Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist

On the occasion of the exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York City, Kenneth Frampton gave an overview of this prolific landscape architect from São Paulo, whose 60-year career was entwined with that of the greatest architects of his times. His work marked a formal turning point in the art of gardens, and by being a committed horticulturalist and trailblazing ecologist, Burle Marx promoted an innovative botanical research centre dedicated to native Brazilian plants.

The Flan And The Knitting Needle

In a conference held recently at the School of Architecture of the University of Texas in Austin, Alberto Campo Baeza examined and highlighted, with his usual authentic passion, the moments in which the intellectual pleasures generated by architecture are at their strongest.

If Not Political, It Is Not Design

Architecture is on the threshold of change, but it risks being reduced to the decorative arts unless architects accept the inherent politics of it

Sculpture And Technology

This British designer offers Domus a preview of the contents of the important exhibition that the Centre Pompidou is dedicating to his work: not a retrospective, but the opportunity to observe his body of work immersed in a display designed to interconnect with the “exposed industrial truth” of the building by Rogers and Piano, 40 years later.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

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

043 Palermo

FEEDBACK VINCENZO MELLUSO’S PALERMO

​On Beauty And The Impossibility Of Defining It

For the 300th anniversary of Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s birth, the m.a.x. museo of Chiasso dedicates to this German master of classical culture an important exhibition focusing on his fundamental work, Monumenti antichi inediti, presenting, among numerous documents, all of the 208 engraved plates from the 1767 editio princeps published in two volumes and part of the museum’s collections.

Snehal Nagarsheth 23/B: The Accidental Memory Collector

Made up almost entirely of salvaged doors and windows, 23/B in Ahmedabad oscillates between extremes – it is either a transparent, light, and airy pavilion-like space or an enclosed treasure chest that reveals nothing to the outside world. Going beyond superficial appropriation of the salvaged objects, the design upholds the integrity of the original elements by carefully articulating and organising them, while also questioning ideas such as ownership, site specificity, found objects, and memories associated with ‘home’

In This Room, The Poems Come And Go

Poems by Arjun Rajendran Section curated by Ranjit Hoskote

Wide Angle Lens

The spatial effect of the architecture of a rectangular box-like concrete structure sets the character of a house located on the outskirts of Nashik. The vivid compositional and constructional elements create a distinct silhouette against the horizon; the tight vertical dimension amplifies the horizontal expanses of the landscape of the house as much as the landscape outside the house

Non C'È Italia Senza Spine / There's No Italy Without A Thorn

There’s no Italy without a thorn, says the drawing by Alessandro Mendini.

The City Of Design

Italy has remained a federation of city-states.

Void And Traces

VINCENZO LATINAREGENERATING THE OLD QUARRIES OF LAMPED USA

C+S Architects

SCHOOL COMPLEX IN FONTANIVA , PADUA

The Louvre At Abu Dhabi

Sen Kapadia dwells upon the design of the newly-constructed Louvre in Abu Dhabi and how the structure lends itself to the elements of nature to create an interplay of dancing light and shadows

To Review A Practice

To Review A Practice

Making Places, Not Buildings

S.P.A Design could well represent a set of younger studios in India that have achieved a sizeable amount of built projects and reached a measure of maturity, working through times of economic boom as well as uncertain geographies and unclear landscapes. To review such a body of work through detailed drawings and sketches, photos and notes, is akin to researching an archive of the contemporary. The exhibition presents the contemporary in architecture — in its built and breathing avatar, as flesh and blood of our times. Architecture as mode and style appears scattered in the current context, but in exhibitions such as these, the strands can actually help us weave a story, even if only a provisional or limited one for now. Photos Amit Pasricha 

Distributed Over Forms Of Experience

This is the second issue in our seventh annual cycle, but also the last for the year 2017, and this issue is special as it marks a milestone in the journey of DOMUS in India. There is a transition we signaled with the inclusion of a poetry section, beautifully curated and advised upon by poet, critic, and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote; this was to open the space of practice in general, but of architecture practice specifically.

Álvaro Siza in Italia. IL Grand Tour 1976-2016

The lengthy and deeply felt relationship between this Portuguese maestro and Italy is the subject of a beautiful exhibition dedicated to him by the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome. We offer our readers Siza’s highly personal account of his love for Italy, especially his two favourite cities, Naples and Venice.

Keying Into a Modern History

A recent book outlines the story of the typewriter in India, narrating its journey from the 1950s to the end of the last century. It chronicles how the humble typewriter was not just another machine but a facilitator of social change and economic efficacy, and a rather wondrous instrument in the daily life of the common man.

Shroffleón A Mineral Nature

In a diverse urban fabric where buildings of heritage and historical value co-exist with numerous, burgeoning high-rises, a project in the locale of Bandra in Mumbai is a harmonious addition, owing to its delightful, yet functional architectural details, thereby offering a striking material tactility to its users.

true stories of false cities: the harbinger's testimony

an exhibition of sculptures – fantastical creatures, quasi-architectural elements, and geometrical forms reminiscent of weapons and artillery – conceptualises questions of life and violence, where the artist, sahej rahal, tries to re-imagine the destroyed mythical city of muziris through a colonial-era building.

monumental, fragile beauty

fusing traditional bundela with mughal courtly architecture, in addition to european and persian stylistic influences, the temples of orchha display deceptively delicate features that reflect both a sense of ornamentation and fortification. the lakshminarayan temple, in particular, could help us map out the decorative, stylistic and religious programmes of other such structures, and present an insight into life of medieval architecture in india.