Allissand
humus® four
THE MEMORY OF CITIES
“In vain, great-hearted Kublai, shall I attempt to describe Zaira, city of high bastions. I could tell you how many steps make up the streets rising like stairways, and the degree of the arcades’ curves, and what kind of zinc scales cover the roofs; but I already know this would be the same as telling you nothing. The city does not consist of this, but of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of its past”.
Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities, Einaudi 1972) brilliantly describes the essence of a city, expressed through the relationship between its spaces and the stories it has seen, in just a handful of lines.
The fourth issue of humus® investigates this relationship.
Architettura
Purcell Architects: improving heritage buildings and restoring civic pride
Tom Brigden, partner at heritage architecture specialists Purcell Architects, explains how older and abandoned properties can be sustainably adapted and brought back into use, so that all members of the community can enjoy them for years to come.
Rome: Eternal City, everyday metropolis
No other city is more representative of history and memory than Rome. An exhibition seeks out its essence, among artistic imagination and everyday life, socio-economic data and global comparisons. We explore these themes with the curators Ricky Burdett, Paola Viganò and Keti Lelo
MAD: The Asian road to urban regeneration
In the architectures of the Chinese firm founded by the visionary Ma Yansong, historical elements are placed in dialogue with ultra-contemporary additions. A formula developed in Asia and also experimented in Europe, which Andrea D’Antrassi, associated partner of MAD, illustrates to humus® in this interview.
Without rubble: GXN and the circular city
Mattia Di Carlo, Circular Design Specialist at the GXN research centre, tells humus® how to design buildings with a view to their virtuous reuse and how the city can become a circular infrastructure rather than a deposit of future ruins
Arte e Ceramica
The town that walks and plays
The artist Vica Pacheco came up with a collective music work for the hamlet of Bagnara di Romagna: a lay procession and concert with ceramic instruments aiming to listen to the place, its history and its nature.
Bouke de Vries: fragments of ceramics, pieces of memory
In their suspended beauty, the works of the Dutch artist do not conceal but rather show their nature as ceramics put back together, their consistency as regenerated fragments. Bouke de Vries explains why he chose to breathe new life into the remains of a distant past.
Giulia Deval: a sound among the trees
Which is louder, a tree falling alone in the woods or a voice that nobody listens to? We talked with Giulia Deval about these and other paradoxes to better understand sound, the woods and the animals (including humans) who live there.
One forest at a time: Haley Mellin and the art of protecting
With the no-profit initiative Art into Acres, in just eight years she has protected millions of hectares of primary forests worldwide: Haley Mellin, artist and biodiversity activist, talks about her practice, blending painting and action, drawing and meditation.
Richard Bryant: capturing the essence of places
Design
What remains of the city
For the architect Luciano Crespi, abandoned spaces are not waste but rather sources of potential, places in which memory can evolve. Thus comes the concept of ‘design of the unfinished’, in which the city is not consumed but reactivated through new uses.
Stuart Fowkes: “The sounds tell the story of the cities”
Ten years ago the British sound artist started recording the sounds near his home in Oxford. What began as a passion project is now a website called Cities and Memory that boasts contributions from over 110 countries and includes thousands of sounds.
Inside history, beyond history
The founders of the firm Næssi in Rome and the designer Harry Rigalo from Athens share something special: they both live and work in cities that were the cradles of Western civilisation. They tell humus® what it means for them, and what the role the classical plays in their design practices
The woods, transformed
Our civilisation has been supported by forests for millennia, and many projects and objects have an invisible debt with the tree communities. Being aware of this – until now – unbalanced relationship can only improve it.
News
Art grafts in Herakleia
The Siris project, inspired by Edoardo Tresoldi’s concept of Absent Matter by, reinterprets the ruins of the Herakleia Archaeological Park in Policoro with the site-specific works of three international artists. We spoke to the artistic director Antonio Oriente.
The Palazzo in Barchi: when sites are open to the town
Born as an ideal Renaissance town inspired by the principles of the golden ratio, Barchi – a town in the Italian Marche region – was at risk of depopulation. Today it is the focus of a regeneration project that all the inhabitants are called on to take part in.
Semi di Futuro: new plants for the future climate
Growing trees that are more suited that others to cope with climate change and, together, raise a new generation of citizens to take care of them: this is the two-fold challenge faced by a project run by the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park with Fondazione Iris Ceramica Group.
The Amazonian design of Igor Lima
Born and raised just a stone’s throw from the foothills of the world’s largest rainforest, the Brazilian designer draws inspiration from its plant and animal species to create furniture and complements that are both contemporary and soaked in local culture.