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Issue 15 - FireSteinemann RamiasEssays, Studio

STROMBOLI: MOUNTAIN OF FIRE IN THE SEA

by Ramias Steinemann

Stromboli is one of the eight Aeolian Islands. Together they form a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea that arcs across the Mediterranean from Mount Etna over Lipari to Mount Vesuvius. Located off the north coast of Sicily, they are named after Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek...

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Issue 5 - Global Observatory Sauter FlorianEssays

Global Style

by Florian Sauter

It is no secret that from an operative standpoint the internet has proven its worth: as a tool that enables the easy and cheap transfer of data and communication, it has revolutionized architectural working procedures and allowed numerous offices to build globally on an hitherto unknown, at least...

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Issue 16 - Identity & ModernityMateo Josep LluísEssays

Identitiy and Modernity

by Josep Lluis Mateo

At the present time of globalization, the identity-modernity dialectic reappears, though in a different way to how it was addressed in our recent past.

On the one hand we have the defence of the specific, the local, of landscapes that are perhaps not so diverse but, like the climate, permanently...

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Issue 14 - AirSteinemann RamiasEssays, Studio

Fil de Cassons

by Ramias Steinemann

The Fil de Cassons is a mountain range 2700 metres above sea level in Grisons, Switzerland.
In the Romanic language, fil means ridge; i.e. a mountain range without an obvious peak. It forms a two and half kilometrelong northern end of the famous Flimserstein, a massive wall of rock that is a...

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Issue 15 - FireMateo Josep Lluís, Sauter FlorianEssays, Studio

Elemental Conditions

Lecture by Josep Lluis Mateo

We are dealing with fire in a very specific spot: the island of Stromboli, Europe’s last permanently active volcano. Here, we are going to relate to fire in three ways.

First, as a physical presence, as a phenomenon that can be intellectually analysed or sensually perceived. Through...

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Issue 13 - WaterSteinemann RamiasEssays, Studio

The Engadine

by Ramias Steinemann

The Valley of the Engadin begins at the Maloja mountain pass with a chain of lakes running southwest to northeast: « Lej da Segl », « Lej da Silvaplauna « , and « Lej da San Murezzan » . Maloja is a watershed dividing the river « Inn » flowing via the Danube to the Black Sea and the «...

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Issue 12 - EarthSteinemann RamiasEssays

BUILT EARTH: CREUX DU VAN, JURA

by Ramias Steinemann

The Jura Mountains are a sub-alpine mountain range located north of the western Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each. At the entrance of the Val du Travers the huge falaise formation of the Creux du Van builds up. On the top of this plateau, about...

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Issue 8 - Middle East 2Ivanišin KrunoslavEssays

CLOSE-UPS

by Krunoslav Ivanišin

Coincidentally, two dynamically sublime views through window frames of machines in motion mark the beginnings of two “architectural” narratives that have been shaping Middle- Eastern landscapes ever since. In the initial chapter of his 1969’s “Architecture for the Poor”, Hassan Fathy gave...

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Issue 6 - Middle East 1Ivanišin KrunoslavEssays

A VIEW FROM ABOVE

by Krunoslav Ivanišin

In Three Stories on Painting and Time Orhan Pamuk traces the distinctive qualities of the Ottoman miniature back to a very remarkable ancestral event: the Mongolian siege of Baghdad of 1258. Architecturally structured way of “depiction of the world from an elevated Godlike position attained...

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Issue 5 - Global Observatory Matharoo Gurjit Singh Essays

House with Balls

by Gurjit Singh Matharoo

All architectural pursuits are tedious, painful & more often than not heart breaking. Its only some individuals, animals and circumstances in the process of building it up that sometimes make the experience light and act as balms or pain relievers. Here are some we encountered along the way to House...

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Issue 1 - After Crisis Mateo Josep LluísEssays, Studio, Interviews, Reviews

AFTER CRISIS

In architecture, designing and constructing mean implementing a way of thinking with a view to action in an active relation with the changing conditions of the contemporary world. From our position in academia, in terms of our pedagogical practice (the place where Architectural Papers are produced),...

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Issue 17 - PedagogyMateo Josep Lluís, Sauter FlorianVideos, Studio, Essays

Pedagogical Ambition

Lecture by Josep Lluis Mateo

We try to teach how to design, how to produce, how to think and make buildings happen. For me, this is closely connected to the dialectic between concept (abstract conditions) and matter (physical conditions). This kind of synthetic duality is the starting point of our profession, in which an idea...

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Issue 10 - In the DesertAl Jaidah Ibrahim Videos, Studio, Essays

Desert Architecture: Some Comments on Qatari Architecture in the Pre- and Post-Oil-Period

Lecture by Ibrahim Al Jaidah

The Gulf’s architectural forms have, to some extent, been limited by two important factors: climate and the availability of building materials. The...

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Issue 9 - PREVI revisitedRamis TomeuEssays

WHAT IS PREVI?

by Tomeu Ramis

In 1965, the Peruvian Government and the United Nations invited British architect Peter Land to design a strategy for mass housing as an alternative to the massive informal settlements that were dramatically taking place in Lima during that period. In 1966, informal discussions began with the...

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Issue 7 - On CanettiSteinemann RamiasEssays, Studio

The Ground

by Ramias Steinemann

Until the nineteenth century the Winkelwiese, originally part of a vineyard located on the southeastern boundary of the old town of Zurich, remained open land without buildings. The explosion of the Geissturm in 1652– one of the main fortification towers of Zurich, and located in the actual...

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Issue 6 - Middle East 1Ivanišin Krunoslav, Baumgartner MarianneEssays, Videos

THE MOUNTAIN, THE RIVER AND THE HIGHWAY

by Marianne Baumgartner, "On the Road" Video by Krunoslav Ivanisin

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And The Lord showed him all the land,...

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Issue 4 - CinemaSteinemann RamiasEssays

LOCARNO - CITY OF FILM

by Ramias Steinemann

Locarno is a small town situated on the south side of the Alps, surrounded by Italy bordering just in the very north to Swiss Cantons. Topographically the city lies in the basin of the lake of Lago Maggiore at the bottom of nearly two thousand meter higher mountains. Due to the physical condition...

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Issue 3 - On GiacomettiSteinemann RamiasEssays, Studio

Cultural Landscape - Val Bregaglia and the Giacomettis

by Ramias Steinemann

The home of the Giacometti’s, the Val Bregaglia is an Italian speaking valley on the south side of the Alps expanding in an extremely deep drop from the heights of the Maloja and the Septimer pass towards south to the Italian border ending in the lowlands of North Italy in Chiavenna. The...

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Issue 1 - After Crisis Mateo Josep LluísEssays

FRAMING DUBAI

by Josep Lluís Mateo

Dubai has, in our recent past, been a paradigm of both possibility and delirium. Eulogized by the ever-present messiahs of modernity, whose jaded voices once again announced their tired proclamations of a supposed creative apocalypse; reviled by moralistic social leftist critics, constructive events...

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Issue 15 - FireSchmidlin Chasper, von Mackensen TillVideos, Studio, Essays

Journey into the Fire

Essay by Chasper Schmidlin, Video by Till von Mackensen

A journey with our students took us to a place where fire could be
experienced with all the senses: the volcanic island of Stromboli, one
of the pearls of the Aeolian Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. To get
there, we had to cross the deep blue sea. The boat bore the name
Eraclide. It made us...

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