exhibition design in the palestra grande in the pompeii archaeological site

after creating a pyramid in the pompeii amphitheatre, francesco venezia returns to the same archaeological site with a new intervention. compositional skill and virtuoso craftsmanship mark the insertion of this new exhibition space in the north wing of the palestra grande portico: it is a true machine for exhibiting, creating a subtle interplay of memories and analogies between ancient and modern, between archaeology and museology.

Kumbh in Venice

In our view, a framing of this phenomenon under the rubric of Ephemeral Urbanism is a more inspirational category than the Informal City, for it implies the transitionary rather than the absolute.

Design As A Mix Of Culture And Industry

On the occasion of the 55th Milan Furniture Fair, the president of both Federlegno Arredo (since 2011) and the Furniture Fair (since 2015) tells Domus about the strategy he adopted to overcome the crisis. By internationalising the Italian market from Moscow to Shanghai and from Tehran to Miami, he aims to export the Italian design industry as well as Italian culture, all the while giving support to entrepreneurs and creating training opportunities for young people.

The New Tate Modern, London

The completion of the Swiss office’s project for the London museum marks not only the conclusion of a task begun 20 years ago, but also, and primarily, the accomplishment of a masterly work of architecture. Thanks to the guidance of an intelligent client and the professional maturity of the architects, it manages to dig its roots deep into London’s urban fabric as a genuine piece of the contemporary city.

Salerno Maritime Terminal

After a very lengthy design process, the last project to be built in Italy by this celebrated, recently deceased architect has come to completion. It is a fine testimony to her strong poetics composed of fluid forms and advanced technology, unconventional spatiality and bold geometry, all masterfully controlled.

A Tryst With Contemporary India

Charles Correa’s design for the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad is that one rare occasion where architecture is cleansed of ego — it neither indulges in iconicity nor in symbolism; it is cleansed architecture.

Monuments, Landscapes, Cities

A discussion on two books: one that focuses on the world heritage monument of the Taj Mahal and the context of the city it sits in, and the other that highlights the contemporary condition of the city of Agra and the natural and historical landscapes it is composed of

Traces And Presences In The House Of Shadows

Conceived in multiple shredded layers, the Shadow House in Alibaug unravels myriad spaces, each rendered in a different intonation of light. These layers of the contemporary architectural envelope articulate the structure’s tectonic vocabulary — both for its design and landscape. Re-establishing a relation with the immediate outdoors, the living experience is designed to be gentle, dark, and quiet, with its hierarchy of volumes and spatial textures

What Is “Original” And “Authentic”?

The Basilica di San Marco and the Venetian concept of time

Is There An Architecture For India?

Noted architect Balkrishna Doshi has been granted the Pritzker Architecture Prize this year — the first Indian recipient of the award. Kaiwan Mehta wonders why the award reached Indian shores so late, given the fact that the first generation of architects in postindependence India had already achieved a mature body of work through the 1980s

Generating Habitat

Kaiwan Mehta speaks with Dirk van Gameren about a recently held research exhibition on Charles Correa’s remarkable housing designs, where each project highlights the tropes of space, structure and detail

Soft Thresholds: The Context As Generator Of Practice

Held in New Delhi in 2017, the second edition of the Cyrus Jhabvala Memorial Lecture, delivered by architect Rahul Mehrotra, focussed on why it is necessary to go beyond polarised binaries during the making of architectures — soft thresholds and spaces — that are visually and physically porous, plural in spirit and expression, and, most critically, encompassing of context.

Books City Stories

A collection of short stories centred on the city of Mumbai as the protagonist evocatively explores and documents neighbourhood identities, familial ties, and encounters with strangers.

The Stories From My Journey: Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow

The third edition of the Cyrus Jhabvala Memorial Lecture was delivered by architect Christopher C. Benninger in September 2018. Benninger narrated the incidents that shaped his life and shared lessons and learnings for the future from his real-life stories.

The Neelkanth Mahadev Temple Of Alwar

Located atop a hillock in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, the Neelkanth Mahadev Temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Unassuming at first glance, the structure is expansive — comprising three shrines, elaborately carved doorways, and inscriptions

Possibilities For A Non-Alienated Life

The recently concluded Kochi-Muziris Biennale, in its fourth edition, went against the grain of religion, nationalism and a celebratory globalism linked to neo-liberal thinking

The Architecture of the City

Paolo Portoghesi renders homage to Aldo Rossi for his book The Architecture of the City, publised in 1966. Portoghesi writes in light of the intense intellectual friendship that existed between him and the Milanese maestro. What’s more, 1966 was also the year Portoghesi’s book Roma barocca was published.

Alfredo Pirri​​​​​​​ Family Tomb, Piverone, Ivrea

In this latest work, the artist continues to pursue an “architectural” approach, transforming an existing construction into a new and unusual space where the construction features – floor, walls, door, skylight, iron rods, concrete and glass – become art.

Melancholia In The Work Of Aldo Rossi

Diogo Seixas Lopes’s study of Aldo Rossi, recently published, reveals the extraordinary capacity and depth of analysis of the Portuguese intellectual and architect, who died prematurely last year. Kenneth Frampton testifi es to the importance of this legacy

A Milestone... In Transforming Attitudes

The rescent restoration and resurrection of a 200-odd-yearold milestone situated in the heart of Mumbai exemplifies the relevance of a faceted symbol that embodies the tangible heritage of the cityscape, otherwise lost to the throes of time, encroachment, and redevelopment 

The Armature Of Mythical House

A mock-up composition of a 700-square-foot apartment — designed and constructed by Samir Raut — comprising rooms built around a courtyard replete with greenery illustrates the architects’ concerns and engagement with spatial forms, materiality, labour, and ephemerality

A Material Turn In History & Aesthetics

Through a recently concluded two-part solo exhibition, artist Samit Das explores the tropes of urban growth and the cityscape, extending them to the vocabulary of personal histories through sculptural assemblages of archival material and found objects

Abin Design Studio The Materiality Of Spareness

As India’s urban landscape is changing, architectural interventions in the form of institutions or housing could essentially define the future character of these nodes of growth and development. However, institutional buildings often imagine themselves to be silos of expertise and a professional community, imagining questions of public-ness and learning-sharing only within these silos. At the same time, the solidity and monumentality of an institutional building may be necessary in a largely undefined or scattered landscape of haphazard growth. It opens up several questions — what is the language that is required for institutional buildings? How are we to shape this typology to become more urban — in its spirit and imagination — embracing a place beyond its immediate user-community? We look closely at the architecture of the IQ City Nursing College and reflect upon some of these questions. The architects’ ability to integrate pragmatism with simplicity in materiality and construction is a key feature of this project

Breathing Colour

The Design Museum Director explains to Domus the idea behind an exhibition commissioned to Hella Jongerius by the London Design Museum that, through a number of studies and experiences, makes us look differently at colour, “one of the most elemental aspects of design”. The aim? “ To pit the power of colour against the power of form.”

A Note On Brazil

Following his ‘From the New Architecture to the Other Modern Movement 1940-2015’ talk in November 2016 in São Paulo, historian Kenneth Frampton tells Domus readers about the projects closest to his heart, those by the Masters of Brazilian Modernism: Vilanova Artigas, Bo Bardi, Niemeyer and Mendes da Rocha.

Material Moulding Design

An exhibition on plywood brings into focus the various ways in which the highly versatile material has revolutionised object design, right from furniture to aeroplanes. Alongside influential experiments by modernist designers and architects, the mise-en-scène of the exhibition also highlights the otherwise overlooked attributes of the material.

Of Resolutions And Reading Lists

Author Alberto Manguel’s compendium on twelve books he loves can perhaps act as an incentive for one to abide by a reading list for the new year