Monu, a magazine on urbanism just released their new issue on the topic of post-ideological urbanism. This issue touches on one of the most fascinating and biggest issues of our time and in our culture, or what is left of it: the non-ideological – or better post-ideological – conditions of our society when it comes to cities.

Today, ideology appears to have become, and to have been reduced to, something merely aesthetic, something you can buy yourself into as Wouter Vanstiphout explains in an interview with us entitled “Acrobatic Narratives”. In that sense cities have become suspicious territories where hypocrisy and fakery prevail when it comes to urban ideologies and one wishes to have some kind of optical device that detects all the lies, similar to a kind of night vision infrared technology that Thomas Ruff used in his “Nacht Series” applying the same technology that was used during the Gulf War.

You can see more about the articles on their official website. Also, you can browse the entire issue #15 on YouTube (video and more images after the break). read more »

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MONU magazine on urbanism is continuously looking for interesting contributions. The current open call for submissions for MONU #16 is on the topic of “Non-Urbansim” and closes by the end of December 2011.

This new issue of MONU magazine will investigate how non-urbanism may be defined and identified today and how non-urban areas interact with and relate to urban areas. How can, for example, American non-urbanism be distinguished from non-urbanism in Europe, Asia or elsewhere? And how does the non-urbanism discourse relate to the one of anti-urbanism with its fear of the city? Who will be, for example, the future inhabitants of the vast, deserted rural areas in Asia? To discuss what non-urbanism might mean today, this call for submissions for MONU #16 invites sharp texts, topic-focused interviews, data-based research, critical analysis, provocative thinking, revealing photography, conceptual artwork, and overwhelming infographics on the topic of “Non-Urbanism”. More information on the call for contributions after the break. read more »

MONU – magazine on urbanism is a unique bi-annual international forum for artists, writers and designers that are working on topics of urban culture, development and politics.

Each issue collects essays, projects and photographs from contributors from all over the world to a given topic. Thus MONU examines topics that are important to the future of our cities and urban regions from a variety of perspectives.

They have just released their latest issue on the topic of “Editing Urbanism”. You can see more about the articles on their official website. Also, you can browse the entire issue #14 on YouTube (video after the break). read more »

MONU – magazine on urbanism is a unique bi-annual international forum for artists, writers and designers that are working on topics of urban culture, development and politics.

Each issue collects essays, projects and photographs from contributors from all over the world to a given topic. Thus MONU examines topics that are important to the future of our cities and urban regions from a variety of perspectives.

They have just released their latest issue on the topic of “Most Valuable Urbanism”. You can see more about the articles on their official website. Also, you can browse the entire issue #13 on YouTube (video after the break). read more »

MONU magazine on urbanism is continuously looking for interesting contributions. The current open call for submissions for MONU #13 is on the topic of “Most Valuable Urbanism” and closes by the end of May 2010.

This new issue of MONU aims to critically analyse the established ranking lists and their criteria that are primarily being used by internationally operating companies to determine where they will open offices or plants and how much they should pay the employees. MONU #13 seeks to reflect on established quality criteria such as safety, education, hygiene, recreation, political-economic stability, and public transportation. What might be other criteria and to what kind of rankings would those other criteria eventually lead? Should a city such as Vienna really be our role model and ultimate urban prototype?

This call for submissions for MONU #13 invites critical papers, affiliated projects, intelligent art works, relevant photography and analytical infographics on the topic of “Most Valuable Urbanism”. Just like MONU #12, this new issue will also feature a Rotterdam related part that invites proposals from Rotterdam-based contributors and for Rotterdam located projects in particular. Abstracts and ideas of 300 to 500 words, and images and illustrations in colour and in low resolution, should be sent to info@monu-magazine.com by the end of May 2010. MONU #13 will be published in the summer of 2010.

MONU – magazine on urbanism is a unique bi-annual international forum for artists, writers and designers that are working on topics of urban culture, development and politics.

Each issue collects essays, projects and photographs from contributors from all over the world to a given topic. Thus MONU examines topics that are important to the future of our cities and urban regions from a variety of perspectives.

They have just released their latest issue on the topic of “Real Urbanism”. You can see more about the articles on their official website. Also, you can browse the entire issue #12 on YouTube (video after the break). read more »

MONU – magazine on urbanism is a unique bi-annual international forum for artists, writers and designers that are working on topics of urban culture, development and politics.

Each issue collects essays, projects and photographs from contributors from all over the world to a given topic. Thus MONU examines topics that are important to the future of our cities and urban regions from a variety of perspectives.

They have just released their latest issue on the topic of “Clean Urbanism”. You can see more about the articles on their official website. Also, you can browse the entire issue #11 on YouTube (video after the break). read more »

MONU – Magazine on Urbanism, is looking for interesting contributions for their coming issue MONU#11 on the topic of “Clear Urbanism”.

When it comes to Clean Urbanism – i.e. an urbanism that is dedicated to minimizing both the required inputs for a city of energy, water, and food as well as its waste output of heat, air pollution as CO2, methan, and water pollution – a lot of proposals have been made recently for the building of so-called “eco-cities” that produce their own energy from the wind, the sun, bio-fuel, or recycled waste. But it has often been denied that such sources of energy, being integrated directly into cities, are highly inefficient, very expensive, and in the case of wind energy, very noisy. Nevertheless, wind turbines in an urban realm, for example, nowadays feature in almost every urban competition entry that requires sustainable energy concepts. Solar panels on rooftops have become state of the art on innumerable new building designs, however inefficient and expensive they are.

The question is: how might we achieve a Clean Urbanism that is socially, economically, and politically, but also environmentally correct? In the final analysis, what kind of soap or detergent do we need to achieve true Clean Urbanism? This question, and many others will be featured in the next issue.

Ideas and abstracts should be sent to info@monu-magazine.com by the end of May 2009. MONU#11 will be published in the summer of 2009.

For more information, go to MONU official site, here.