Quaderns

As part of our research for “Displaying Architecture” always emerges the question about the possibilities of communicating architecture through exhibitions.

This time we want to share the show curated by Beatriz Colomina with the aim to rethink the relationship between architecture, mass media and exhibitions.

“Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979explores the crucial role of modern architecture— buildings, interiors, furniture, cities and product design—in constructing the Playboy imaginary. The exhibition shows how architecture was mobilized to shape a new sexual and consumer identity for the American male and how architectural taste became critical to success in the art of seduction. Through an extraordinary quantity of architecture and architects featured in Playboy, the magazine played an important role in informing the public, particularly American men, about design and architecture in relation to literature, politics, art, lifestyle and fashion. Looking at the changing nature of Playboy architecture not only provides a way of understanding how Playboy’s project changed from the mid 1950s to the late 1970s; it also reveals how Playboy’s idealized world became a reality that was ingrained into America’s national identity and had a massive global impact.”

More info at NAIM Playboy Architecture

Volume #33 “INTERIORS” is out now and described with this abstract:

“For years, the interior played second fiddle to ‘proper’ architecture, but there are signs a shift is taking place. Stagnant economies, shrinking populations, environmental imperatives, all signal that there is less reason to build, and more reason to make better use of what we have. Digging deeper, we find the interior is a powerful marker of who we are and what we want to be; ‘lifestyle’ in other words. Political ideology, social norms and psychology all get played out on the inside. The interior relates intimately to the society we live in, and it’s up to us to understand this dynamic, to provoke it. Like the old adage ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, let’s ‘open up’ architecture and take a closer look inside.”

More info about contents and contributors at Archis Volume

Gustavo Gili ha publicado recientemente la Revista 2G dedicada a OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, amigos y colaboradores de Quaderns.

En la web de Gustavo Gili podemos leer

Quaderns - Guerrilla interviews #3 | Adam Caruso

Adam Caruso studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal. He worked for Florian Beigel and Arup Associates before establishing his own practice with Peter St John in 1990.

He taught at the University of North London from 1990-2000, and was Professor of Architecture at the University of Bath from 2002-2005. He has been Visiting Professor at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, at the ETH Zurich, and on the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics. In 2011 Adam Caruso was appointed Professor of Architecture and Construction at the ETH Zurich.

Quaderns has been at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice and has asked to several participants which were their responses to the notion of Common Ground posed by the curator of this edition, David Chipperfield.