Landscapes for Death and Living
Landscapes for Death and Living _ Alison Killing
The challenge of designing for the architecture of death, according to architectural historian Ken Worpole is that it ‘has both to remind us of the longevity of memory and human culture, as well as the brevity of the individual human life.’ In these four cemetery projects the design of the surrounding landscape and the integration of that into the building are common strategies for responding to this question. What is striking finally is how full of life these buildings are. The plants and landscape design are key to the experience, while these places are also designed very much around the visitors and their needs. The end result is a series of places that are about the dead, but for the living and full of life. ……
Architecture and Community Belonging
Architecture and Community Belonging _ Ana Souto
The architecture scene of the last few decades has been monopolized by buildings that do not sit comfortably within their contexts: the main goal of these structures was to rebrand cities, regions and even countries to the expense of diluting local identities. Moreover, these iconic insertions in the built environment did not respond to the needs of the local communities, but to the expectations of temporary users. …… These projects reveal a number of commonalities, not only as a result of their civic manifestoes, but also from a design point of view: a careful selection of vernacular and familiar qualities, shapes and scales are combined with contemporary approaches to materiality, lighting and construction. Ultimately, they have all become social landmarks, anchors that support local communities and their contexts.
Luxury and Technology – Showrooms and Flagship Stores
Luxury and Technology: Invisible Elements _ Silvio Carta
Showrooms and flagship stores can be considered as the ultimate expression of the place where brands present themselves to customers in the attempt at astonish, surprise and convince people of the innovation and qualities of the brand. The competition amongst showrooms is great, and every project is a new challenge to push the boundaries of what has been already seen and what can be ideally shown. …… The atmospheres created by the projects in this issue are so perfect and evocative that appear far from any other experience to which customers are normally used. In all projects presented, we can see an invisible common thread that connects them all together. There is always a strong yet invisible presence of technology, deployed in different forms. ……
