Articles published by: Nickname

I’m reading an article written by Roberto Segre about the architecture intended for the working class, an architecture that has changed the landscape of the towns only in the twentieth century. Until then, poverty did not have such a great influence on the configuration of urbanity. The article argues and offers the examples of the blocks of flats, which have been developed either by the State, or by private contractors, after the Bauhaus period. The article equals the presence of this type of architecture with poverty. But I envisage this concept in relation to a certain political, economic and cultural context, such as the communist period. The ideologically masked poverty, hidden behind the make-up of the communist egalitarianism, has many angles and aspects that have not been clarified yet.

Piet Gerards is something more than a prestigious graphic designer. He sees design as a form of cultural, but also social or political action; it is developing the spirit, not just the language of the historical avant-garde. This interview will reveal both the strictly professional aspects and his responsible and challenging personality.

Interview by Stefan Ghenciulescu & Constantin Goagea

Architectural concept
The extension of the Victoria Palace was the subject of an international design competition. de Architecten Cie have won the first prize. The project integrates the existing and new building into a harmonious and representative ensemble for the HQ of the Romanian government.
The E-shaped layout of the new extension mirrors the footprint of the existing building, organizing the new ensemble around the central courtyards. The new footprint allows a synchronized functional organization and efficient connections in between all levels of the ensemble.

Thank God that good things still happen on Earth. After I have written so many articles against aggressive advertising and against the nonsensical way of dealing with this issue in our country, here is the solution that I personally believe is a real perestroika. In short, the advertising law in Sao Paolo is working and, except for advertisers, nobody seems to notice any of its shortcomings; on the contrary, it is one of the most popular and the most publicly supported laws anyone has ever heard of.

Undoubtedly, there are three basic reasons why the Salk Laboratories are worth travelling 11,000 km, to the “end” of the western world, in La Jolla. The first one concerns the professional need of direct experience of an architectural masterpiece designed by Louis Khan in 1959-1965; it has indeed a deep spiritual meaning that cannot be captured from pictures or narratives and what is more, the prevailing geological and geographical landscape seems to make it a prisoner of trans-historic or cosmic eternity being thus unreachable by social and cultural changes.

When the distorted image of a straight beam is not an issue. Extension and reorganization of the Catholic University of Louvain

How to propose a contemporary intervention in a historical context? How to highlight an old building without reproducing it and without hiding the new construction? The answer
is maybe what we call “Escher architecture” (we are thinking about his work Print gallery): an outside space that becomes an inside space.

1900 and afterwards…

… when Primo Pari was living the mirage of the automobile culture. It was that very time of racing cars being born, of automobiles increasingly being part of life in the cities. Somewhere, actually nowhere, where his house is placed, popping up in the dust of a curve, a certain count Ambrosio tries to convince Florence Pari to let her husband be his partner in racing, as deadly then as they are now. A black and white sequence in which Ambrosio charges: “Florence, please, do learn this by heart: if you love somebody who loves you don’t every take his dreams away”. And Florence replies: “I think this is a great line in a book, except life is more complicated; however, I accept him to be with you in racing for a reason I will not declare to myself and for all of us to keep our composure.”

The sparrows tree
Listen to what you see

In an urban setting filled with wire and cables hanging from posts bent over welded fences, imprecisely stuck among broken tiles and cracked pavement, along coloured panels, iron sheets and trestles connected by pavement chains, tens of phone cabins sort of melt until getting transparent. Abandoned carcases, increasingly turned futile, outdated by the technological progress, an urban species on the stage of extinction, phone cabins are all bundled into a lumber of small things currently called the public space of Bucharest.

One should not stay a long time in Venice to notice that the city is not willing to reveal its contemporary face. The reason is quite simple: in the last 300 years, Venicians were not particularly attracted by the “new” architecture, having already a rather dense and coherent place, needing interventions occasionally and, when these became inevitable, they have very quickly taken a local shape. Sporadically, interventions pointed out by architects such as Carlo Scarpa or Vittorio Gregotti brought something “new”, but Venice has no element to mark the present so far.

Many donkeys-little donkeys across the leading article as you have never seen before. First thought was to publish the Austrian FELD72 group in this issue. Last autumn in Sofia, I had seen one of their presentations that among others included the project of a hotel named “Million Donkey”.