Learning from new millennium science fiction cities

Fiction, and particularly current science fiction, (1) reflects, gives voice to, and may shape popular images of the city; (b) provides models of ‘world building’ whose methods may complement and critique other methods of informing the design of cities; and (3) plays out poetically rich thought experiments – cities of feeling – that can help designers understand nuances of current urban design and architectural theory. This paper examines the urban landscapes of three 21st-century award-winning science fiction novels. These cities of the fictive imagination can inform the creation of cities of the design imagination.     

Radical Italian Architecture Yesterday and Today

In Italy there is a revival of the spirit of 1960s Radicalism. Fresh from university, young architects ‘pick up a rock band name, enrol in an architectural competition or just invent their own research and project installations’. William Menking, who co-curated the 2003 exhibition at London's Design Museum on Superstudio - the supergroup of Italian radicali - and Olympia Kazi bring the new generation of young protagonists under scrutiny. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

未来的先锋：保罗·索莱里的复杂性小型化理论和未来巨构之城

当代社会的一个重要特征是过度消耗。一方面，日益膨胀的人口和地球有限的资源之间产生了难以调和的矛盾，另一方面，巨大的可用技术潜力有待挖掘。上世纪60年代意大利著名建筑师保罗·索莱里提出了以“复杂性小型化”（Complexity-Miniaturization）理论为核心的城市构想——“生态建筑学”（Arcology），以超前的眼光探索未来高密度巨构城市的发展可能。并进一步提出以“城市内爆”为途径的城市整合方法。     

Figuring Mood: The Role of Stimmung in the Formal Approach of Heinrich Wölfflin and Alois Riegl

Roughly translatable as ‘mood’ or ‘atmosphere’, Stimmung plays a key part in the late-19th-century writings of German art historians Wölfflin and Riegl. Andrew Saunders , Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, studies the origins of the concept, which links rational perceptions of harmony with notions of emotional response. He examines the two writers' contrasting views of Stimmung in relation to the Baroque, and highlights its little acknowledged role in the inception of formalism.     

Metrogramma

Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi describes how the two principals of Metrogramma, an emerging office in Milan, drew on their postgraduate experiences in New York and the Netherlands to inform the dynamic manner in which they practise. Building up their practice through strategic urban planning, they are now setting their sights on major architectural schemes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Arlotti-Beccu-Desideri-Raimondo

Currently one of the most active offices in Rome, Arlotti-Beccu-Desideri-Raimondo (ABDR) has seven major projects under way or at the point of completion. Massimo Locci explains why, despite being theoretically and methodologically rigorous, the practice's work cannot be readily categorised. Unique in its combination of a purist Modernist language with an aptitude for expressive informality, the office is also proactive in its adoption of bioclimatic technologies and its understanding of new communication models. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Young Experimentalists

Experimental architecture in Italy began to take a new form in the 1990s when young architects, who were embracing new digital technologies, also began to go abroad to study and practise in greater numbers. Anna Baldini outlines a fecund strand in Italian architecture which, while no longer wholly new or youthful, retains its vitality. She highlights, in particular, the contributions of: Avatar Architettura, Gianluca Brini, Elastico spa+3, Exposure Architects, Giuliano Fausti, Luisa Fontana, Giorgio Goffi, ian+, Iotti+Pavarani Architetti, Fabrizio Leoni, ma0/emmeazero, Antonella Mari, Metrogramma, Open Building Research (OBR), RoccAtelier, studio.eu and Vulcanica Achitettura. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Italian Architectural Press

The proliferation of architectural media in Italy is prodigious. Valentina Croci describes the history behind the plethora of printed magazines, outlining the background and approach of the most prestigious titles. What does the future hold for such a large number of specialist publications? Are they to be eclipsed by the numerous new electronic newsletters and websites? Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

保罗.波多盖希和他的自然形态建筑

自然是保罗．波多盖希建筑设计中的一最为重要的要素。他的作品被称为自然的建筑,他的那种自然的建筑并非是人们通常理解的那种象赖特的流水别墅那样与自然融为一体的建筑。也不是密斯的范思沃斯住宅那样通体透明,把周围的景色尽揽怀中的建筑,更不是那些隐身于覆土之下返 归真的建筑,他的建筑是一种在仿生学意义上的从自然中获得灵感的建筑,在这里有着高迪的才智,有着波洛米尼的批判精神、更有着造物的神奇,在这些作品中可以     

Architecture and Relational Resources: Towards a New Materialist Practice

The most immediate impact of scarcity on architecture is the insufficient supply of building materials. As Jon Goodbun and Karin Jaschke explain, this requires an engagement with more than the direct influences on the exhaustion of natural resources. Looking beyond the conventional capitalist model of flows driven by ‘the market’, they look at how new ideas on materialism are demanding a radical revision of the relationship between matter and social, economic and political forces.