Architecture
Domus India
Herzog & De Meuron - Feltrinelli Foundation, Milan
Structural repetition and abstract form are core themes of the architectural design in this major urban-scale project. The meticulous composition, proportions and formal allusions to Aldo Rossi’s imagery make this a very Milanese design.
3 min |
June/July 2017
Domus India
The Purpose of Writing
Writing on architecture is essentially a mode of producing meaning and attentive thoughtfulness, where writing and theory are not just finite practices or processes. They function like the space of a workshop where ideas and built histories are evaluated, measured, and analysed through critical tools, and the experiences of a workman – the maker (and practice of shaping and constructing) and the intellectual (processes of knowing)
5 min |
November 2016
Domus India
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.
6 min |
February 2017
Domus India
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.
6 min |
February 2017
Domus India
V&A Dundee Kengo Kuma
Kengo Kuma’s architecture creates relationships, flows and circulation. The V&A Dundee acts like a gate between river and city
5 min |
November 2018
Domus India
Sen Kapadia Architect NID Post-Graduate Campus Gandhinagar, Gujarat
A project from the office of architect Sen Kapadia — a campus for an academic institution in Gandhinagar — aims for monumentality through enduring spatial values rather than exaggerated scale.
6 min |
November 2018
Domus India
A Confluence Of Cultures
Spanning a period of over a million years, a recently concluded exhibition comprising over 200 invaluable objects chronicles the history of the Indian subcontinent against the backdrop of what was happening concurrently across the world. It encapsulates the idea of syncretism in the many stories shared by India with other nations through the predominant tropes of early civilisations, trade, faith, empires, and the quest for freedom, among others.
5 min |
November 2018
Domus India
Sen Kapadia Architect Bhavsar House Ahmedabad, Gujarat
The role of the architect as an artist and designer is very firmly yet weightlessly articulated in the almost sculptural design of a house.
1 min |
November 2018
Domus India
Robin Hood Gardens Disappearing Worlds
The film by Urban-Think Tank reminds us that the Smithsons’s ideas about the ties between buildings, users and architectural sites no longer have the value they once did.
3 min |
November 2018
Domus India
Le Corbusier's Journey To The East
Taking stock of a collection of letters, columns, and notes, a book on Le Corbusier records the iconic architect’s observations during his many peregrinations.
5 min |
November 2018
Domus India
What Is “Original” And “Authentic”?
The Basilica di San Marco and the Venetian concept of time
3 min |
April 2018
Domus India
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
10+ min |
April 2018
Domus India
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
7 min |
April 2018
Domus India
Confetti - Gio Ponti And The Parco Dei Principi
A display of Ponti’s beloved ceramic tiles at the Triennale di Milano offers the occasion to peruse his design for the Parco dei Principi Hotel in Sorrento and the restoration of its exact original appearances, including an adjustment to changed standards in norms and technology with which today’s places of public hospitality must comply.
4 min |
May 2017
Domus India
The 1966 Chronotope
Can we believe in the existence of a specific time and place coinciding to produce a series of events so prolific as to lay the foundations for a new phase in history? The year 1966 in Florence – when and where the modern movement ended under the blows of radical architects’ vast repertory – seems to demonstrate the validity of the “chronotope” genre.
5 min |
May 2017
Domus India
Italian Modernism Seen From Across The English Channel
Disregarded until 1934, when the RIBA held an exhibition in London of the best international works of architecture made in the preceding decade, modern Italian buildings have been discovered and reevaluated thanks to photography. Here, Valeria Carullo gives an overview of British publications and shows that have lent visibility to rationalism from the 1930s to now.
5 min |
May 2017
Domus India
039 Sarajevo
The view from the Yellow Fortress, one of the medieval fortifications that made up the defensive wall of the old town, gives an immediate impression of the kaleidoscopic character of Sarajevo, which is built lengthwise along a large valley delimited by tall mountains.
4 min |
May 2017
Domus India
Lubango Centre, Lubango, Angola
A recent mixed-use complex in Africa by Portuguese architects shows it is possible to impact on a chaotic existing fabric with rigorous architecture that forges continuity with public space
2 min |
November 2017
Domus India
O'donnell + Tuomey Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Phase one of a complex project in the centre of Budapest showcases the Irish duo’s talent for surgical interventions in a historic fabric. Traditional materials are coupled with contemporary spaces in a successful attempt to turn an architectural interior into an authentic part of the city
2 min |
November 2017
Domus India
043 Palermo
FEEDBACK VINCENZO MELLUSO’S PALERMO
5 min |
November 2017
Domus India
Tribute Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019)
With his insistence on intellectual rigour went an intellectual generosity, an expansiveness of intellectual scope, and a great ability to inspire.
10+ min |
June-July 2019
Domus India
Children Are Tomorrow's Urban Planners Future Milan: Workshop With Winy Maas
On 26 November 2018, Winy Maas presented his project for Domus ’19 at a state school in Milan, following a workshop that involved the students, who imagined the city of the future. Starting from their neighbourhood, they gave shape to their ideas and wrote a letter to the Mayor to have their proposals realised
2 min |
Febuary 2019
Domus India
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
5 min |
September 2107
Domus India
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
5 min |
September 2107
Domus India
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
9 min |
September 2107
Domus India
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
9 min |
September 2107
Domus India
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
3 min |
September 2107
Domus India
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.”
5 min |
Febuary 2018
Domus India
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.
3 min |
Febuary 2018
Domus India
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.
9 min |