The Home at the core of Modernity, an optimistic architecture

Devoted to the theme of single-family houses, given the key role they played in the ideal definition of the Modern Movement architecture, as a symbolic and functional affirmation of the utopian turning of dreams into reality, the aim of this issue is to consider the transformation of daily life, and to address the architectural challenges that arose from the joy contained in what we might call the “architecture of happiness.” As we continue to endure a pandemic that has now lasted for more than a year, docomomo wishes to declare that “till the moment, the best vaccine to prevent contagion was invented by architects: the house”. Thus, in response to the question “How should we live?”, it is intended to debate the house and the home agenda as an important topic at the core of Modern Movement architecture. Nowadays, the growing emphasis on wellbeing goes beyond the seminal ideas that modern houses were “machines à habiter” and is closer to an idealistic vision of a stimulating shell for humans, which is shaped by imagination, experimentation, efficiency, and knowledge

Jong Soung Kimm

On the 15th February 2018, in New York City, Ana Tostões interviewed Jong Soung Kimm, an internationally renowned architect and educator, a collaborator at the office of Mies van der Rohe (1961–1972) and design studio teacher at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago (1966–1978). He is founder and honorary president of SAC(Seoul Architects Consultants) International Ltd

Health at the core of Modern Movement Architecture

Investigation into healthcare facilities involves dealing with multiple spheres beyond the technological, physical and psychological. Nowadays, the growing emphasis on wellbeing goes beyond the seminal ideas that modern buildings were cleansing machines, or that modern architecture and urbanism were shaped by bacteria. Presenting some stimulating philosophically-orientated essays, this journal makes a link between the Modern Movement and what we have entitled the “Cure and Care” concept, connecting health and the environment, body and design. Considering healthcare buildings and their role in the welfare policy of societies, the discussion addresses future challenges, driven by developments in technology and medicine, envisaging a key role for healthcare facilities in ensuring a sustainable built environment

William Whitaker interviewed by Ana Tostões

In February 2018, Ana Tostões interviewed William Whitaker, curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where the Louis I. Kahn Collection is hosted, in order to debate the importance of documentation for the preservation of Kahn’s legacy. William Whitaker was curatorial consultant of the exhibition Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture (Vitra Design Museum, 2012) and is the co-author of The Houses of Louis I. Kahn (with George Marcus, 2013), the first comprehensive publication on the architect’s house designs. The management of the Louis I. Kahn Collection has been having a fundamental role, not only in the documentation and interpretation of Kahn’s life and work, but also in the success of the contemporary rehabilitation projects undertaken in his buildings

David B. Brownlee interviewed by Ana Tostões

In February 2018, Ana Tostões interviewed David Brownlee, pioneer researcher on Louis I. Kahn and an historian of modern architecture and professor of the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania, in order to debate Kahn’s realm of ideas and their contemporary significance. David Brownlee was guest curator of the exhibition Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992), and is co-author of the homonymous book (with David G. De Long, New York, 1991, translated into four other languages) that stands as the first worldwide comprehensive publication on Louis I. Kahn

Housing for the greatest number

Addressing a broader vision, entitled “Housing for All”, this issue is dedicated to the welfare era, when governments across the world established ambitious housing programs to provide housing for the greatest number and improve the citizens’ living conditions, as a symbol of a modern and democratic society. This bold course of action involved radical changes in the built environment, through new approaches to architectural design and experiments in the use of materials and techniques, the creation of space, and social transformation. Nowadays, understanding how to deal with this legacy presents a major challenge, in a continuously changing context, from the technical obsolescence of buildings that no longer meet today’s demanding standards, or fast-moving sociocultural, political and economic values. The aim of this docomomo Journal 65 is to outline how these vast cultural and political ambitions were materialized in various countries, and to analyze the contemporary challenges they face. More than five decades later, are these buildings and neighborhoods resilient or obsolete? In addition to the changes that postmodern society has brought in ways of living, issues such as the demand for spatial and functional transformation, and the updating of regulations on fire, seismic stability, user safety and energy efficiency, are now part of the contemporary agenda. How can these sites be kept alive while satisfying sustainability and contemporary ideas of comfort

Fritz Neumeyer

In June 2017, Ana Tostões interviewed Fritz Neumeyer, reference expert on Mies van der Rohe, in order to discuss the importance of Mies’s legacy. Neumeyer conducted a deep research on Mies's writings and intellectual activity that has resulted in the worldwide renowned publication Mies van der Rohe. Das kunstlose Wort. Gedanken zur Baukunst [The Artless Word: Mies Van der Rohe on the Building Art] (Berlin, 1986; Cambridge/London, 1991; Madrid/Paris/Milan, 1996; Seoul 2007 — see p. 93) offering a precursor critical anthology of Mies theoretical corpus

Brutalism and Nature. The Gulbenkian Foundation Buildings (1959-1969)

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation headquarters and museum complex (1959–1969) headed a fundamental role in building science in Portugal, as it contributed to the accomplishment of a Modern Movement design committed with a high level of construction quality, showing that there was more beyond Modern Movement formalism. Inaugurated in 1969, it was designed to create a pleasant environment, providing prospects from inside at various angles to the grove of trees and the surrounding land. As a mega-structure designed under a multi-disciplinary design and construction team it achieved a high level of technical excellence and comfort, whilst beautifully linking the building and garden. Located in central Lisbon, within a park with an area of 7.5 ha, occupying an area of 25.000 m2, it was designed by the architects Alberto Pessoa (1919–1985), Pedro Cid (1925–1983) and Ruy Jevis d’Athouguia (1917–2006) with the collaboration of the landscape designers Ribeiro Barreto (1924–2013) and Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles (1922–). The construction gathered an international interdisciplinary team of specialists. The most up-to-date techniques were adopted, including reinforced and pre-stressed concrete in its construction. Some figures illustrate the volume of these buildings: 150,000 m3 of excavation, 45,000 m3 of concrete, 3,200 t of steel, 100 km of power cables, 50,000 m of air conditioning pipes and 3,500 kW of installed electrical capacity. The architectural design expresses the structure. The aim of having a dominant horizontal line that guaranteed the image of a low building hugging the land and the wish to emphasize the long slabs of concrete that constituted the visible image of the built complex called for a very creative structural concept. The impact that the complex has had and the way in which it has manifested the effectiveness of its qualities, such as formal sobriety and restraint, have confirmed the close relationship between the conception process and the construction site. With its garden it has created the very image of the prestige and innovation of the Foundation itself

Manuel Salgado interviewed by Ana Tostões

On August 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed the architect Manuel Salgado, councilor of the Municipality of Lisbon since 2007, in order to discuss the main policies undertaken and his ideas on urban planning in its connection to mobility infrastructures, public space and the continuous reconstruction of park and green areas, in Lisbon. Manuel Salgado was born in 1944, Lisbon, and studied architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1968). From 1971 to 1982, he was the technical responsible for the architectural office CIPRO and in 1984 he became manager of the architectural office Risco. From 2002 to 2008, he was architecture professor, at Instituto Superior Técnico. He has participated in conferences worldwide and widely published, on urban planning, and has designed major urban projects and buildings in Portugal: the Belém Cultural Centre (with Vittorio Gregotti), the Lisbon Theatre and Film School, the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, the Expo’98 public areas, the FC Porto Dragão Stadium, the Lisbon Luz Hospital, etc. His architectural and public space projects received several awards: the Valmor Award (1980, 1998), the International Award Architecture in Stone (1993), the AICA Award (1998); the Portuguese National Design Award (1999) and the Brick in Architecture Award (2003). Within the Municipality of Lisbon, he took the position of councilor of the Urbanism and Strategic Planning Department in 2007, which accumulates, from 2009 to 2013, with the Municipality Vice-Presidency. Currently, as councilor, heads the Department of Planning, Urbanism, Urban Rehabilitation, Public Space and Construction of the Municipality of Lisbon

LC′s Poetic Endurance Time and Space — Light and Matter

Le Corbusier (LC) prolific personality as theorist, painter, sculptor, architect, urban planner, researcher, disseminator, thinker, and provocative activist, helped to make him a universal author. His dual and inseparable theoretical and practical activities represented a source for LC’s balanced inspirational and systematic method. Envisaging “la planète comme chantier”, LC drove his obsessive constructive impulse around the whole world, to nations such as Japan, Russia, Argentina and India. Thinking deeply about the human condition in the contemporary age, he looked for solutions to solve social, technical and spatial problems, believing that architecture could have the power to improve the world. To the question “architecture or revolution?” he answered “revolution can be avoided” through modern architecture