Archive

Next Thursday and Friday, an expert architectural symposium at Pinakothek der Moderne will address the phenomenon of crossover between architecture, art and society. The events series, entitled "futureLAB by 3M", itself practices the selfsame principle of crossover.

It is not easy to portray design as a process. The book "Design is a nervous thing", which features the "Satellite"projects by the Stuttgarter Akademie der Bildenden Künste makes a stab at it - combining text and images. Sadly, it fails to achieve the right balance.

With his book "Design-Atlas von 1850 bis heute" Enrico Morteo presents a broad range of desirable worldly objects, and on 200 double pages explains how they were made, the effect they have, and the background to them.

Ernst Scheidegger's photos of the Indian city of Chandigarh document the reality of a utopia being built. More than 50 years later and previously unpublished, the photos are now appearing for the first time in an illustrated book.

However promising the read may seem to be, there are always more interesting books than time to read them. Meaning that the stack of books and with it your bad conscience grow and you end up staring failure in the face. The tool of last resort: Clear the stack before the Frankfurt Book Fair opens its doors again.

Belgian architect Vincent Van Duysen links combines shapes and perfect detailing in his designs with a great eel for materials. And is thus in the very best elegant Modernist company. The monograph of his "Complete Works" for the first time comprehensively presents his projects of the last two decades.

In 2008, when Polaroid finally ceased producing instant photo films, not only did it seem like the end of a success story, but the end of an almost mystical type of analogue image production. The company "Impossible" has now made the impossible possible, and at the photokina in Cologne presented the second generation of instant photo films. Instant pictures - from now on this can again be done chemically.

Every two years, with great expectations all of those of us who are interested in design make the pilgrimage to Langenthal, Switzerland, to "Designers' Saturday". That time is here again at the beginning of November: A broad array of manufacturers and a number of design colleges will showcase products and exciting installations in factory halls and character spaces.

Concluding our series on the Architecture Biennial we ask: What vision of architecture do the exhibitions and contributions communicate? What attitudes do the architects take towards the past, present and future, and what role do power, experience and atmosphere play?

In this new issue Stylepark Magazine is a gourmet's delight, a veritable multi-layered delicacy. Alongside the "urban experience" we offer various other exciting themes that address our focal topic of "layers".

Under the heading of "Chronochaos" Rem Koolhaas presents his proposals for the preservation of monuments and historical buildings. In one of the rooms at the back of Palazzo delle Esposizioni, visitors come face to face with photos, furniture and documents, some of which are stored as if in an archive. The architect has dedicated himself to a topic that comes as a surprise not only for the Biennial, but also for himself and his OMA studio.

In Israel, back in the days while it was still young, the kibbutzim played a crucial role as places where a different, collective way of life beyond capitalist production practices was tested. An excellent exhibition at the Israeli Pavilion reminds us of the peculiarities of kibbutz architecture and aims to build a bridge to the future.

Oscar Niemeyer still works as an architect - at the grand old age of 102. As the exhibition in the Brazilian pavilion proves conclusively. The title "Brasilia - 50 Years On" whets the viewer's appetite; after all, the rigorously modern city was the promise of the day. Alongside Niemeyer, who designed the ideal city's most important buildings, the works of a new generation of young architects are also on display. Nonetheless, the Biennial's perhaps most interesting contribution to Brazilian architecture is actually to be found elsewhere.

Here, construction comes into its own. Connections are not talked about but simply shown - modestly but accurately in black and white. "Landschaft und Kunstbauten" (Landscape and Engineering Structures) is the title of the exhibition realized at the Swiss Pavilion by the renowned engineer Jürg Conzett from Chur. It mostly features bridges in Switzerland.

When the world changes, architecture changes, too. That sounds easier than it is. So what do the visions of the many different "futures" gathered at the Architecture Biennial look like? And what role does the past play in them?

The Kingdom of Bahrain has taken the Biennial's motto very seriously: People meet, take a seat, watch, listen, dream. What better place to sit and think about the loss of identity, the increase in urban space and the magic of the sea than in fisherman's huts from the beach in Bahrain that were taken down with their owners' permission. And there is already one tangible result: the Golden Lion for the best country contribution.

Japan's pavilion finds and unusual and surprising way to celebrate the "Metabolist" movement, which kicked off about half a century ago. Instead of space capsules and concrete shelving full of living units you can peruse doll's-house-sized models and an insightful presentation of Tokyo as the city of permanent change.

Like its sister event, the Architecture Biennial has long since expanded beyond its traditional grounds in the Giardini. There are a great number of intriguing country pavilions not only in the halls of the Venice's Arsenale, but also scattered around the city. So we resolved to take a walk past the contributions by Portugal, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Cyprus, Iran, Singapore, Hong Kong and several other exhibitions.

In Russian Pavilion a serious attempt is being made at the dialectical triple jump from the past into the future. It presented three emotional states en route to ideas to reanimate the Russian industrial city of Vyshny Volochok.

In the framework of the Audi Urban Future Award 2010 curated by Stylepark, six internationally active architecture offices participated in a process in the course of which they developed their own particular visions of how mobility, architecture and the city will in future interact. Five of them are currently presenting their ideas in an exhibition at Venice. The competition was won by Berlin-based Jürgen Mayer H.