Looking Beyond Informality

It is all too easy to be optimistic about the economic and social future of Latin America. Daniela Fabricius , the author of 100% Favela: The Informal Geographies of Rio de Janeiro (forthcoming), calls into question architects working within the realpolitik of a globalised, post-nationalist world. Could an all too ready acceptance of existing conditions and the adoption of informality leave inhabitants short-changed? For to live informally is also to live precariously - no substitute for secure and prosperous living.     

Auroville: An Architectural Laboratory

Architect Anupama Kundoo describes how ‘the dream of building a new city’ from scratch for an international spiritual community in southern India has created a magnet for architects around the world. As the city now approaches its 50th anniversary, she asks whether Auroville can keep its architectural culture of innovation and experimentation alight. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is There Something Beyond ‘Outside of the Box’?

Here, architectural and scientific researcher Rachel Armstrong questions whether the definition of ‘experimental’ green design presented here goes far enough. She urges architects to not dwell on evaluation processes, performance and ‘strategies’ and to seek a far more radical solution to sustainability, which abandons the current emphasis on industrial technologies and the existing educational and professional frameworks. In its place, she envisions employing biology as a driver for wholly new living materials and systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Augmented Landscapes and Delicate Machinery

Mark Smout and Laura Allen of Smout Allen describe how for them drawing is instrumental, enabling them to pursue preliminary investigations that establish ‘a speculative method with which to examine the dynamic force of environmental and architectural processes’. This is illustrated by their Wet Lands: Architectural Waterscapes and Soft Infrastructures research project for London's Thames Estuary.     

Material Articulation: Computing and Constructing Continuous Differentiation

Free-form geometric designs make use of continuously differentiated components that exist within a multidimensional envelope of material performance, fabrication capabilities, logistics and cost. In this article, Cristiano Ceccato explains how geometric form-rationalisation and analysis of constructability at the functional as well as the computational level form the basis for achieving advanced designs in terms of articulation of material through mass-customised industrial production. Taking examples from the current work of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), he presents a necessarily evolving framework of computational design and associated practice of architecture that is attempting to close the gaps between computational design, digitally controlled manufacturing and evolving mechanisms of contemporary construction and project delivery. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Building Integrated Food Production

Ken Yeang combines forces with Michael Guerra, author of The Edible Container Gardener, to make the compelling case for the integration of space and facilities for food production in new and refurbished buildings. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From Product to Process: Building on Urban-Think Tank’s Approach to the Informal City

Adriana Navarro-Sertich interviews a pioneer of the informal in architecture, co-founder and co-director of Urban-Think Tank (U-TT) Alfredo Brillembourg . Brillembourg explains how U-TT's work seeks to connect informal settlements with the formal city, enabling inhabitants to access services and infrastructure. U-TT is now taking the lessons it has learnt in working in Latin American cities, such as Caracas and São Paulo, elsewhere in the world with the aim of ‘working globally and acting locally’. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Instinctive Sense of Space and Boundary

Petra Blaisse of Inside Outside describes how the studio focuses on the boundary of interior and exterior space, adding and subtracting highly tactile and sensuous layers. She highlights the significance of the invisible to her work - whether light, scent or texture - and how the future of design will be opening the way to ‘the sheer biology of things’. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interconnected Approaches to Sustainable Architecture

Is minimising the negative effects of human activity on people and the planet enough, or can we aim even higher? Guest-Editor Terri Peters introduces the concept of superarchitecture: architecture that is not merely sustainable, but offers positive benefits for both human wellbeing and the environment. As demonstrated by the three international case studies she presents, it is applicable not only to healthcare architecture, but also to the spaces in which we live and work, and the wider urban realm. At its heart is a deep connection with nature.     

Curating the Digital: An Interview with MoMA's Paola Antonelli

As Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Paola Antonelli treats digital and analogue design with equal regard. Here she talks to Guest-Editor Neil Leach about some of her decisions. She discusses the distinctions between design, art and architecture; how she keeps a clear head amid the prevailing euphoria over new technologies, in order to choose only those pieces that also represent successful design; whom she views as paragons of design in the digital age; and why she believes that architectural education needs to be reinvented.