the National School of Mining Engineering, if the crisis had not convinced him to put an end to his studies and find work (which was hard) at a time when young engineers were accepting cleaning positions. André Bloc was lucky. His boss, an amateur publisher, entrusted him with a review on rubber, and in view of the young engineer’s interest in modern industry, offered him the editorship of a small review on architecture.”

Such, according to Claude Parent, were the origins of L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui. The “small review” would later become an historical cult reference for the whole architectural scene, with more than 20,000 readers (mostly subscribers), before mysteriously disappearing (as we reported back in this old post).

But then something happened (involving Jean Nouvel) and here it is again, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, coming back next september with a sparkling new website (apparently still in the making?). Read more

June 2

Architecture Plus, issue 21. Time for Change

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(text by Angelica Di Virgilio)

architecture_plus_cover_21

It’s time for change. That’s Rashid Taqui’s title to his spring editorial for the issue 21 now on sale. This issue features a selection of projects in response to the global economical crises whose influence, despite initial predictions, has stricken United Arab Emiratea and other GCC countries. The magazine looks at the rest of the world, its choices mostly regard projects with a radical new approach to the territory and propose recent examples overcoming the “copy and paste” logic which often imports shapes and patterns opposed to local culture and – too often – comes from profit maximization. On the contrary Architecture Plus focuses on projects which have shown clear attention to the community,  respect for local resources, techniques and identities and a strong will to improve or watch over the natural and human environment. Read more

May 15

More Salone updates: Domus # 925

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(Domus may 925; text by Angelica Di Virgilio. Check out our old post for more Salone-related Domus content)

domus-925

Cover © Geoffrey Cottenceau and Romain Rousset, 2008

Now that the 48th edition of Salone del Mobile is over, it’s high time we drew up a balance. Despite the crisis, 14% more visitors visited the Milan Salone. A higher number of people coming from abroad, in comparison to last year, has also been registered.
The May issue of Domus, expected twin of April’s issue, gives the opportunity to sound this balance sheet. Starting with the cover, which portrays a sad Bedouin horsing an unlikely one-humped camel made of pieces of furniture, the magazine evokes the image of a lost equilibrium. It’s time to make the design object no more a fashion status symbol whose exterior image prevails over substance, but a quality product, an enduring piece in times of nomadic lifestyle. Read more

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