Architecture - March 2021
Architecture - March 2021
Architecture - March 2021
The events of 2020 provided the thematic framing for this issue, which endeavours to trace
connectivity between them, from the global pandemic and catastrophic wildfires, to systemic
racial inequality and geopolitical unrest. The issue takes up the challenge of the Anthropocene
through analysing modes of human agency, forcing us to consider deep geological timescales,
our co-dependence on non-humans, and the multifaceted system of socio-ecological violence
called colonialism. A wide spectrum of contributors offer perspectives on these shifts, among
them Monica Hutton, Edward Burtynsky, Michael Geffel, Terike Haapoja, Gina Athena Ulysse,
and many more.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
Based in Sao Paulo, Gustavo Utrabo was formerly part of Aleph Zero, a practice he founded in
2012 that won the 2018 RIBA International Emerging Architect prize. Now on his own, Utrabo
sees his work as a means to connect people and imagine the future through sustainable and
inclusive approaches. In his practice, he strives to consolidate his interests with a social impact,
often engaging in remote projects for indigenous people in the Amazon. This edition presents
fourteen recent works, from private houses, a public market, and a cultural centre, to shading
structures and children's villages in the jungle. Includes an interview with the architect and an
essay by Marta Bogea.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
Colombian architect Simon Velez is known for his innovative use of bamboo filled with cement
mortar as a structural material, an expression of his belief that architecture should contain more
plants. His work often includes a variety of natural materials. Conscientious of both local vegetal
materials and site, he continues to create structurally rational buildings today. This issue includes
a selection of early works (1973-1997) along with many others built since 1999, plus a
conversation between Velez and Shigeru Ban in which they discuss discovering solutions through
repeated experimentation. The two met in 2000, when they designed and built adjacent pavilions
at the Expo Hannover.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
'GRAM' is a multiple research tool that combines graphic investigations with architectural
explorations, where the publication is just a pretence and only the process matters. Its second
edition portrays the methods and processes of six different practices - homu, Office U67, GAFPA,
Ted'A, Gartnerfuglen, Motoproprio - through a series of emails. Each architecture office was
asked to send a picture and a short description of its background, working process, philosophy,
and so on. The narrative that resulted became the material for this publication. Its outcomes are
both theoretical and practical, and open the doors to the endless thought processes behind the
production of space.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
Over the past two decades, the studio led by Fermin Vazquez has completed a broad repertoire
of projects, often co-authored with prominent international firms. With an introduction on the
team's method by Vazquez and an essay on its evolution by Richard Ingersoll, this issue
introduces a varied selection of eighteen works. From his first office buildings to two corporate
headquarters currently being built in Madrid and Barcelona, the list of works also comprises
residential experiments like the Forma Itaim Tower and the Buenavista sustainable housing, plus
notable buildings like the Mercat dels Encants and Lycee Francais in Barcelona and the new
Hotel VP in Madrid.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
With the scheme for the competition to extend the Kunstmuseum Basel, Christ & Gantenbein
became known outside Switzerland, and it has since consolidated a place among leading
practices in the Alpine country. With geometric severity and a serene presence, it sets the new in
confrontation with the existing, and creates spaces of stark material quality, as we can see in the
three projects featured in this issue of Arquitectura Viva: the Swiss National Museum Extension,
the LIST Customer Center, and the Lindt Home of Chocolate.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
With over 40 built works in different parts of the planet the practice established in 2001 by Bjarke
Ingels lives up to its name. From four offices the firm runs a vast network of professionals that
has produced an architecture halfway between pragmatism at its strictest and utopia at its most
idealistic, always with a sustainable approach which, regardless of program, seeks to improve
people's lives. Such is the philosophy that shines through in the works featured in this issue: a
museum in Switzerland, dwellings in Sweden, and a zoo and an unusual waste-energy plant in
Denmark.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
'AV Proyectos 101' dedicates its dossier to MOS, a small New York office self-defined as a studio
that benefits and suffers from contradiction, and that creates projects that appear to one thing and
something else at the same time - familiar and strange, childish and sophisticated, precise and
vague. The issue includes the competition for Tuchkov Buyan Park, a new urban garden on
Vatny Island in Saint Petersburg, with the winning proposal of Studio 44 and West 8 plus the two
finalist projects, and six projects that take on the challenge of designing kindergartens.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
Based in Los Angeles, film director and architect Liam Young's work is situated within the fields of
design fiction and critical design. 'Planet City' is an urgent examination of the productive potential
of extreme densification in an imagined future where ten billion people surrender the rest of the
planet to a global wilderness. In a vision that runs counter to our current world, the book
describes a radical reversal of planetary sprawl, where humans retreat from our vast network of
cities and supply chains into one hyper-dense metropolis. Not a techno-utopian fantasy, this work
of critical architecture and speculative fiction is grounded in statistical analysis, research, and
traditional knowledge.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
Cycling is an essential part of Dutch culture and identity, and the Netherlands ranks first in the
world in terms of the total number of kilometres covered by bike each year. The country also has
one of the busiest railway networks in Europe. Not surprising, then, that the Dutch pay such close
attention to the combined quality of their cycling and rail environments. Authored by building and
civil engineer Folkert Piersma and urban planner Wout Ritzema, this publication reveals the
intensive infrastructural projects undertaken in many cities across the Netherlands involving the
development, design, realisation, management, and operation of bicycle parking facilities at
railway stations.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
Erika Nakagawa has become a prominent name among young architects today. This monograph
features fifteen projects and two conversations with the architect, with Chilean architect Smiljan
Radic and with Japanese architect Taira Nishizawa. Among the highlighted works are
Nakagawa's Momoyama House, her first assignment as an independent architect, and an
apartment in Yokohama that she designed while a project architect at Ondesign Architects. Other
ongoing projects by Nakagawa are also introduced, and throughout the publication are large-
scale models and drawings of the neighbourhood context, showing how the architecture and its
surroundings are connected.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
50 Urban Blocks 2 (Cards) - How To Use Form, Floor Area Ratio & Density
a+t Ediciones 2020 ISBN 9788409253555 Acqn 31319
Bx 8x13cm 55pp col ills £32
This set of cards consists of ten families of mixed-use urban forms. Each family develops a
proposal for grouping and occupying an area according to the same formal pattern. All of the
proposals seek a balance between permeability, the relationship with the environment, and the
protection of the interior. On every card is a possible urban form together with height and density
data, total living units, ground plans, and usage ratios. Units are provided in metres, and
axonometric diagrams offer a clear visual supplement to the data, illustrating the various spatial
arrangements. The easy-to-use format offers inspiration for architects, designers, and urbanists
everywhere.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
The 'Co-Creating Architecture' series looks at design studios in Denmark that emerged in the first
decades of the 21st century. This generation of designers blazed a trail in Danish architecture
with their ability to offer sustainable answers to global, societal, and social challenges in the form
of innovative and lasting design solutions. Each book consists of three parts: an interview, a
catalogue of completed and upcoming projects, and an outside perspective on the design
practice with an analysis of its processes and solutions. This first book features NORD Architects,
known for being creative facilitators with a strong social commitment and challenging hierarchies
in the public sector.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
The 'Co-Creating Architecture' series looks at design studios in Denmark that emerged in the first
decades of the 21st century. This generation of designers blazed a trail in Danish architecture
with their ability to offer sustainable answers to global, societal, and social challenges in the form
of innovative and lasting design solutions. Each book consists of three parts: an interview, a
catalogue of completed and upcoming projects, and an outside perspective on the design
practice with an analysis of its processes and solutions. This instalment features EFFEKT,
"empathetic designers" who enhance the quality of their projects through a constant dialogue with
the world around them.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk
ARCHITECTURE
When asked to design the capital of a young African republic, Rodrigo Tomas sees the
opportunity of a lifetime. Eager to outshine his famous father he accepts, but he soon discovers
that not all is what it seems_ Chronicling the trajectory of an architect craving recognition, 'The
Masterplan' delivers a fictional reconstruction of an architectural dream blown to dust by bigger
forces. A personal story comes to reveal a larger story - of an emerging nation's struggle with
colonial residue, the growing Chinese influence in Africa and the fraught workings of a global real
estate market.
orders@artdata.co.uk
www.artdata.co.uk