Teorie e pratiche dello spazio pubblico
Theories and Practices of Public Space
Pubblicato in concomitanza con l’omonima mostra che ha occupato gli spazi dell’Akademie der Künste di Berlino questa primavera, il libro Demo:Polis. The Right to Public Space analizza, sotto molteplici punti di vista, il ruolo e l’importanza dello spazio pubblico all’interno di una società democratica. Dopo una prima parte che raccoglie gli scritti di studiosi come Andrew Keen o Susan Chin si passa a esempi concreti di utilizzo dello spazio pubblico raggruppati secondo le voci: Trasformations, Paradigms e Visions. Dall’evoluzione storica di due luoghi simbolo di Berlino, la piazza Alexanderplatz e via Acerstraße, all’occupazione dello spazio urbano come atto di sfida, protesta e indignazione (come la Rivoluzione dei Gelsomini in Tunisia, Occupy Wall Street a New York o la più recente Je suis Charlie a Parigi). Dai megaprogetti a grande impatto come la pedonalizzazione, opera di Foster+Partner, di Trafalgar Square a Londra, o il Brooklyn Bridge Park a New York, a interventi più piccoli come la Comùn-Unidad a Città del Messico o El Campo de Cebada a Madrid per concludere con uno sguardo sulla ricerca fatta da studenti di tutto il mondo. Un libro che spinge il lettore a guardare una città, con le sue strade, piazze, parchi e soprattutto vuoti urbani, con un occhio diverso. (On printed paper) Published to coincide with the exhibition of the same name that occupied the exhibition spaces of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin this spring, the book Demo:Polis. The Right to Public Space examines, from multiple points of view, the role and the importance of public space in a democratic society. Following an initial section that includes essays by scholars like Andrew Keen and Susan Chin the book moves on to concrete examples of the use of public space grouped according to the following categories: Transformations, Paradigms and Visions. From the historic evolution of two symbolic locations in Berlin, Alexanderplatz square and Ackerstraße, to the occupation of urban space as an act of defiance, protest or indignation (like the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, Occupy Wall Street in New York or the more recent Je Suis Charlie in Paris). From mega-projects that have a significant impact like the pedestrianisation, by Foster+Partners, of Trafalgar Square in London, or Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York, to smaller projects like Común-Unidad in Mexico City or El Campo de Cebada in Madrid, it concludes with a look at the research of students from all over the world. A book that encourages the reader to see the city, with its streets, squares, parks and most of all its open urban spaces, from a different perspective The book Construction Matters, published by PowerHouse, analyses the four principal building materials of architecture – masonry, concrete, steel and wood – in four chapters that introduce the reader to the principal ways each one functions and performs, along with reviewing the technological developments. Each chapter includes the analysis of several case studies, as well as technical drawings and photographs that describe the main construction steps. From the Monument to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, which due to the use of reinforced walls in 1926 managed to break up the rigid verticality of the masonry, to the spectacular and sinuous shell shape of the restaurant Los Manantiales by Joaquin and Fernando Alvarez Ordonez made entirely of concrete, to the Sendai Mediatheque by Toyo Ito and Mutsuro Sasaki where columns made of a lattice of steel tubes support the building’s seven floors, or the Götz Collection by Herzog & de Meuron where plywood defines the logic of the composition. All of these are examples that support the author’s thesis that sees construction materials as the artistic and expressive tools of architects