a+u 2021:05

S-MAO Sancho-Madridejos Architecture Office

a+u May issue features the work of Sancho-Madridejos Architecture Office (S-MAO). Based in Madrid, Spain and established in 1982 by Juan Carlos Sancho and Sol Madridejos, the office has developed a nuanced and committed practice rooted in investigations in plastic arts and aesthetic theory. An essay by their close friends, Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa, reveals the deeper origins to S-MAO’s approach and describes how their trials and investigations have yielded “new processes in engineering, new construction systems, and a new language.” An ensemble of 20 projects, framed according to 2 investigative themes, are featured in this monograph, supported by axonometric diagrams and concept models. The multiple views of early study models convey the obsessive search for an “original space,” as described by García-Abril and Mesa, where structure, envelope, and shape come together. (a+u)

Essay

Tone–Void
Juan Carlos Sancho

Valvanera Sports Complex
City Hall and Community Center in San Fernando de Henares
Anabel Segura Community Center
Sports Complex in Galdakao
Arrixaca University Hospital Teaching Center
Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA)
Clubhouse in Qingpu
14 Viñas Winery
Shopping Center in Éibar
Fundo Moray Center

Essay:
Themes and variations in the work of S-MAO
Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa

Essay:
Fold–Crossover
Juan Carlos Sancho

Chapel and House in Valleacerón
Church in Qingpu
Housing Cantalares
Shade-Water-Breeze Fold
Innovation and Business Development Center (CAT)
Technology Dome
IESE Business School
Chapel and House in Sierra la Villa
Outdoor Stage and Culture Hub in Alburouj
New Luohu Culture and Art Center

Details

Issue 9 is dedicated to Archival Imaginaries. Archivists, artists, filmmakers, curators, and scholars of Asian cinema were invited to eschew the well-trodden “survey of the archival landscape” route and present instead imaginaries of the archive and imaginaries through archives—from film to art, from personal to collective, from private to institutional, from analog to digital, from existing to potential and impossible ones.
Encompassing essays, documents, conversations, accounts, and creative writing, this Issue considers the powers and limits of both archives and archiving. In so doing, it articulates some of the alternative pasts and speculative futures that these may enable and engender.
We hope to creatively open the past for critique and assert possibilities for the future, for us to reassess and respond to our present conditions and emphasize the importance of our cinematic and media heritages. Through archival imaginaries we point toward what we wish to make real.

Bono Olgado is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines School of Library and Information Studies doing work at the intersections of memory, technology, and archival studies. He served as the inaugural Director of the National Film Archives of the Philippines and as Executive Councilor of the Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association.

Rufus de Rham is Executive Director of the historic Warner Theatre, a performing arts center in Connecticut. He holds a BFA in Cinema Studies and an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from New York University. He worked for Subway Cinema and at Film at Lincoln Center where he managed programming operations and programmed several one-off events.

Details

About

NANG is an English-language 10-issue magazine which covers cinema and cinema cultures in the Asian world with passion and insight.

Published twice a year over a period of five years, NANG’s ambition is to build a wonderfully rich and profound collection of words and images on cinema, for knowledge, inspiration, and enjoyment.

Beautifully-printed on fine papers, NANG broadens the horizons of what the moving image is in Asia, engaging its readers with a wide array of stories, contexts, subjects and works connected by the cinema.

Each and every issue of NANG is structured around a specific theme and created in collaboration with a unique group of guest editors and contributors based both within and outside Asia.

This book about the architecture of Japan showcases intricate Japanese architectural models developed using a wide range of natural materials such as timer, earth, and stone. Masterpieces from the Asuka period (538-710) to the present day. To learn about Japanese architectural culture though models highlighting the characteristics of various building styles and explanations of wooden architecture techniques. 

Details

a+u 2021:04

Feature: Mecanoo

The a+u April issue is our first monograph with Mecanoo, a distinguished Dutch architecture office, founded in 1984. Tracing back to their roots in the Netherlands, Mecanoo’s early housing projects revealed the strong social agenda they have as “they forge a trail through people, place and purpose to that poetry” through their designs, described in an essay by founding partner, Francine Houben. The firm now operates under the direction of Francine who believes that “architecture must appeal to all the senses”. Today, their portfolio includes projects like libraries, theaters and campuses that can be found over the world. This publication provides a comprehensive review of Meccano works in the recent 3 decades divided into 2 distinct sections – the first is a foundation of projects by Mecanoo in their native country, and the second features works that define their influence outside of the Netherlands. (a+u)

Essay
From Purpose to Poetry
Francine Houben, Herbert Wright

The Netherlands
Mekel Park – Campus Delft University of Technology
Library Delft University of Technology
Nelson Mandela Park
Spoorzone Dordrecht
Villa 4.0
NS Journey of the future
NS Vision Interior Train of the Future
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Villa Industria Silo’s
St. Gerlach Pavilion & Manor Farm
Office Villa Maliebaan 16 58
Delft City Hall and Train Station
Urban Villa Myriad
FiftyTwoDegrees
Maritime Center Rotterdam
Kaap Skil, Maritime and Beachcombers Museum
Villa Vught
Keukenhof
Netherlands Open Air Museum
St. Mary of the Angels Chapel

and Beyond
Palace of Justice
La Llotja Theater and Conference Center
Library of Birmingham
Glass Villa on the lake
Senezh Management LAB
Scali Milano – Catalysts for sustainable living
Kaohsiung Station
National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts
Tainan Public Library
Main Street of Yangdong-District
Futian Civic Culture Center
Longgang Cultural Center

Details

Publisher Tokyo Bijutsu

144 p, ills colour, 15 x 21 cm, pb, Japanese

A personal tour of Tokyo’s architecture, as seen through the eyes of one of the world’s most acclaimed architects who is also designing the primary venue for the Tokyo Olympic games.

Tokyo is Japan’s cultural and commercial epicenter, bursting with vibrancy and life. Its buildings, both historical and contemporary, are a direct reflection of its history and its people.

Kengo Kuma was only ten years old when he found himself so inspired by Tokyo’s cityscape that he decided to become an architect. Here he tells the story of his career through twenty-five inspirational buildings in the city. Kuma’s passion is evident on every page, as well as his curiosity about construction methods and his wealth of knowledge about buildings around the world, making this a unique commentary on Tokyo’s dynamic architecture.

Kengo Kuma: My Life as an Architect is an intimate and truly inspiring book, revealing the beauty that exists in the world’s everyday spaces.

50 illustrations

a+u 2020:05

Architecture of Hope: 30 years of European Architecture – EU Mies Award

The a+u May 2020 issue features the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (EU Mies Award). Its organizer, the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, was founded in 1983 during the reconstruction of the Barcelona Pavilion (1929). The EU Mies Award has been held biennially since 1988 and marked its 16th edition in 2019. The issue covers all the shortlisted works and the Jury proceedings of each edition that were curated together with Ivan Blasi, an architect and a coordinator of the award at the Mies Foundation, along with an essay by Angelica Fitz, one of the jury members in 2019. Additionally, the issue features another initiative of Mies Foundation, the Art Intervention at the Barcelona Pavilion. 8 works are highlighted here and supported with an essay by architectural historian, Dietrich Neumann. Finally, through the collection of more than 500 works recorded since the construction of the Pavilion in 1929, we are able to trace the trends and discussions of the “European architecture” that have continued since more than 90 years ago till today.

English + Japanese / 192 Pages / 219 x 292 mm / 650 g

a+u 2020:04
Computational Discourses

This issue of a+u examines the application of computational design and digital fabrication across a spectrum of scales – from a free-form high-rise exoskeleton, to bio-mimetic wearables for the body, to the printed structure of a nonstandard brick – taking its conceptual cues from Charles and Ray Eames’ 1977 film, Powers of Ten. Selected here are 14 projects by individuals and entities working in cross-disciplinary ways, that suggest what “thinking digitally” can do with the means of our present time.

For each of the issue’s projects, the shaping and organizing of various materials, via computational methods, serve as our starting points. Supporting them are texts by Jenny E. Sabin, Patrik Schumacher, and Achim Menges. Through the relationships drawn from this iterative collection of work, we hope to make the unfamiliar more familiar, and to provoke questions about the relationship between natural systems, digital technology, and the shaping of the material environment.

English + Japanese / 176 Pages / 219 x 292 mm / 640 g

The Monocle Book of Japan

Japan may be one of the world’s biggest economies, a global leader in everything from architecture to food and a country whose brands have flourished around the world, but it remains a bit of a mystery. Somehow it is simultaneously familiar and hard to fathom – or it has been, until now. This book is the culmination of years of reporting across the country by Monocle and it delivers a unique insight into the people, places and products that define Japan. Whether you’re planning a visit or simply curious, The Monocle Book of Japan will unpack the nation for you. We’ll take you from snowy Hokkaido in the north to the tropical southern islands of Okinawa and, along the way, deep-dive into the worlds of culture, design, retail and more. It’s Japan revealed as never before.

Features: 306 pages, hardcover with gold foil
Published by: Monocle
Printed in: Germany
Book Dimensions: 30cm x 22.5cm x 2.5cm
(11.8in x 8.8in x 1in)

a+u 2020:02 
Feature: Toshiko Mori

The February issue of a+u is our first monograph dedicated to the architectural practice of Toshiko Mori. Based in New York, the Japanese native founded Toshiko Mori Architect (TMA) in 1981. The introductory essay by Fred A. Bernstein, an architecture journalist, demonstrates her design approach and her keen eye for detail. Mori’s works are the result of an in-depth study of the site’s topography, vegetation, and landscape, as pointed out by Edward Eigen, a historian and scholar of European and Anglo-American landscapes in the long nineteenth century. Mori’s designs reflect a sensitive integration of design, materials, and technology with the site. In addition, Sean Kelly, one of Mori’s clients and an art gallery owner, speaks about the process of collaboration with Mori. 18 representative works after 2000, of which 9 are residences, are featured in this issue, alongside site photographs and survey maps.

To Mori, teaching is always in parallel with her practice. Her essay illustrates her career in architectural academia and the several initiatives she introduced while being a faculty member at various prestigious architecture institutions, including the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD).

a+u 2020:01 
Feature: SuperNormal Architecture in the Netherlands 2010–2020

In this issue, together with guest editor Kirsten Hannema, Chief Editor of the nai010 Yearbook Architecture in the Netherlands, we will take a look at the last 10 years of Dutch architecture discourse. Previously, in our a+u 12:01 issue (Architecture in the Netherlands 2000–2011), which highlighted the country’s architecture scene right after the global financial crisis in 2008, the construction industry faced a slowdown. What we saw then, as “typically” Dutch, has gradually faded. Looking away from the “SuperDutch” stigma, we now see projects combining broader social issues, and taking on new forms of cultural energy. Yet, compared to the superstar generation that preceded them, these architects and their projects often go unnoticed. Therefore, in this issue, 19 projects are selected and placed into 3 themes to introduce a new attitude on today’s architecture in the Netherlands – the “SuperNormal”.

The 3 themes: “Reshaping the Polder” looks into pilot projects that rethink the sustainability of our construction practice. “Tabula Scripta” introduces transformation projects exploring how we rebuild under pre-existing conditions. “After the NAi” presents a body of public projects built during the period after 2012 when the national budget was cut. Each theme is accompanied by an essay written by Bob Witman, Jarrik Ouburg, and Sergio M Figueiredo, respectively. Finally, Floris Alkemade, Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands, shares with us in an interview about his reflections, actions, and predictions on the country’s architectural setting.

Thanks to Eelco Van Welie, Director of nai010 publishers, for his support, and to the authors and the architects who contributed to this issue.

a+u 2019:06 
Diller Scofidio + Renfro

This issue of a+u is our first monograph dedicated to Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), a New York-based interdisciplinary design studio founded in 1981 by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio.

Despite their initial interest in remaining independent from the architecture profession, DS+R have managed to enter and challenge it on their own terms. Today, with partners Charles Renfro and Benjamin Gilmartin, DS+R’s critical approach to their work remains the same—prioritizing the designing and “democratization” of space for the public.