EnGLIsH TexT INtopics
INteriors&architecture
editorial pag. 1
The forms of time pag. 2
From a noble French castle to an old building in the Gothic barrio of Barcelona, a radical conversion of functions to a simple, specific addition, the dynamic of reuse in architecture never fails to produce innovative content and new proposals of habitat quality. In both public and private spheres. At least in the examples we have selected, from Marseille to Barcelona, Orléans to New York, covering many different typologies: museums, low-cost housing, traditional townhouses and much more. Because efforts in the fertile field of existing environmental features, in the works of designers of international caliber, from Benedetta Tagliabue to Winka Dubbeldam (two women), Jakob+MacFarlane to Moatti-Rivière (two French studios), just to mention some of the names in a wide ranging investigation, means coming to grips with the theme of cities, their modernization and transformation in a more hospitable tone, in tune with the spirit of the times. Though with different approaches and results, it means sharing the viewpoint – to quote Rafael Moneo, protagonist of an interesting Master Class in Bologna – that buildings are not just objects, shells, forms, images and functions; they are also connected to the contexts in which the exist. Every opportunity becomes a possibility for learning, too, changing the scale, in the interpretations of design furnishings. While the pieces created by Paola Navone for Crate & Barrel narrate everything that is needed to prepare an unforgettable dinner with friends, the Brazilian artist-designer Claudia Moreira Salles, with great mastery of the pencil and materials, reminds us that rigor, curiosity and experimental pragmatism can truly be boundless. Gilda Bojardi The Borély Museum in Marseille, a project by Moatti-Rivière. Photo F. Felix-Faure
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project MIRALLES TAGLIABUE EMBT photos Marcela Grassi - text Antonella Boisi
In barcelona, in the gothic barrio, a building with eight apartments, restructured on a tight budget, recovers the traces and values of traditional catalan architecture, while adding new spatial breadth and light thanks to the project organized with rigor and feminine sensitivity by benedetta tagliabue, an international design protagonist How does Benedetta Tagliabue, an Italian based in Barcelona, an internationally acclaimed architect, at the helm of the studio EMBT since 2000, the year of the death of Enric Miralles, her husband and partner in projects that have left their mark on architectural history, interpret the theme of livability? A look at this recent project, summed up in the title 8 Flats Low Cost Renovation Barcelona, 2013, can be enlightening. We are not talking about her more famous ‘public’ works, like the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, the restyling of the Santa Caterina market in Barcelona, the Spanish pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, a structure in steel clad with wicker panels, for which she received the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) International Award 2010. This is a ‘private’ project, done on a tight budget: the restructuring of a building in the Gothic barrio of Barcelona, the oldest, most evocative and decadent section of the city, to organize 8 housing units of variable size, from 40 to 110 m2, conceived for a dynamic social profile (students, singles, small families). Less complex than other projects, perhaps, but one that communicates something important: “The idea of the house as a place of comfort, welcome, relationships with the outside, because there is no different in the approach to different scales, from the spoon to the city, public to private, the master plan to interiors to furnishings,” Tagliabue explains. “I am not interested in specialization. Architecture, for me, remains a moral need: a process of improvement of what exists, that can produce the result of making the people who use a space, a place, a city, feel better,” she goes on. “Because if we come to better terms with one dimension, we become more refined in terms of perception, taste, moods, openness to the outside world. In the end, public space is an extension of the vital space of the home. And the pacifism of a city coincides with the pacifism of dwelling. The city and the home are both places of civilization.” The slogan “better city, better life” of the Spanish pavilion at the Shanghai Expo sums up the meaning of the challenge for architecture of this designer who believes in an ethical-aesthetic construction based on the interface of innovation and values of memory. This can fully be seen, by analogy, in the renovation of this Catalan building that was in a state of ruin, suspended amidst the labyrinths of
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