Tag: nature
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12 January 2024
Return to the Archive12 January 2024
In the mellow warmth of September 2023, I, in my capacity as the Director of the Museum of Architecture at the Technical University Berlin, found myself in the unpretentious village of Mikoszewo, Poland. There, where the Vistula River gracefully concludes its journey into the arms of the sea, I stood,… Read More
Sverre Fehn and the Territorial Eye
18 May 2023
Sverre Fehn and the Territorial Eye18 May 2023
This text is adapted from an abstract to Erika Brandl’s short paper which she presented last year at the ‘Nordic Nature: Art, Ecology, Landscape’ conference in Bergen. Architectural histories of Norway have been inexorably tied to landscape and localism, framed as the romantic wedlock of nature and the built form.… Read More
DMJ – ‘All the varieties of Nature’s works under ground’: the Geological Imagination of Alexander Pope
9 December 2022
DMJ – ‘All the varieties of Nature’s works under ground’: the Geological Imagination of Alexander Pope9 December 2022
In 1739, the English poet Alexander Pope transformed his grotto – a subterranean passage that used to consist of a cryptoporticus with architectural orders – into ‘a mine’. Minerals were encrusted into the walls in a manner that imitated those found underground. Previous scholars have considered this to be a… Read More
Time’s Witness. History in the Age of Romanticism (2021) – Review
25 July 2022
Time’s Witness. History in the Age of Romanticism (2021) – Review25 July 2022
Anxious Objects At some point in the annals of Western scholarship it was judged that the past could be restituted not only from textual sources but also from objects, that the material of history was equally important as its written archive. This major shift in historical approach was largely brought… Read More
Power & Public Space 4: Jonas Žukauskas – Forest Parts
15 July 2022
Power & Public Space 4: Jonas Žukauskas – Forest Parts15 July 2022
– Matthew Blunderfield and Jonas Žukauskas
Power & Public Space is a podcast from Drawing Matter and the Architecture Foundation hosted by Matthew Blunderfield. You can find the full podcast series here. Or listen now: When we think about public space, we tend to consider the street, the plaza, the park or the square – urban spaces… Read More
Fernando Higueras: The Volcano, The Flower, and The Dromedary
9 May 2022
Fernando Higueras: The Volcano, The Flower, and The Dromedary9 May 2022
From eighteenth century primitive huts to the rise of barn living in the 1970s, buildings have served as the conceptual boundary between primordial formlessness and the organised world. But what if architecture begins with the very nature that it was invented to exclude? In 1971, the Madrilenian architect Fernando Higueras… Read More
A Short History of Alberto Ponis on the Sardinian Coast
15 November 2021
A Short History of Alberto Ponis on the Sardinian Coast15 November 2021
Alberto Ponis was born in Genoa in 1933. He took his architecture degree in Florence in 1960. His father, Mario Alberto, had founded the M.I.T.A. (Manifattura Italiana Tappeti Artistici) in 1926 in Nervi, near Genoa. The company’s building was built by Luigi Daneri in 1940. Gio Ponti, Arnaldo Pomodoro and… Read More
Sigurd Lewerentz: Architect of Death and Life (2021): Review and Excerpts
15 November 2021
Sigurd Lewerentz: Architect of Death and Life (2021): Review and Excerpts15 November 2021
The new monograph Sigurd Lewerentz: Architect of Death and Life has arrived, published by ArkDes and Park Books to accompany the exhibition that opened in Stockholm in October 2021 curated by ArkDes director Kieran Long with scenography by Caruso St John Architects (open until August 2022). As an excellent preparation… Read More
Hélène Binet: The Intimacy of Making, Three Historical Sites in Korea (2021): Review
25 October 2021
Hélène Binet: The Intimacy of Making, Three Historical Sites in Korea (2021): Review25 October 2021
What is a myth, today? I shall give at the outset a first, very simple answer, which is perfectly consistent with etymology: myth is a type of speech.– Roland Barthes, Mythologies, 1957 This seemingly simple book is a thought-provoking collection of things. There is a lot of room for implication… Read More
I Cut Mount Fuji Every Day
31 May 2021
I Cut Mount Fuji Every Day31 May 2021
With a circumference of approximately 10cm, I compress the majestic mountain. I pressure it between my fingers and the board and I slice. The contours fall on the board; in a matter of minutes, they will turn once more into a fragrant and luminous mountain. The emotional downpour induced by… Read More
Superstudio & Piranesi: Zeno is Immortal
24 May 2021
Superstudio & Piranesi: Zeno is Immortal24 May 2021
It’s 1777 in the Italian region of Salerno, a man is resting on a massive Doric column, watching his two cows from the ruin of a temple where the weeds grow. This building was, a long time ago, considered as the house of Juno, goddess of fertility and the vital… Read More
About Malagueira: Siza’s Poem on Page 27 of Sketchbook 01
20 February 2023
About Malagueira: Siza’s Poem on Page 27 of Sketchbook 0120 February 2023
– Rodrigo Lino Gaspar
The following translation proposed for Álvaro Siza’s writings on page 27 of his sketchbook 01 in Drawing Matter Collections is part of an ongoing investigation into the Malagueira project at DA/UAL PhD Programme in Contemporary Architecture. Siza’s sketchbooks are a precious tool for understanding his work and interpreting his concerns.… Read More
translation DMC nature creative writing