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Stadtraum Meran

Merano is growing, in terms of cultures, languages, and expectations. Urban space is used by many, but not everyone experiences it in the same way. The exhibition traces how the city has changed from yesterday to today and explores how it might shape itself tomorrow in the face of the climate crisis, growing diversity, and the need for sustainable development.
The diversity of expectations and needs among different linguistic and cultural groups, across generations, and among locals, immigrants, and visitors makes it clear that new forms of urban coexistence are needed, ones that are more diverse, inclusive, and resilient in the face of the challenges posed by the climate crisis. The exhibition project and the forum Merano’s Urban Space – Yesterday, today, tomorrow? serve as a starting point for this dialogue. The project addresses seven central themes of urban space: landscape, population, housing, open space, work, mobility, and culture.
Each of these areas is examined from three perspectives: yesterday, with an overview of historical development based on original and reproduced archival materials and other documents; today, through maps, photographs, and film footage; and tomorrow, through future perspectives, some of them developed in a participatory format.

As part of the exhibition, a special issue of Turris Babel, the magazine of the Architecture Foundation South Tyrol, dedicated to Merano, will be published.

Merano’s Urban Space – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow?
Curated by Andreas Kofler
Exhibition dates
24 October 2026 – 14 February 2027
Contributors
Martin Fengel; Karl Prossliner; Giovanni Bez (ZeLIG Film); Marieke Schäfer, Paula Götz, Lina Korneffel, Shreya Deshpande and Ella Stauber (Eco-Social Design, unibz); Department of Housing and Design, TU Wien; Martina Dandolo, Anna Gabrielli.
Venue
Kunsthaus, Lauben 163, 39012 Meran

Turris Babel #143
Edited by Andreas Kofler
Release
October 2026
Contributions
Alberto Winterle; Andreas Kofler; Martina Oberprantacher and Georg Klotzner; Michael Obrist.
Interviews
Magdalene Schmidt; Bassamba Diaby; Martina Dandolo and Anna Gabrielli; Katharina Johanna Zeller; Wolfram Haymo Pardatscher; Johannes Ortner.

Press:
Dolomiten: Meran sucht seine Zukunft, 23.10.2026
Corriere dell’Alto Adige (Corriere della Sera): Merano ieri, oggi e domani: la mostra a cura di Andreas Kofler, Camilla Bertoni, 25.10.2026
Spazio Rai Alto Adige: Una mostra: Merano, spazio urbano, Elena de Concini, 26.10.2026
ff – Südtiroler Wochenmagazin: Offenes Forum, 28.10.2026
franzmagazine: Wo lebst du eigentlich?, Verena Spechtenhauser, 28.10.2026
In Practice – as opposed to ‘in theory’

Beta – Timișoara Architecture Biennial is a cultural project of the Timiș Territorial Branch of the Order of Romanian Architects, organised by a dedicated team. The 2026 edition will be the sixth and is curated by Andreas Kofler and Tudor Vlăsceanu.

In Practice, as opposed to ‘in theory’

In Theory

The potential of international architecture biennials, triennials and large-scale exhibitions lies in connecting people and sharing knowledge through collective exploration. Yet they are increasingly subject to strong economic and ecological criticism, as well as concerns over how the format itself has evolved. What sets out to be a cultural exchange also tends to become insular in character, its capacity to reach and engage a wider audience varying considerably. This may as well lie in the act of exhibiting architecture itself.

Architecture exhibitions are mostly built around projects that are elsewhere, gone, or have never been realised. To exhibit them, their doubles are imported: drawings, models, fragments, and the people who deliver their narratives. What flows into this act of representing something where it is not is, in fact, a logistics chain: matter and knowledge are displaced, packed, shipped, and reassembled, often at substantial ecological, economic, and human cost, and sometimes with little sensitivity, connection, or real effect in the context where they are received.

This introduces a distance between what architecture is and what can be experienced in exhibition spaces. Unlike art, architecture can only appear in exhibitions through proxies and fragments – or, in theory – which inherently carries the risk of disconnecting exhibitions from the realities of building, making, and everyday life.

In Practice

The question is how to redirect resources from logistics and representation towards something that can connect and remain – or, more radically, how to turn exhibitions into acts of practice rather than displays of theory. This begins with recognising that the theme of a biennial has a substantial impact on the form it eventually assumes in space. Engaging with a site starts with a responsibly chosen theme and continues in curating – or rather developing – projects that test ideas where they are meant to act.

Building on this approach, the 2026 edition of Beta – Timișoara Architecture Biennial turns a disused building into a project in progress, a work under negotiation, and, more importantly, a display of how architects practice. Instead of staging a temporary show, funds are directed to site-specific projects that simulate, sketch, mock up, question, and might remain – as built matter or as lessons learned.

Like every project, this one too will be a negotiation of visions and constraints, ideas and conditions, failure and reinvention. The curatorial intent is not to conceal this process but to offer visitors both an insight and a role in how architecture takes shape, not just as what gets built but as a (con)sequence of countless options, simulations, and discoveries. Architecture unfolds as a continuous experiment, a collective exercise in transforming theory into matter.

Photo: David Dumitrescu

In practice also refers to an architecture that leaves visible the complexity that constitutes it. What this biennial aims to leave behind is not a finished building, but a meaningful new layer – one that acknowledges and builds on what came before, and remains open to what comes next. An architecture in its beta stage. An aesthetic of traces and transitions in which architecture does not seal or finalise a project but lets it remain in flux, inviting continuation and accommodating an array of uses and appropriations.
A Theater Like This Has Never Been Built

A Theater Like This Has Never Been Built
Date: October 3–26, during Foyer Public opening hours
Vernissage: October 3, 5PM, Alte Billettkasse
Location: Theaterplatz / Foyer Public / Alte Billettkasse
Curation and scenography: Andreas Kofler
Artistic Direction: Angela Osthoff (Theater Basel)
Graphic design: Claudiabasel

Architecture exhibitions must rely on proxies: drawings, photographs, models… But what happens when an exhibition takes place in the building itself? For its 50^th anniversary, Theater Basel becomes its own 1:1 model and therewith site, subject, and display. Instead of material collected in a white cube, the exhibition unfolds in and around the building itself. Twenty panels reveal that A Theater Like This Has Never Been Built – a rare exhibition where architecture appears as its own original, accompanied by a free publication available on site.

Accompanying program: The exhibition is complemented by themed guided tours led by experts from architecture, art, and technology – both from within and outside the Theater Basel.

Image credits: Archiv Theater Basel, Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt, Nachlass Lucius und Annemarie Burckhardt (UB Basel), Plakatsammlung der SfG Basel, Historisches Museum Basel
Photo credits: Leon Faust
The library as exhibition
Interview with Wolfgang Tillmans

A few weeks before the Centre Pompidou’s five-year closure for “metamorphosis”, Wolfgang Tillmans’ Nothing could have prepared us – Everything could have prepared us is the last exhibition standing. Across the vacated Bpi library on the second floor, the carte blanche unfolds as a detail-driven dialogue with the space, reactivating Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers’ original radical openness.

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Une publication partagée par @about.architecturalplatform

Andreas Kofler: How did your exhibition at the Centre Pompidou originate, and was the Bpi library always intended as its site?

Wolfgang Tillmans: I first heard of the project in June 2022… [continue reading]
Collective regionalism

ABOUT: Issue 1 is titled ‘The Collective’ and brings together contributions from over a hundred key figures in the field – including members of the editorial board, advisors, and design studios – in a narrative that combines theoretical essays, case studies, visual storytelling, and data. The volume (with a playfully surreal cover by Olga Prader) is divided into four sections: Elements, dedicated to fundamental architectural components; Essays, featuring pieces by the Editorial Board; Projects, which analyzes projects at various scales through critical texts, photographs, and original drawings; and finally Companies, which explores innovations in design and architecture businesses.

Among the texts is an essay on studioser‘s quietly radical project in the hamlet of Monte, Ticino. The feature introduces the term ‘collective regionalism’ and explores how the project reactivates the village’s spatial and social fabric through a series of modest yet highly contextual interventions. Based on oral histories and close engagement with the community, the essay highlights how the architects co-produced spaces that respond to local memory, material practices, and intergenerational use. Eschewing grand gestures, Monte is presented as an architecture of repair – one that reinforces existing narratives, prioritizes subtle transformation, and demonstrates how careful, participatory design can restore continuity in place-making.

Other contributions to About: in print:
Issue 2 Sportscapes: Sport as a Social Project (Kitesurf Station, Graun im Vinschgau (Curon Venosta), 2020)

Other contributions to About: online:
9/4/2025 People: Wolfgang Tillmans: the library as exhibition
9/26/2025 Projects: Paris’ social housing as architectural catalyst
Ein Haus für die Architektur / Una casa per l’architettura

At the latest since the 1990s, modern architecture in South Tyrol has experienced a significant momentum, resulting in publications and exhibitions that have also received international recognition. However, in contrast to many neighbouring regions and countries, South Tyrol surprisingly lacks a ‘house’ that is permanently dedicated to architecture, landscape and urban design. In other words, a permanent location where relevant topics are presented as ‘input’ for a broader public and for architects, and where projects from South Tyrol are presented as ‘output’ for a domestic and international audienc

Ein Haus für die Architektur / Una casa per l’architettura
Turris Babel 135
A publication of the Architekturstiftung Südtirol / Fondazione Architettura Alto Adige

Editor-in-chief: Alberto Winterle
Guest editor: Andreas Kofler

Editorial team: Barbara Breda, Carlo Calderan, Loris Clara, Francesco Flaim, Simona Galateo, Elena Mezzanotte, Fabian Oberhofer, Alessandro Perucatti, Marco Santoni, Martino Stelzer, Matteo Torresi, Cristina Vignocchi, Lorenzo Weber, Emil Wörndle, Alexander Zoeggeler

Art direction, design, cover: Studio Mut. Martin Kerschbaumer, Thomas Kronbichler
Layout: Andrea Marsoner
Soft Power – The Brussels Way of Making the City (S AM)

The exhibition Soft Power – The Brussels Way of Making the City traces Belgium’s journey to becoming an internationally renowned hotspot for contemporary architecture and urban planning. The show sheds light on the framework conditions that have given rise to a high-quality building culture in Brussels and encouraged a new generation of architects to participate in its urban development.

The Bouwmeester Maître Architecte (BMA), which was founded in 2009, has made a significant contribution to this, despite being an institution with a purely advisory function. Through it, the city architect and his team have developed a range of tools aimed at supporting clients throughout the entire project process, from its definition to its realization. Competitions are the BMA’s most important instrument: they enable a transparent opening of the markets for architecture, urban planning or public space and contribute to the quality of the projects and thus ultimately the city.

The non-anonymized and internationally tendered ‘calls’ are conceived as a hybrid between open and invited competitions – a format to be considered more frequently in Switzerland?

Press:
SWI Swissinfo: Architektur der Vielfalt aus Brüssel im Basler Architekturmuseum, 18.10.2024
Architektur Basel: «Soft Power» – Stadtmachen nach Brüssler Art, Laurence Ziegler, 23.10.2024
Hochparterre: Soft Power: Die Kraft der Persönlichkeit, Joris Jehle, 24.10.2024
Swiss Architects: Von Brüssel lernen, Elias Baumgarten, 24.10.2024
Radio SRF 2 Kultur: Kultur kompakt / 100 Sekunden Wissen, Raphael Zehnder, 12.11.2024
De Standaard: Brussel is een laboratorium voor architectuur, Emmanuel van der Beek, 3.1.2025

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Une publication partagée par LUCA – Luxembourg Center for Architecture (@lucacenterforarchitecture)

The exhibition was first presented at the Swiss Architecture Museum (S AM) in Basel in 2024. It briefly returned to Brussels in the form of the pop up Soft Power Sauvage at the Brasserie de la Senne (January 30 to February 1, 2026), presented in a reduced format without the full scenography and projections. A further, expanded presentation takes place at LUCA – Luxembourg Center for Architecture (February 25 to June 6, 2026).
Novartis Campus Guide

In just twenty years, the pharmaceutical company Novartis has transformed the former industrial grounds of its predecessor firms in northern Basel into a modern and open research campus. Notable works of architecture, landscape planning, and art have gradually taken position within the framework of a master plan by Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani.
The Novartis Campus Guide offers the first complete overview, tracing the development of the campus both chronologically and thematically. Featuring newly commissioned photographs, maps, plans, and illustrations, it gives insight into the many buildings, outdoor spaces, and artworks created for it by internationally renowned architects, landscape designers, and artists.

The publication is part of the Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher 2025 awarded by the Stiftung Buchkunst.

Andreas Kofler, Goran Mijuk (ed.)
Novartis Campus Guide (Deutsch/English/French)
September 2024, 228 pages, 254 mainly colour illustrations, softcover, 15×21 cm
Graphic design: Pascal Storz with Lucas Manser
Photographs: Philip Heckhausen, Adriano A. Biondo
Illustrations and Cover: Éva Le Roi
What If – Unbuilt Architecture in Switzerland (S AM)

Very few countries give their population such a far-reaching democratic right of co-determination in the realisation of architecture and urbanism as does Switzerland. While this has produced a democratically approved architecture that is unique in the world, it has also prevented numerous projects from becoming part of the country’s built history.
Whether lost, rejected, stalled or changed … there is a multitude of architectural designs that continue to be talked about to this day in Switzerland, even though they have never been executed. Those longed for, but not realised works are not single episodes but part of the everyday life of any architecture office, no matter how spoilt with success it may be.
In dialogue with almost two dozen architectural institutions from all parts of the country, What if – Unbuilt Architecture in Switzerland attempts to make a representative selection from an nearly infinite pool of projects. These projects combined draw a picture of an alternative Switzerland, in which the courage to embrace utopia is greater than the fear of avoiding mistakes.

The publication is part of the Ten Best Architectural Books in 2024 awarded by the Frankfurt Book Fair and Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM).

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Une publication partagée par S AM Swiss Architecture Museum (@s_am_basel)

Press:
Architektur Basel: Was wäre wenn – Das S AM zeigt ungebaute Architektur in der Schweiz, Laurence Ziegler, 27.11.2023
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ): Kulturort oder Toilette? Wenn Architektur-Pläne scheitern, Andres Herzog, 5.12.2023
SALTO: Was wäre wenn, Interview von Martin Hanni, 3.1.2024
SRF Tagesschau: Ausstellung “Was wäre wenn” in Basel, Catherine Thommen, 3.2.2024
Detail: Unbuilt Architecture in Switzerland, Betina Albrecht, 7.2.2024
TEC21: Was wäre wenn (Katalog), Hella Schindel, 20.2.2024

Preisträger DAM Architectural Book Award 2024

Jurybegründung:
Kompakt und überraschend gewichtig liegt die Sammelmappe aus schlichtem Graukarton in der Hand. Der Schnitt verrät eine Sammlung von Papieren unterschiedlicher Farbe und unterschiedlichen Formats. Kräftiges Rosa und Neongelb schimmern hindurch und verheißen ein spannungsvolles Innenleben, das die klassische Mappe mit japanischem Ringverschluss zusammenhält. Die Ausstellungspublikation ‚Was wäre wenn/ What if‘ des S AM (Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum) hält, was der erste Eindruck verspricht. Wenn der Faden abgewickelt ist und sich die Deckel öffnen, entpuppt sich die Sammelmappe als inspirierende Publikation aus Fachartikeln und Archivmaterial zu ungebauter Architektur in der Schweiz. Unter den vier Kategorien Verloren, Verneint, Versackt, Verändert sind über zwanzig unrealisierte Architekturprojekte der vergangenen 100 Jahre vorgestellt, die regionale Architekturdebatten nachhaltig geprägt haben. Die Publikation stellt dabei die zentrale Frage ‚Wer oder was entscheidet darüber, was gebaut wird und was nicht?‘ und betrachtet das Verhältnis zwischen Gedachtem und Gebautem. Eine Materialsammlung aus Zeitungsartikeln, Entwürfen und Fotos lässt neben den unrealisierten Entwürfen sehr spannend auch die gesellschaftlichen Debatten und damit Entscheidungsmuster zum jeweiligen Bauvorhaben lebendig werden. Auf neongelbem Papier in kleinerem Format setzen sich die Fachartikel von der archivarischen Materialsammlung ab. Noch kürzere Papiere in kräftigem Rosa markieren die einzelnen Projekte und sorgen für gute Übersichtlichkeit. Das dünne 80g/m² Papier, die gewählten Farben und die unaufgeregte Schriftenauswahl (Times und Neue Haas Grotesk) erinnern an private Materialsammlungen und laden dazu ein zu stöbern und sich vom Material abholen zu lassen. Selbst das ungewöhnliche Format der Publikation im Postquartformat (22 x 28cm) verweist verschmitzt auf eine Zeit vor Einführung des DIN-Formats in der Schweiz. Diese verspielte und zugleich sachliche Gestaltung des Büros Claudiabasel weckt Entdeckungslust und Forscherdrang nach Unentdecktem, Vergessenem, Unrealisiertem. Die Publikation hinterfragt damit auf äußerst spannende und unterhaltsame Art und Weise die gängige Vorstellung von Baukultur und schreibt eine Hommage an den ‚leidenschaftlichen Idealismus‘ im Bauen, der sich im Stöbern in dieser inspirierenden Publikation überträgt.
(Dr. Dorothee Ader)
Tane Garden House (essay)

The publication “Tane Garden House” provides insights into a design process that spanned several years. It documents the development of the architectural project, including unrealized models and sketches of Tsuyoshi Tane.

Tane Garden House
Vitra Design Museum, 2023

Foreword, Rolf Fehlbaum
Introduction, Tsuyoshi Tane
Essay, Andreas Kofler

Softcover, foil embossed, Otabind
11 × 15.5 cm
304 pages, 600 images

The idea to build a garden house on the Vitra Campus was initiated by Vitra Chairman Emeritus Rolf Fehlbaum. The building which is direct proximity of the Oudolf Garten, combines a rooftop viewing platform for Campus visitors and a meeting room for the gardeners who tend the grounds. Tsuyoshi Tane understood that this project was small in scale, but large in meaning. This is reflected in the Japanese architect’s unique design approach, which is based on an intensive research process that explores the local context in order to utilize traditional handicrafts as well as regional resources. Like an archaeologist, Tane started with a long period of exploration, researching the ‘memory of the place’ where the project was being planned. Tsuyoshi Tane calls this approach ‘Archaeology of the Future’.
STOÀ 06 (Viaggi)

The essay ‘Giù, nella tana del coniglio’ (Down the Rabbit Hole), is part of STOÀ 6 (Journeys).

The journey, and the consequent cognitive experience, has long been a crucial part of the education of several generations of architects. The journey constituted the culmination of the learning process: it allowed to encounter different realities, in search of specific aspects within the complexity of their contexts (geographical, anthropological, political, social and cultural. Observation is a methodological act: travelling is a tool for learning to see the world through an interpretive capacity that can be transmitted by teaching observation, by stimulating the reading and interpretation of places and spaces through various techniques or exercises, and through a subjective reading inspired by one’s own vision of the world, at a time when there is a tendency to travel without any movement or to consider travel as a mere matter of consumerism. STOÀ 6 (Journeys) is a recognition of the extent to which the tool of travel is structured within the pedagogical dynamics of teaching architectural design, and how travel, understood in its broadest sense, is still an indispensable learning tool for the training of architectural students.
Novartis Campus – Pavillon

The Novartis Pavillon, located in the park alongside the Rhine promenade, was designed by Italian architects AMDL Circle & Michele De Lucchi. As a hub for meetings and events, the building is intended to promote dialogue with the public, and therefore serves as a hinge in the opening process of the Campus toward society and the city. Its centerpiece is a multimedia exhibition that gives insight into the world of medicine and pharmaceuticals. Innovative construction elements and sustainable materials were used to build the pavilion. Its zero-energy media façade is made of organic photovoltaic cells and LED lights. It replaces traditional methods of lighting a building and displays artworks inspired by science.

The monograph includes a photo essay by Julien Lanoo, numerous plans and illustrations, contributions by AMDL Circle & Michele De Lucchi, Sabine Himmelsbach, Jenny Keller, Andreas Kofler, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, and Hortensia von Roda, as well as a detailed inventory by Christian W. Blaser.

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Une publication partagée par Andreas Kofler (@ndrskflr)

Andreas Kofler (ed.)
Novartis Campus – Pavillon
AMDL CIRCLE & Michele De Lucchi
October 2022
112 pages, German/English
ISBN 978-3-85616-979-4
CLOG x FEEDS

CLOG x FEEDS is out and includes Andreas Kofler’s ‘Life and Death as Content Feed’.

Digital book available in Kindle Store, Apple Books, and Google Play.
The Metropolis Podcast

In 2021, the students of the ‘Density & Metropolis’ course led by Andreas Kofler and Klaas De Rycke at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles (ENSAV) reached out to several architects and urbanists: Jeanne Gang (Studio Gang), Carla Juaçaba, Quentin Rihoux (MVRDV), Autumn Visconti (BIG), Marco Maretto, Tamara Kalantajevska and Alexander Spitzer (Gehl), and Tomas Diez. These interviews now are hosted as Audioblog on ARTE Radio, and available on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Mock-Up (S AM)
In architecture, a ‘mock-up’ refers to a demonstration model that reproduces a fragment of a building in full size, using the same materials as the eventual finished product. These models help to better understand the detailing of a building before actual construction begins. But what if mock-ups are not understood as merely by-products of architecture, but as artefacts in their own right, in possession of an experimental or even poetic potential that goes beyond their purely technical function?

The exhibition features the photographic series ‘Archetypes’ by the Canadian photographer David K. Ross. The images are complemented by contributions from Herzog & de Meuron, Staufer & Hasler Architects, iart, NEST / Gramazio Kohler Architects, baubüro in situ & Zirkular, Manuel Herz Architects, and 51N4E/NEWROPE, who tap into the possibilities of mock-ups in very different ways.
Photos: Tom Bisig
KUNST IST. / ARTE È.

The private art association Kunst Meran has invited eight curators on the occasion of its 25^th anniversary to examine the role of art in the present. Valerio Dehò, Luigi Fassi, Sabine Gamper, Günther Oberhollenzer, Andreas Kofler, Anne Schloen, Magdalene Schmidt and Susanne Waiz jointly contribute their proposals for future experience through art and architecture.
Death as Timeline Event

“Death as Timeline Event” is part of Platform Austria, Austria’s contribution to the 17^th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia.

Facebook organises content around a timeline, encouraging users to add from all aspects of their biography. This made it the most popular social media platform, voluntarily or not, and an ideal place for mourning. Initially, Facebook profiles of deceased could either be deleted or frozen. But with a steadily amount of users departing real life, Facebook had to increasingly address the subject of mortality and its related ethics in a more nuanced manner…

To be continued either in the pavilion itself, online or in the publication Platform Urbanism and Its Discontents.
Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection

The conversion of the Bourse de Commerce concludes the Pinault Collection’s quest for an exhibition venue in Paris, as well as a long journey for its architect, Tadao Ando. 15 years after the two parties had to set aside their project for a museum on the Île Seguin, and 55 years since Ando’s Grand Tour first led him to Europe, the much-anticipated opening of the Pinault Collection in Paris marks the return of an underexposed Parisian architectural monument into the public gaze.

Ando’s audacious yet highly intelligible intervention embraces and reconciles the past occupancies of a building whose strata bear the layers of history and its various modes of use. Both a pragmatic and poetic gesture, the concrete cylinder nestled under the dome contributes to meeting the challenges of a museum of contemporary art. It reveals the radical potential of a building whose past and present architectural metamorphoses have resulted in a theatre of progress and experimentation.

Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection
Author: Andreas Kofler
Language: French/English
Format: 17×23cm, 248 pages
ISBN 978-2-35733-543-1
Editor: Archibooks
Publication date: January 21, 2021

Like other Japanese architects active in Paris, Ando’s work on the Bourse de Commerce is a collaborative effort with his French counterparts. This book chronicles the committed work of the architects, engineers and designers behind the project, revealed through numerous interviews, notably with Lucie Niney and Thibault Marca (NeM Architectes), Pierre-Antoine Gatier, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, and Ando himself.
Unterm Radar (S AM)
Much of the work of architecture takes place before and after the actual act of construction, as architects probe the conditions governing the territories in which they are intervening. In a process similar to that of investigative journalism, they collect pieces of evidence, analyse them and synthesise them into a narrative.
The exhibition Under the Radar presents an international overview of significant research projects dealing with this investigative form of architecture: The Handbook of Tyranny by Theo Deutinger, The Murder of Halit Yozgat and further inquiries by Forensic Architecture, Italian Limes by Studio Folder, Smuggling Architecture by Kwong Von Glinow, Swiss Lessons by EPF Lausanne’s Laboratory Basel, Sand and Labour by the Professorship Architecture of Territory at ETH Zurich, Parallel Sprawl by Kunik de Morsier and Meteorological Architecture by Philippe Rahm.
In all cases, the emphasis is on the methods, content and conclusions of these spatial analyses of territory. Certain hidden mechanisms – Who controls which spaces? Who manages them? Who benefits? – can thus be revealed.
Press:
Hochparterre: Hochparterre, Andres Herzog, 20.11.2019
espazium: Unterm Radar, Mira Heiser, 20.11.2019
Tracés: Pour une dimension politique de l’architecture, Mathilde de Laage, 4.12.2019
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ): «Die Berliner Mauer war, wie die heutige Mauer an der US-Grenze, vorgefertigt. In ihrem Grundprinzip unterscheiden sie sich wenig», Sabine von Fischer, 19.12.2019
werk, bauen + wohnen: Räumliche Aufklärung, Tibor Joanelly, 24.1.2020
NZZ am Sonntag: Der kontrollierte Raum, Gerhard Mack, 30.1.2020
Lake Como Design Fair

The Lake Como Design Fair returned for its second edition on September 20-22, 2019, embracing two venues. A curated design selection presented at the Teatro Sociale Como and a new section – entirely dedicated to architecture – held at the Palazzo del Broletto. Designers and architects were invited to contribute to a reflection and investigation on the subject of colour with and through their submitted projects. Margherita Ratti, founder and fair curator, set up the new architecture section with Andreas Kofler, all in close collaboration with Lorenzo Butti, director of the LCDF.

A catalogue, which includes Andreas Kofler’s essay “Tutto è colore” (Everything is colour), accompanied the LCDF.

Press:
Artribune: Design e architettura (da collezione) nella città del Razionalismo, Giulia Marani, 5.9.2019
Domus: What not to miss at the Lake Como Design Fair 2019, Francesca Grillo, 12.9.2019
IL Magazine (Il Sole 24 Ore): Maquette come opere d’arte, Sara Deganello, 20.9.2019
TL mag: The Complexity of Colour, Lise Coirier, 22.9.2019
DAMN° Magazine: Engaging agile irises, Emma Lucek, 25.9.2019
Wallpaper*: Ettore Sottsass, colour and architecture at Lake Como Design Fair, Laura May Todd, 1.10.2019
PIN–UP: Art, Design, Architecture: The Como Design Fair Does it All , Andrew Ayers, 10.10.2019
Dichtelust – Forms of Urban Coexistence in Switzerland (S AM)

In Switzerland, the concept of ‘density’ has noticeably negative connotations. In political debates on the country’s urban and demographic development, the term is often used to provoke fear: images of historic towns overrun with high-rise buildings illustrate an alleged ‘proximity stress’ (Dichtestress) and make balanced discussion impossible. The exhibition ‘Dichtelust – Forms of Urban Coexistence in Switzerland’ shows what density actually means: the thoughtful and compact utilisation of buildable territory. It examines different forms of historical density and contemporary redensification, and demonstrates how density contributes to the quality of life by creating tangible added value for the individual, for society and for the environment.

S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum,
Andreas Kofler (ed.)

Dichtelust
Formen des urbanen Zusammenlebens in der Schweiz

November 2018, 240 pages, 187 mainly colour illustrations, softcover, 17 × 24 cm
ISBN 978-3-85616-882-7

Press:
Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF): Dichtelust statt Dichtestress, Maya Brändli, 27.11.2018
Basler Zeitung (BaZ): In der Dichte liegt die Lust, Christoph Heim, 28.11.2018
Badische Zeitung (BZ): Lust statt Stress, Michael Baas, 29.11.2018
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ): Im Dickicht des Dichtedschungels, Daniela Meyer, 4.12.2018
Detail: Dichtelust: Wenn Menschen enger zusammenrücken, Jakob Schoof, 19.6.2019
Radio SRF 1: Interview zur 9-Millionen-Schweiz , 25.9.2024

domus N. 1040
Novembre/November 2019
Cartography of Smallness
The publication Cartography of Smallness is the result of a homonymous series of workshops at the Vienna University of Technology, examining small-scale densification in (peri)urban spaces.
Intense housing densifies our cities, neighborhoods and settlements. But according to which principles does is alter our built environment? A look into other cultures and geographies provides insights and opportunities about small-scale densification strategies and developments. Why do minimal houses emerge in a metropolis like Tokyo? Which economic and social conditions and regulations promote, and which ones slow down, such dynamics of smallness? Are those also present in Vienna?
Armando Ronca, Modern architecture in South Tyrol, 1935–1970

Amongst South Tyrol’s buildings of the immediate post-war years, the projects of Armando Ronca are of paramount importance. And although the modern architecture of this period was thought as a structural expression of a new beginning, the appreciation of it has been scarce. Yet, the often negative attitude towards the projects of this epoch slowly starts shifting towards an increasing awareness that also in this period notable achievements in terms of urban development and architecture have been made.
For the first time, an exhibition presents the works of Armando Ronca. Through it, the buildings of the Veronese architect should be moved into the focus of local historical research and stimulate a discussion about Meran and Bozen’s cityscapes in the 21^st century.

Exhibition period: October 14, 2017 – January 7, 2018
Curators: Andreas Kofler and Magdalene Schmidt

Press:
Franz Magazine: „Vermittler der Moderne“, Verena Spechtenhauser, 4.10.2017
Alto Adige: La matita di Ronca nelle nostre città, Paolo Campostrini, 11.10.2017
Casabella: Armando Ronca, 14.10.2017
Sky Arte: Tutta l’architettura di Armando Ronca, in Alto Adige, Paolo Campostrini, 15.10.2017
Corriere della Sera: L’architettura moderna di Ronca, Giancarlo Riccio, 19.10.2017
Dolomiten: Ein Vielbeschäftigter, aber fast Vergessener, Andreas Gottlieb Hempel, 21.10.2017
Hochparterre: Moderne in Südtirol, Ursula Schnitzer, 24.10.2017
ff: Verlottertes Erbe, Georg Mair, 26.10.2017
Rai Alto Adige: La retrospettiva sull’architetto Armando Ronca a Kunst Merano Arte, Passpartu’ cultura, 4.11.2017
Zett: Ehrenrettung für gute Architektur, Edith Moroder, 5.11.2017
Alto Adige: Ronca tra memoria e riscatto, Luigi Scolari, 18.11.2017
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ): Mailand in den Alpen, Roman Hollenstein, 21.11.2017
Kunstzeitung: Italomoderner Formenzauber, Roman Hollenstein, Dezember 2017
ORF Tirol: Mikro-Mailand in Meran und Bozen, Südtirol Heute, 4.12.2017
BauNetzWoche: Südtiroler Modernist, 7.12.2017
Il Venerdì di Repubblica: L’architetto che portò il moderno in Alto Adige, Francesca Frediani, 8.12.2017
Il Giornale: Il nuovo volto di Merano e Bolzano, Carlo Franza, 7.1.2018
Franz Magazine: L’anima moderna di Bolzano pensata dal genio dimenticato di Armando Ronca, Silvia M. C. Senette, 11.11.2024

Kunst Meran, Andreas Kofler, Magdalene Schmidt, Jörg Stabenow (Eds.)
Armando Ronca
Architektur der Moderne in Südtirol / Architettura del Moderno in Alto Adige
1935–1970
With essays by Andreas Kofler, Massimo Martignoni, Giorgio Mezzalira, Magdalene Schmidt, Luigi Scolari and Jörg Stabenow, as well as photos by Werner Feiersinger
Designed by Willi Schmid
472 pages, 341 colored and 122 b/w images
16.5 × 22 cm
978-3-03860-061-9 German / Italian

The exhibition Armando Ronca, Modern architecture in South Tyrol, 1935–1970, is accompanied by a book presenting over 40 buildings of Armando Ronca. Individual projects, such as the Eurotel in Meran, are thoroughly analyzed and documented. In addition, all still preserved buildings are documented by images of the Viennese architecture photographer Werner Feiersinger.
Japanese architectures in Paris, 1867–2017
In view of Sanaa’s ongoing rehabilitation of the Samaritaine department store, Sou Fujimoto’s mixed-use “Mille Arbres”, Kengo Kuma’s planned station for the Grand Paris Express or Tadao Ando’s installation of the Collection Pinault in the Bourse de Commerce, the impression arises that a growing number of Paris’ highest-anticipated projects is emerging from the drawing boards of some of the most notable Japanese architects.
What at first sight may seem like a recent phenomenon, is, in reality, the current climax of a historic presence of Japan’s architects in Paris. An early intellectual exchange, begun in Le Corbusier’s office in the 30s, intensified over the years and is – especially since the beginning of the 90s – increasingly diversifying the urban landscapes of both Paris and Greater Paris.
To date, this architecture has not yet been read in a linear way. The exhibition and publication Architectures japonaises à Paris, 1867–2017 not only inventories realized and upcoming projects, but also hundreds of proposals, competition entries, temporary installations, studies, and exhibitions, proving the persistence of an enduring dialogue between two cultures. The remarkable traces that the Japanese left in the French archives, enable reconstituting this narrative through a nearly unilateral research effort.
Examining the context of the creation and the evolution of each project, Architectures japonaises à Paris, 1867–2017 is not necessarily an exhibition and publication of Japanese architecture, but about Japanese architecture. Retracing the projects of its architects in Paris not only captures the architectural and urban history of the French capital, but is also able to re-narrate in broad lines the evolution of contemporary Japanese architecture.

Inauguration: June 27, 6:30 PM
Presented from June 28 to October 1, 2017
Exhibition design: Pavillon de l’Arsenal
Guest curator: Andreas Kofler
Graphic design: Pierre Vanni
Photos: Antoine Espinasseau
Attendance: ~55,000 visitors (~680 visitors/day)
Press:
Le Moniteur: Paris, capitale de l’architecture japonaise, Jacques-Franck Degioanni, 27.6.2017
L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui: Rising sun over Paris, Emanuel Amselem, 30.6.2017
Zoom Japon: Bâtisseurs nippons en France, Olivier Namias, 30.6.2017
Ovni: 「パリの日本建築」展を観に行こう。 Kaoru Urata, 1.7.2017
20 minutes: Comment les architectes japonais magnifient Paris, Floreal Hernandez, 5.7.2017
Le Figaro: Paris, terrain de jeu privilégié des architectes japonais depuis 150 ans, Adrien Gicquiau, 11.7.2017
Architectures CREE: Les destins parisiens de l’architecture japonaise, Olivier Namias, 20.7.2017
Beaux Arts: Paris-Japon : un mariage en béton, Céline Saraiva, 20.7.2017
Télérama: Architectures japonaises à Paris 1867-2017, Bénédicte Philippe
Libération (Enlarge Your Paris): Plongée dans l’architecture japonaise à Paris, Mona Prudhomme, 30.7.2017
France Culture: Perspectives japonaises (La Grande table d’été), 31.7.2017
Numéro: L’architecture japonaise s’expose à Paris, 31.8.2017
Le Monde: Paris sous l’influence des architectes japonais, Frédéric Edelmann, 31.8.2017
Space: Wave of Japanese Architecture in France, Kim Seokwon, 3.2018

The exhibition Architectures japonaises à Paris, 1867–2017, is accompanied by a publication revealing the intense dialogue between two cultures that began at the close of the 19^th century and today boasts a dozen of major constructions that are either in progress or have been recently delivered. These projects include the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection, the Learning Center in Saclay, the Mille Arbres project, the bridging Aurore building on the Left Bank, the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt, and the transformation of the Samaritaine department store.

Publication date: June 27, 2017
Editor: Pavillon de l’Arsenal
Author: Andreas Kofler
Graphic design: deValence
Format: 13 x 19,5 cm, 608 pages, 450 illustrations
Japanese/French

Press reviews:
Curator, Andreas Kofler, has indeed found a treasure on the Parisian territory, of which meticulously accounts a catalog that is much more verbose than the exhibition.
Frédéric Edelmann, Le Monde
Copernico Café (w/ bunker arc)

The counter of the Copernico Café – designed with Carlo Gandolfi’s Bunker arc and Torricelli Associati – is a scalable object, both in terms of size and equipment. Its round shape is meant to remain recognizable in any kind context, whether it is applied as 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or its full version. These configurations are adaptable to specific planimetric conditions: the concave corner, the wall, the convex angle or a plan free from any constraints.

During the Salone del Mobile, Domus hosted an exhibition entitled “Milano Next” at the Copernico Café.

Tonight at 7pm: don't miss the DOMUS INNOVATION TALK
w/ @crassociati, @OToscani, @darmalillac, Antonio Bosio
See you in Tortona 33! #MDW2017 pic.twitter.com/ktBjwo5dWj
— Domus (@DomusWeb) April 4, 2017
Resilience (w/ Marcello Tavone & Annabelle Blin)

We may not know yet what the post-oil city will or could be. We know that oil burns fast, and that the economies derived from it do likewise. Unavoidably what comes after has to be slow(er), prudent, reflected, waiting “for the good moment” to arrive.

While the response of architecture to the 1973 oil crisis was to mainly bury itself, this moment in time may require a radical reboot. If the city was the end-consumer of the burned resources, it now appears compelling that it may become the ultimate laboratory for testing alternatives.

But what if this response takes the form of abstinence?

We tried to imagine a resilient project, taking the form of constant negotiation and (re)development. Forus itself is subject to the latter – indubitably the next decades will redefine its landscape, demography, infrastructure and usages. But how precisely?

While we can’t predict the future, we can still evaluate the ambitions trying to shape it. We tried to address this uncertainty with both objectivity and prudent optimism, enabling the site to become a display of possibilities able to irrigate the territory hosting it with new identities, typologies and programs.

While the oil-economy is based on increase and growth, we imagined a project that can also resist expansion: stall, diminish, adapt, retreat, deflate… A project that is not retroactively portioned into a budget-determined phasing, but ultimately emerges as the result of an incessant dialogue with its context.

A Europan 13 project, with Annabelle Blin (Etablissement)
Miyajimaguchi (w/ Marcello Tavone)

We visited Miyajimaguchi on a glorious morning in May. The train had been empty enough to catch the last two (reversible) seats, elderly ladies greeted us out of their stores along the main street, we spotted an already sun-faded poster of the “International Urban Planning Competition for Miyajimaguchi Area” on the windows of a restaurant, observed the busy gardeners meticulously trimming the trees on the roundabout in front of the ferry terminal, a hipsterish shop sold us a coffee for the crossover to Miyajima, came back a few hours later to the mainland with a dozens of selfies taken with the charming deers of the island, and finally started our exploration of the parking and residentially defined hinterland of the main street.

On such days Miyajimaguchi appears sleepy, a bit dreamy, but far from being on the verge of an infrastructural collapse when 25.000 visitors per day may try to visit Itsukushima. On the approximately 15 peak days per year – on which traffic congestion is either significant or serious – the over-filled parking must indirectly work like a joint sealant, connecting the archipelago of residential and commercial islands with each other.
But what happens on the other 350 other days per year? Let’s imagine, kind of allegorically, Miyajimaguchi awakening on a foggy morning in late November. Miyajima is gone. Like on the photographs of Hiroshi Sugimoto, there’s only the calm seascape and its misty air lying in front of the shore.

Download : Thesis (Pdf, 2.3 Mb)
Blurring the lines
Interview with Kazuyo Sejima

Eventually located in the back of the seat in front of you, the 100% Japan September issue of Air France Magazine includes Andreas Kofler’s interview with SANAA‘s inscrutable Kazuyo Sejima.

Air France Magazine‘s June edition featured another article by Andreas Kofler: Le design du pouvoir, retraces the last 50 years of the Mobilier National’s Atelier de Recherche et Création (ARC).
Epiphenomena

Andreas Kofler guest-edited the 6^th edition of FAMagazine, featuring essays by Job Floris, Philip Stessens and Annabelle Blin, Marcello Tavone, Mei Lun Xue and Andreas Kofler.

Side effects are well known in medicine as a secondary result of, for example, surgery, a specific medication or—as is generally known—stimulant drugs. Although they are commonly associated with undesired and adverse effects, they can also be beneficial, to such an extent that certain therapies or drugs may be described because of their actual therapeutic side effects.

As a common noun, our contributions to this FAMagazine‘s edition focus on both types of and unbiased understanding of collateral events, particularly in the context of urbanism and architecture. The latter being either a side effect of another dynamic or involuntarily or consciously initiated by a supplemental phenomenon.

While we initially labeled these as “collateral” events, this term proved too derogatory (collateral damages) and compliant in nature. Research on the consequences of water management on city planning, initiated by Philip Stessens and Annabelle Blin for this occasion, evoked a more balanced nomenclature: the one of epiphenomena [it: epifenomeno], which more neutrally implies a causal relationship between the secondary (epi-, in addition to) and primary phenomena.

The epiphenomena found in the contributions of Job Floris (NL), Philip Stessens (B) and Annabelle Blin (FR), Marcello Tavone (IT), Mei Lun Xue (US) and Andreas Kofler (IT), describe situations that have been initiated in parallel, led elsewhere and subsequently emancipated as partially autonomous or even self-sufficient.

Job Floris investigates wedge-shaped buildings in city grids – an epiphenomenon of regularization. Philip Stessens and Annabelle Blin examine the physics of the bioclimatic urban environment – an epiphenomenon of urbanization. Marcello Tavone analyzes the topography of Belgium’s terrils (spoil tips) – an epiphenomenon of industrialization. Mei-Lun Xue explores the impact of textile production in Prato – an epiphenomenon of economic activity. Andreas Kofler studies Japanese convenience stores as urban revelators – an epiphenomenon of oversaturated franchising activity.

EPIPHENOMENA / EPIFENOMENI (Pdf, 9.3 Mb)

Andreas Kofler EPIPHENOMENA Editorial (Pdf, 300 kb)

Job Floris BROADER THAN BROADWAY The anomalies within the grid (Pdf, 1.6 Mb)
Philip Stessens, Annabelle Blin WATER AND THE CITY Unintentional Urbanism (Pdf, 1.9 Mb)
Marcello Tavone COLLATERAL GEOGRAPHIES Dizziness and disturbances of the memory (Pdf, 2.4 Mb)
Mei Lun Xue FACTORY/CITY A Study in Unexpected Prosperity (Pdf, 3.6 Mb)
Andreas Kofler NON-STOP CITY Convenience as urban fertilizer (Pdf, 4.6 Mb)
Elsewhere (w/ Marcello Tavone)

Between transparency and reﬂection. Two mirrors designed by Claire Lavabre and Tetsuo Kondo for Great Design in limited edition on show at the gallery from June 20 until July 11, 2015. A project curated by Weltgebraus.

Over the course of time, mirrors have persistently allegorised questions on identity, duality and vanity. But ironically, among everyday objects, they may also be those with the most subjective visibility. Either camouflaged and relativized by silently acquiring the image of their surroundings or, whenever they are interpellated, relentless portraying and framing their vis-à-vis. Ultimately, the principles of reflection are versatile and may also be generated through detours, deviating or blurring the returned images.

Mirrored objects are doubled and transferred elsewhere — a space that exists without existing. “Elsewhere” is also the title of the current exhibition at Great Design Gallery, curated by Weltgebraus, which presents the work of the French designer Claire Lavabre and the Japanese architect Tetsuo Kondo, respectively examining the possible gradient between opacity and reflection. Two reinterpretations and alterations of the principles behind mirrors mutually investigate, blur and repropose an everyday artifact.

Some kind words by AD Magazine’s Oscar Duboÿ
Of Houses (w/ Marcello Tavone)

When in 1901 Peter Behrens completed his first and own house on Darmstadt’s Mathildenhöhe, he decided to inscribe a “Hausspruch” by lyricist Richard Dehmel on its façade. “Stand steady, my house, amidst the roaring of the world” (Steh’ fest mein Haus im Weltgebraus) is a sort of Godspeed wishing the house may withstand all kind of physical and metaphoric maelstroms the future might bring. A desire for perfection, but also a fatalistic acknowledgement that the unknown can’t be fully anticipated – like a shipbuilder, the architect confidently puts his unmanned house at sea whilst anxiously hoping it won’t collide with anything. Ultimately it would be Behrens’ himself that would sail swiftly towards modernist waters, ideologically abandoning his Jugendstil-house which he sold before even having lived in it. While in theory the modes in which architecture can react to Weltgebraus can be summarized in adaptation or denial – and its consequences in relativization or monumentalization – the reading of this interrelation on specific cases is anything but binary. The gradient and array of situations, which is revealed by examining houses through this lens, was ultimately the criteria for our selection for Of Houses.

Weltgebraus has been guest curating Of Houses from May 4 to 24, 2015.
Informal Market Worlds – Atlas

The Informal Market Worlds – Atlas contains 72 case studies with about 200 cartographies and infographics by Mario Pruner and Andreas Kofler, and a case study of Montreuil’s flea market by the latter. Research and insights into today’s informal urban systems: from Kabul’s post-conflict Bush Bazaar to Arizona’s Snow Birds hipster markets.

Informal markets are a central feature of the twenty-first century’s first tumultuous years. Both part of and response to the homogenising forces of globalisation, they shape a volatile shadow system of heterogeneous micro-locations.

Informal Market Worlds maps this new kind of urban system emerging from the multi-directional movements of ongoing deregulations and realignments. Offering a global perspective on the conflicted realities of informal marketplaces – from survival activities of the urban poor to transnational clandestine trade networks – these analyses reveal how informality has become a political instrument in the struggles around global market integration. Bringing together imaginative architectural approaches with texts by key contemporary thinkers, the two-volume Informal Market Worlds explores new ways to interrupt the dominant logics of neoliberal governance.

ISBN 978-94-6208-194-9
Editors: Peter Mörtenböeck, Helge Mooshammer
Design: Studio Joost Grootens
English, paperback, 17 x 24 cm, 512 pages, illustrated (1000 color and b/w)

Selected chapters available as PDF:
Contents
Introduction / Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer
“Notorious Markets”
Bangkok’s Red Zones / Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer
Hipster Markets
Talad Rot Fai / Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer
The Next Helsinki (w/ Marcello Tavone)

The Next Helsinki could tie together the ends of the global art market’s supply chain by curating what is already there, rather than what is available to be brought there. This could happen by assembling a new “private collection” out of to the most private of all collections: the one on display in the homes of its host region. Rather than making the integration of local art a retroactive negotiation – as it has been the case with Basque art in Bilbao – a “call for art entries” would enable the creation of a Heim to the existing art of the museum’s context in the very moment of its instalment. Inventorying, selecting and ultimately borrowing this collection from the houses of the Helsinkians, depending on the curatorial theme to be displayed (#modernism, #pottery, …), would convert the city and its residents into latent suppliers of the museum, thus constitutive and quintessential part of it.
CLOG : Guggenheim

Andreas Kofler’s “Private Collection” is part of CLOG‘s Guggenheim issue.

English, 2014
128 Pages
Black & White w/ Single Spot Color
Comes with Bookmark
35 Illustrations
Softcover, 5.5 x 8.5 in.
ISBN 978-0-9904224-2-6
The Diversities of the Unexpected
Interview with Sou Fujimoto

Andreas Kofler interviewed Sou Fujimoto in November 2014 for a co-edited issue of L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA404) dedicated to architecture models. Part 2 of 2 of the interview focused on his numerous healthcare projects,* and was published in parallel with the release of AA405, dedicated to “therapeutic architecture”.

When Sou Fujimoto’s Children’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation was completed in 2006, it was the last one a series of healthcare projects designed at the beginning of his career. A little known, or little-noticed, expertise of Fujimoto that is anything but random and closely related with the beginnings of his career.

Andreas Kofler In Primitive Futures (INAX, Tokyo, 2008) your Children’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation is part of the “City as house, house as city” chapter. Is the duality of this project a reinterpretation of the psychological condition of its patients?

Sou Fujimoto My father is a doctor for mental illness and some of my early projects are for him. This one is for another doctor, who leads a big mental hospital, and with whom I had many interesting discussions about what kind of space may be good for people suffering from mental diseases. As you said, such kind of hospitals can feature a certain duality, like residential and urban scales. They should be comfortable and cosy, like your private house. But at the same time, it’s more of an urban situation – in this case, the patients are approximately 50 children, bigger hospitals have around 100 patients. So it’s not just an architecture facility. Actually, for me it’s not a facility at all, it’s like your house or your home, a center of your own town, or a small village. We discussed these kinds of things and finally, I proposed this apparently random layout of boxes. Of course, it’s not random, it has an order, it has a structure, but it looks really random. Every corner has a different size with rather opened corners or more hidden corners, connected corners or more separate corners, or bigger scale areas.

AK So the architecture of this project emulates urban conditions, like collective and individual simultaneities?

SF This diversity of the scales is quite important: cozy, personal scales, but at the same time the diversities of the unexpected. I’m interested in urban complexity, like the one of Tokyo. Tokyo is crowded and yet we can find nice hidden places. If you go around a corner you will see some unexpected beautiful things. I moved here from Hokkaido, so I was fascinated by such kind of experiences. They are translated into these projects, in order that walking around the hospital is not just about walking back and forward one corridor. That is really boring, but the standard hospital is like that. The doctors and me tried to avoid such kind of a systematic space and create more diverse spaces where people can choose by themselves. The ratio of diversities and relationships was quite important. A doctor is not an architect of course, but he was clear about the ideas of the spaces. It was a very interesting discussion.

AK Have there been initial concerns that such a scheme would prioritize the patients to such an extent that it would compromise the operativeness of the hospital and its employees? Did you collect feedback about the post-occupancy of the building?

SF We discussed this of course. When we brought this model there, they were at first surprised because it’s not a classic hospital. Even after I explained the concept they still needed to fit their mind to the new situation. Finally, after a long discussion, they decided: yes, this looks very good. They liked to change their usual style of dealing with the patients and tried for example to be more interactive. So, basically I think it works… of course not perfectly, some areas work and some don’t. But basically they are very positive, yes.

AK You mentioned your father is a doctor. Have you done other projects for him in the health sector?

SF For my father I did two projects. The first one is a small hospital annex for the Seidai Hospital (1999). The intention was to don’t make a strong corridor, but just a sequence of living spaces. You couldn’t clearly see where the corridor and where the bed is. The second one is not a hospital, but a rehabilitation residence (Rehabilitation Dormitory in Hokkaido, 2003), where it was again about not making a straight corridor.

AK So the concern about the corridor–room situation is the common noun of these projects?

SF From the very beginning I thought such a straight long corridor is not fine. I imagined myself living in such a hospital… it’s not comfortable: your room is facing the corridor, if you go out everyone can see you. I tried to do something different, but at the same time I was also interested in a kind of a new order or new geometry. Not to use a strong order – like an epic axis – but to create a sequence, like those Tokyo-situations. I felt such kind of complex, organic compositions could have some possibilities. I tried to combine the architectural conceptual thinking and the more realistic imagination of the life in the hospital in several different ways, but in the Children’s Hospital case it came out of a clear discussion with the doctors with which then we could update our thinking with.

AK This project is located in the outskirts of the city of Date (Hokkaido, Japan). Despite this scenic setting, you still seem to have opted for an introverted way to set this project within such a panoramic landscape.

SF The character of the hospital is not completely opened. It has some hidden boundaries and only one entrance, where doctors and nurses are controlling who go in and out. From today’s viewpoint I think I could have made some of the areas more opened because the surrounding is beautiful. Recently I talk more and more about blurring the boundaries between inside and outside, but it only got a main topic after this project.

AK The Children’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation has been your last health project to date. This series really documents the beginning of your career.

SF Usually young architects in Japan start from private houses. But in my case, I started from hospital–health things. That affected me a lot. From the very first project I thought it’s strange to do a hospital project, I wanted to do more usual, private houses. But then, after two or three months, I thought that a hospital is much more interesting than a private house because it is a combination of the private house and the urban situation. Two opposite things are coming together. I thought it could be something really exciting. So I changed my mind into being more positive. Then of course the Tokyo-experiences affected me, and the complexity theory. So everything came together at the end of the 1990s and ultimately created my basic architecture.

^{*ありがとう to Marie-Liesse de Rougé for helping to ask the good questions}
Domus: You only live twice

The discussions regarding the imminent relocation of the iconic lobby of Tokyo’s Hotel Okura reveal, once again, different perceptions of heritage and its contingent preservation. Whilst the discussion is getting increasingly emotional in Europe, it also gains in morbidity. Reaching the end of its lifecycle, there have to be third options for architecture to either preserve or cremate it.

You only live twice: different perceptions of #heritage and its contingent preservation #tokio http://t.co/XfhC29ffe4 pic.twitter.com/GjwPaARZVB
— Domus (@DomusWeb) October 8, 2014

Continue reading on Domusweb

L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui

Andreas Kofler and contributes regularly to the bilingual French magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA) and has been part of AA402’s and 404’s editorial committee. Our AA diary:

AA451 (10/2022)	Follies	Junya Ishigami’s Daydream	article
AA448 (4/2022)	Tomorrow’s cities	The Columns of Lysbüchel, Esch Sintzel	article
AA445 (10/2021)	Renewal	Reboot, baubüro in situ	article
AA441 (2/2021)	The Hidden Dimension	Watch and Control, interview with Theo Deutinger	interview
AA440 (12/2020)	Bigness	Zaha Hadid, the Price of Weightlessness	article
		Interview with Patrik Schumacher	interview
AA438 (9/2020)	Parasites	A Tale of two Houses, the Movie Parasite	article
AA431 (6/2019)	China’s committed architects	Rural acupuncture, DnA	article
AA430 (5/2019)	Productive City	Helsinki Dreispitz appartements and archives, Basel, 2014, Herzog & de Meuron	article
AA427 (10/2018)	Port architecture	Kenzo Tange’s Tokyo Bay	article
AA Projects (5/2018)	Kengo Kuma	The point	article
		The line	article
		The plane	article
AA421 (10/2017)	Engineering Works	Japan-ness, Centre Pompidou-Metz	article
		Øresund Bridge, interview with Georg Rotne	interview
		Zhong Sheng Da Dao and Jin Liu	article
		Lu bridges, Marc Mimram	article
		Delta Works 2.0, RAAAF & Atelier de Lyon	article
AA420 (9/2017)	Learning architecture	”Architecture labs”: the avant-garde in Japan	article
AA419 (7/2017)	Spain	Mallorcan Modules, two social housing projects, Ripoll Tizón	article
		Made in Tenerife, Facultad de Bellas Artes, GPY Arquitectos	article
AA418 (5/2017)	Vestiges	Palimpsest Castle, Witherford Watson Mann (WWM), Astley Castle	article
		The Architect and the Archaeologist, David Chipperfield Architects & Julien Harrap, Neues Museum	article
AA417 (3/2017)	Stone architecture	17 logements sociaux, Barrault & Pressacco	article
AA416 (12/2016)	Mixed-uses	A tradition in mixed-use & Mixed-use as design method (OMA).	article
AA415 (10/2016)	Museums	The Guggenheim business model	article
AA414 (9/2016)	Being an architect	**Le collectif pour le participatif or Happy together**	article
AA413 (7/2016)	Temporary architecture	Commune 246, Tokyo	article
		Das Gelbe Haus, Linz	article
AA410 (12/2015)	Sports	Tokyo 2020, under the shadow of 1964	article
AA409 (11/2015)	Innovations	Moku-Chin Kikaku	article
		Granby Four Streets, Assemble	article
AA408 (9/2015)	Morocco	12 acts of demolition	article
AA407 (6/2015)	Transformations	Goldsmiths Art Gallery, Assemble	article
AA406 (5/2015)	Water and the City	Tokyo’s Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel	article
		Cloudcapes, Tetsuo Kondo	article
AA405 (3/2015)	Therapeutic architecture	Children’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Sou Fujimoto	article
		The diversities of the unexpected, interview with Sou Fujimoto	interview
		Nagasawa Dental Clinic, Kunihiko Matsuba	article
AA404 (12/2014)	Architecture models	Interview with Sou Fujimoto	interview
		Interview with Alexandria Algard (Herzog & de Meuron)	interview
		Interview with Konrad Milton (OMA/AMO)	interview
AA403 (11/2014)	Suburban housing	dnA house, Asse (Belgium), Blaf Architecten	article
		Four housing units, Vitry-sur-Seine (France), Atelier Urbain Anne Durand	article
		Jardin d’hiver house, Lavaur (France), Fmau	article
		Underground house, Saijo (Japan), Suppose Design Office	article
		Tama Loggia and Tama Machiya, Tokyo (Japan), TamaHome & Atelier Bow-Wow	article
AA402 (9/2014)	Scandinavia	Totebag’s of Venice Biennale	article
		Japanese-Scandinavian symmetry	article
AA401 (6/2014)	New Generations	Architecture as image	article

World of Matter
Additional research and graphic conception of a wallpaper for Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer’s contribution to the World of Matter exhibition, at the Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) Dortmund.
Grand Paris (Dominique Perrault)

In 2013 Andreas Kofler and Marcello Tavone developed two projects for the Atelier International du Grand Paris at Dominique Perrault’s DPAx. Habiter le Grand Paris and Systèmes métropolitains dans le Grand Paris resulted in two detailed studies that can be found below, and were published and presented in form of books, exhibitions, movies, blogs, conferences, etc.
Il Fondaco dei Tedeschi (OMA/AMO)

Whilst working at Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA/AMO), Andreas Kofler participated in the development of the renovation and redefinition scheme of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, one of Venice’s largest and most iconic buildings. The project aims to re-establish the historic Venetian connection between culture and commerce, continuing the buildings’ “tradition of adaptation”.
The Image of Europe (TD/AMO)

Whilst working at Theo Deutinger’s office TD, Andreas Kofler participated in the update and extension of AMO’s The Image of Europe, in the occasion of Austria’s 2006 Presidency of the European Union. First shown in Brussels in 2004, the exhibition examines the ways in which Europe is represented and perceived, imagining an end to its inhibited iconography, a coming out. From now on the EU will be bold, explicit, popular…