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
“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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Celebrated architectural photographer Richard Bryant reveals how he captures the essence of the places he photographs. We discover how intuition and his architectural training have been key in shaping his approach to each project, informing the way we eventually perceive his work.
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.