+ 5

In his book The Right to the City (1968), Henri Lefebvre talks about ending the creation of spaces managed by the logic of profit, to launch a plan of "self-managed territory" that does not leave aside the "historical heritage," nor allow the decomposition of space, but instead works for the restitution of urban centers as places of creation.

Globalization has produced cities without limits whose focus has been on the immediate benefit, directly attacking the preservation of cultural heritage, among other things.

+ 12

Before the monochromatic works of Yves Klein, who created the International Klein Blue (IKB), Frida's 'Kahlo Blue' already existed in Mexico City's core.

From NEON.
NEON is a nonprofit organization that works to bring contemporary culture closer to everyone.

The Theater of Disappearance is a site specific, outdoor and indoor installation by Argentinian artist Adrian Villar Rojas in Greece, at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), located on the archaeological site of the Hill of the Nymphs. Built in 1846, the National Observatory is the first scientific research institution in Greece and consolidates nearly two centuries of astronomy since Greek independence in 1832. This is a project curated by Elina Kountouri, that forms part of NEON’s work to establish a link between contemporary culture and the historical and archaeological heritage of Athens.

+ 18

+ 58

Showing nobility in everyday places requires a sense that goes far beyond first impressions. New York-based photographer Ward Roberts offers a fresh and engaging perspective in his photographs - documenting sports courts of all kinds around Hong Kong, Bermuda, Hawaii, and New York (to name a few). Roberts' work beautifully captures the innate tension between the familiar and the foreign that sports courts evoke: bringing a sense of place, in any place.

“An image is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced. It is an appearance, or a set of appearances, which has been detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance and preserved – for a few moments or a few centuries. Every image embodies a way of seeing.” - John Berger / 1972 / Ways of seeing

Digital tools have given architecture the ability to manipulate information, allowing architects to interact with existing information and reshape it in a different way according to the author’s ideals or thoughts about architecture.

Representation becomes a project itself; it is a graphic manifesto of what the author wants to deliver, a critical vision of a design intervention in a particular context.

In this path, collage has become an active tool to facilitate the reproduction of multi-layered atmospheres made by the curated assemblage of different forms to create a complex stage for an architectural idea.

A collage engages all senses to define the experience of a space. The symbolic and tactical associations between fragments of images provide a way to understand all the stories behind a space, transgressing the limits of perception to reach an intuitive process that exhibits the atmosphere of a project. 

Here we introduce 12 architecture offices that describe atmospheres by using complex collage compositions to express social, cultural and political environments for their designs.

+ 8

In this article Marcos Parga, director of the Madrid-based office MAPAA, presents an exploratory essay on the possibilities of living in developed urban centers, taking as a case study a site between two existing party walls in Madrid. The objective of MAPAA's exercise is to seek ways to enjoy the benefits of rural life, such as close contact with nature, in the city.

This week in our Architectural Photographers series, we look at Spanish architect Montse Zamorano, who after living in Shanghai for a year decided to photograph architecture. She is currently based in New York, where she is studying for a Masters in Branding at SVA as a Fulbright student. Montse works internationally as a freelance photographer and videographer for studios such as Foster and Partners, Álvaro Siza and Héctor Fernández Elorza.