Allissand
THE SILENCE OF THE FORESTS
They are among us. And they greatly outnumber us. Three thousand billion individuals, grouped in millions of communities, organised into authentic nations. But we hardly notice their presence.
They - trees - in their communities - the forests - live, grow, die and regenerate in silence.
But more than ever before, we realise that we can’t do without them.
Not just for the economy, not just for buildings, not just for tourism.
For our survival as a species.
The Eight Forests
by Giorgio Vacchiano
Architettura
Catherine Mosbach: designing welcoming landscapes
With projects running from Paris to Taiwan, the award-winning French landscape architect talks about the correct approach to forests in different places around the world. Design criteria must privilege the context and nature to be effective.
Designing with trees: the vision of Cesare Leonardi and Franca Stagi
Over forty years ago, with visionary sensitivity, two Italian architects conducted far-reaching, in-depth research into trees, understood as primary elements in urban and landscape design. humus followed their tracks to find out more about their thoughts and their heritage.
Studio Noa: “We are guests of the woods”
Can forests be welcoming? When humans enter ‘without knocking’, do they breach the balance of nature? We asked Francesco Padovan, architect from Noa, the Bolzano-based firm behind many stylish and sensitive hotel projects set in nature.
Kengo Kuma: “Trees and human beings, towards a single entity”
The Japanese maestro calls on architecture to recover the relationship between humans and forest: one model is his installation Domino 3.0, presented at the Biennale in Venice, in which felled tree trunks and artificial intelligence work together to create an organic structure.
Arte e Ceramica
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.
Federico Tosi: Nature will not wait for us
An intensely provoking artist, always ready to work with no filters on the idea of Nature offended by human forgetfulness and prepared to fight back. Amidst apocalyptic visions and the search for resilience, Federico Tosi shines a spotlight on the need to listen to nature.
Meeting at Jorn’s House
A dialogue with Luca Bochicchio on artistic creation and research at Jorn’s House Museum, at the seaside in Albissola Marina. A place with a special energy, where artists have been meeting for over half a century. Still today it is a destination for international creative minds, who live it as both residence and place of inspiration.
Tommaso Corvi Mora, the happy foreigner
Tommaso Corvi Mora, of Italian origin, based on London with a contemporary art gallery (he too an artist), talks to us of the importance of feeling foreign, both in his gallery activities and as a creator.
Carpathia: in the wild heart of Europe
Design
Design after the storm
Rather than ending up in the landfill, the trees destroyed by Storm Vaia have been brought back to life as objects and furniture, avoiding the felling of healthy trees. Testimonials to this include the business venture of the Trentino-based start-up Vaia and other similar initiatives, especially in the collectible design sector.
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.
Julie & Jesse's global porcelain art
Designers and artists enamoured with porcelain, Julie Progin and Jesse Mc Lin met in New York and have lived in Hong Kong for almost twenty years. Here, borrowing from both Chinese and western traditions, they make unique pieces and experimental single series, testing the limits of ceramic matter.
Nifemi Marcus-Bello: the African road to design
The Nigerian designer who returned to Lagos after training in Europe is one of the key interpreters of the local creative scene. A firm believer of the special practical intelligence of Africa, he strives to enhance all things local, from culture to production techniques.
News
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.
Seeds of the future: 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.
Trees in books: the art of Xylogenesis
Only fifty-six of the hundred wooden books made in the 19th century by the gardener Eugenio Trevisan to classify trees have survived, and are kept at the University of Padua. Restored and on display to the public, these are the central focus of Xilogenesi, the project involving contemporary artists.
Communities in the making: the viewpoint of Mohamed Bourouissa
Constructed as tableaux vivants or based on found and recontextualised photographs, the works of the Algerian-born French artist on show at Fondazione MAST in Bologna as part of his largest solo exhibition ever put on in Italy bring communities back to the forefront, with all their problems and integrations.