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CONTENTS EDITORIAL Shared Spaces 4 PLACES Architecture for the People How inclusive design is leading the way to better community environments 6 INTERVIEW Our Cities Reimagined Architecture as a collective practice: an interview with Giuseppe Cappochin 18 PLACES Orthogonal or Polar? Organic architecture theory meets 21st-century school design in Italy 26 EXCERPT
PICTORIAL Le Albere, a City within a City Kind to people, kind to the environment, a new kind of restoration project 36 TECHNICAL DOSSIER Castel Dante War Memorial The restoration of a monument dedicated to First World War fallen soldiers 48 NEW PROJECTS Nostalgia for Paradise Panlong Tiandi Cultural and Arts Centre, Qingpu District, Shanghai, China 58 Architecture Class Marcon Primary School, Venice, Italy 60 EXCERPT
Gando Primary School in Burkina Faso, designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré. Photo by Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk. How inclusive design is leading the way to better community environments ARCHITECTURE FOR THE PEOPLE If awards are any indication of emerging trends, it is fair to say that this year’s Pritzker Prize, awarded for the first time to a Black, African architect, the social architecture expert Diébédo Francis Kéré, proves how internationally relevant social architecture has become. While the imaginative yet detached works of the so-called “archistars” were taking over the world, social architecture evolved in the opposite direction, developing inclusive, participatory designs. These projects have the potential to make a real difference in terms of economic, social, and environmental sustainability — mediating between the architect’s vision, the needs of citizens, and the demand to build high-quality products on a (sometimes) small budget. Kéré’smost famouswork is apromise hemade, and kept, to his younger self — a primary school in Gando, his home village in Burkina Faso. The building is made of local clay bricks, reinforced with cement to retain fresh air, while the raised roof ensures natural ventilation and heat dispersal; outside, there is a shaded playground and an outdoor classroom. In Africa, Kéré has designed student accommodation, health hubs, schools, and other infrastructure. He is currently working on the Benin National Assembly building, a project inspired by the shape of the palaver tree, traditionally used as a gathering point where people collectively make decisions about their own communities. “It is not because you are rich that you should waste material. It is not because you are poor that you should not try to create quality. We are interlinked and concerns in climate, democra6 EXCERPT
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cy, and scarcity are concerns for us all”, Kéré told reporters. It is no surprise he has been awarded the Pritzker Prize by a jury chaired by Chilean Alejandro Aravena, the 2016 winner and one of the main advocates for inclusive architecture, so much so that he made some of his designs freely available to the public and fellow architects through the internet. Are we approaching a breakthrough, prompted by the pandemic and climate change? To be fair, this interest in socially responsible urban development has already been changing our cities, and how we experience them, for quite a while. One needs only to think of the many formerly abandoned spaces that have been RESTORED and turned into parks, museums, and community centres. The five modular residences of Léo Doctors’ Housing, in Burkina Faso, designed by Kéré. They are composed of compressed stabilized earth blocks and coated with plaster, shielding the interiors from heat and the exteriors from deterioration by the elements. Photo by Kéré. ARCHITYPES 8 EXCERPT
In Germany, the Landscape Park Duisburg Nord designed by Peter Latz is a pioneering example of how post-industrial sites can become open to all — where nature, leisure, and heritage conservation can COEXIST. Formerly a working-class neighbourhood of factory workers from all over Europe, the old steel plant site has been converted into campuses, art centres, housing, ponds, and gardens. The Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s Le Albere district in Trento is more than just a former brownfield site turned into a residential area. It has become a genuine social and economic engine by virtue of the MUSE Science Museum. As one of the most visited museums in Europe, it has added a cultural offering to the list of Le Albere’s attractions, making Winner of the World Building of the Year Award 2008, Bocconi University in Italy arose from the combined creativity of Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. They won the Pritzker Prize in 2020 and curated the last edition of Venice’s Architecture Biennale. Photo by Federico Brunetti. 9 architecture for the people EXCERPT
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it a perfect example of contemporary urban comfort (Le Albere and MUSE are featured in the Pictorial on pages 36–47). When projects are developed around the needs of their end users, the process of designing and building public facilities inevitably changes. In Madrid, Foster + Partners is currently restoring an early 20th-century industrial building. In this project, a brandnew wooden structure holds up a set of terraces overlooking the full-height aisle, while ventilation is provided by the long, central skylight. It is called Ombú 6 and will be surrounded by a public park, reaching all the way to the nearest metro station. In Davines Village in Parma, designed by Matteo Thun and Luca Colombo, office spaces and landscaped areas seamlessly blend together thanks to spatial transparency, echoing a village in the countryside with a contemporary twist, provided by materials such as titanium-zinc zintek®. Consideration for people’s well- being is even more essential in hospitals, where patients are in a particularly fragile state. San Luca Hospital, the Milan branch of the Italian Auxological Institute, was designed by Tobia Marcotti to ensure all-round care. A zintek® “shield” defends against external threats, while, inside, light colours, eco-friendly materials, and natural lightning help create a peaceful atmosphere. The focus on materials and lighting is also crucial in recently constructed school facilities, like the Novalis School (featured on pages 26–35). Participatory design is being recognized by the Fondazione per l’architettura/Torino, having specifically changed its festival’s format and name. In its first edition, Bottom up! selected thirteen urban regeneration projects — submitted by citizens alongside architects — with the potential to improve people’s lives in their neighbourhoods. Renovation works for buildings, squares, gardens, and courtyards are currently underway, following crowdfunding campaigns and donations. A similar approach underlies the transformation of the main square in Hamar, Norway, by Ecosistema Urbano. This original scheme has been inspired by an exchange of ideas, needs, and visions, to regenerate urban spaces and make them ACCESSIBLE through an exciting combination of different features. It was shortlisted for the Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. Awards, as we have shown, signal new trends. The tenth edition of the Barbara Cappochin International Biennial Architecture honoured work that has focused on the interaction between new designs and pre-existing facilities. The winning design, the 1507 Clos Pachem Winery by HARQUITECTES, consists of a new building integrated into an existing site, showcasing the historic elements and creating a “combination of design and sustainability, between the biodynamic steps in winemaking and the optimization of the building’s behaviour based on passive principles.” The Regional Honourable Mention, awarded to the new Bivouac Fanton by the DEMOGO studio in Treviso, acknowledged “the perfect integration with the mountain Previous pages: Kingston University’s Town House, designed by Farrell and McNamara, acts as a flagship entrance to the university’s Penrhyn Road campus. The building includes a learning resource centre, dance studio, covered courtyard, and café. Photo by Ed Reeve. ARCHITYPES 12 EXCERPT
environment and the natural landscape” drawing on “an iconic architecture, rich in content, without looking for spectacularization.” Further insights are available on pages 16–25 in the form of an interview with the president of the foundation, Giuseppe Cappochin. Architects now cease to be seen as demi-gods from faraway places and backgrounds, instead becoming local mentors, coordinating architecture, town planning, services, and protecting rights. Architectural design takes on more of an ethically conscious role, rather than simply a way to generate money. Many firms, including Italian ones, are moving in this direction. ABMV, with offices in Milan and Zurich, has delved into social architecture to contribute to the UN’s SUSTAINABLE Development Goals. Works include an orphanage in Haiti and refugee camps in Athens, Greece, and Niamey, Niger — all built “from the ground up.” For TAMassociati, socially engaged from its very foundation, building the EMERGENCY hub in Salam, Sudan, was a baptism of fire, as it was aimed at potentially helping up to 300 million people obtain free medical care. Next, they moved to the EMERGENCY Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda, in collaboration with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, forming a paediatric excellence hub where ethics and formal beauty are combined to ensure young patients, and their families have access to quality medical care and facilities. Changing the appearance and Light effects and transparencies connect the internal and external spaces in Davines Village in Parma, Italy. The headquarters of Davines, an established phytocosmetics and environmentally ethical company, was designed by Matteo Thun and Luca Colombo. 13 architecture for the people EXCERPT
For the San Luca Hospital, architect Tobia Marcotti combined different shapes andmaterials to lighten the impact of the structure on the urban area around Piazzale Brescia. ARCHITYPES 14 EXCERPT
FUNCTION of cities is an exciting challenge. Consider the much-discussed “fifteen-minute city”, so-named because citizens can reach all essential services within that time frame. The 2021 edition of Utopian Hours, Italy’s first city-making festival, has even posited “a-thousand-minute city”, defined not by space but by citizens’ social engagement and the sharing of goods and information. This is a concept of city as mind and soul instead of just a place — civitas as opposed to urbs. The rise of a socially conscious architecture that fights against inequalities entails an unavoidable question: how are we supposed to live together, sharing goods and opportunities equally? The Venice Pavilion at the 2021 International Architecture Exhibition attempted to find an answer by presenting alternative spaces. Once again, we see architecture taking on an essential role in the evolution process towards complex and inclusive societies, where the right of every human being to have a home, a job, adequate services, and opportunities for improvement is fully realized. 15 architecture for the people EXCERPT
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WWW.ZINTEK.IT € 5,00 Our world has never been so small. We all breathe the same air, walk the same soil, face the same issues. Now it is time for architects and urbanists to lead us towards improved ways of living in our common spaces, so we can take better care of each other. EXCERPT
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