“Architecture and …” One day we realised that we, as editors of this architectural review, are primarily interested in architecture – yet we hardly ever address it in this clarity. Architecture is what we want to write and think about. Architecture is what we want to change, improve, is what we feel responsible for. Neither do we fully agree with the idea of an autonomous discipline, nor are we interested only in the digital, in material, in drawings and images – unless it establishes an intensive relationship with architecture or bears the potential of becoming architecture.

We are looking for new impulses that extrapolate the path of architecture. At the same time we feel a constant need to add something to architecture or to ­isolate elements – „Architecture and art“, „Architecture and biology“, „Architecture and Alcohol“, „Architecture and Engineering“. Alternatively, we reduce the theme to just an element of architecture as if it was possible to consider these independently.

Having observed this paradox we decided to emphasise our interest in ­ARCHITECTURE and help curing the profession’s serious lack of self-confidence by envisioning an issue just about ARCHITECTURE.
Is this the ultimate issue then? At least we are going to examine our profession comprehensively, thereby working against the accelerating divergence of specialisation.

We are observing a conservative tendency, which rigorously attempts to maintain the notion of a discipline to counter the challenges we are confronted with after two decades of rapid globalisation. But can this return to a classical, eurocentric understanding of architecture stop the reality we are faced with? Or does it simply create an illusion, one that tries to hide progress, the power of change, as we have observed at this year’s Venice Biennale?

Looking at the masterpieces might help. They make us realise that architecture touches us, has a recognisable power of other sources than the architect’s dream of world domination. This points to the close, even sensual relationship between the human being and architecture leading to its social dimension, without which architecture ultimately loses its legitimacy.

An examination of poor performance, cold-heartedly revealing the systemic faults, can help, too. Furthermore, different notions and categories as well as the art of designing will be disected. The latter raises the question of the distinction between architecture and building. That said, who and what then belongs to the profession of architecture? And what role does academia and education play in the contemporary game of delimitation? Is teaching architecture to the young generations an anticipation of the future? Or will we find it at opposite ends? archithese asks what architecture is and what it might be. Where does architecture start and where does it end?
The editors

04 Editorial

Architektur Aktuell
12 Ich baue um der Architektur Willen. Zur Restaurierung des Hauses Tugendhat | Carsten Krohn
20 OSWALD 1138. Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart von Eun Young Yi | Hannes Mayer

Architektur
24 Polar-Expedition. Der jüngste Pendelschwung in der Architektur | Hannes Mayer
28 «Yes, Anna, there is a Santa Claus» | Jacques Blumer
30 Es lebe der Widerstand. Luigi Snozzi
33 Architettura e Spazio Sacro. Mario Botta
34 Truman Show. Oder: Das Vermeintliche der Schweiz | Georg Vrachliotis
38 Georgia Miracle. Architektur der modernen Seidenstrasse | Steffen Hägele und Moritz Hörnle
44 Ohne Modus keine Architektur | Benedikt Boucsein
45 Der Auftrag | Hannes Stiefel
46 Under Tomorrow’s Sky. A fictional city of the future | Liam Young
50 To See with Innocence. Approaching the unknown from the common
Yvonne Farrell, Shelley McNamara
52 Peplos. The Dissimulating Façade | Niall McLaughlin
58 «Man sollte die Zeit viel besser nutzen.» | Hubertus Adam und Hannes Mayer im Gespräch mit Alex Brotzer
62 Die gesellschaftliche Dimension. Fragen zum Selbstverständnis von Entwerfenden | Christian Gänshirt
68 Die architektonische Formung des Menschen. Erlösungsarchitekturen und Verdammungs­architekturen | Michael Hirschbichler
72 Isla en la Isla. Die Insel einer Insel | Markus Lüscher
74 Don Camillo, Peppone & Partner. Über autonome und absolute Architektur | Stephan Trüby
78 Das architektonische Projekt. Bildung und Kultur am Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (New York, 1967 bis 1985) | Kim Förster
86 Rückblick und Ausblick. Anmerkungen nach 15 Jahren archithese | Hubertus Adam

Rubriken
90 «Was ist Architektur?» 6. Architekturgespräch in Einsiedeln | Steffen Hägele
92 fsai
96 Das Mansion am Südpol. Ein Bühnenbild von Anna Viebrock | Hubertus Adam
100 Neues aus der Industrie
108 Jahresregister
110 Lieferbare Hefte
112 Vorschau und Impressum