December 23, 2008
One of the best-known symbols of modern London, the famous double-decker red bus Routemaster evolves and projects itself into the future.
The competition for the design of the new bus, announced by the Greater London Authority, has been won by a team made up of two other icons of the British world: Foster + Partners architecture and design firm and Aston Martin automobile manufacturer, the mythical auto of Agent 007.
The collaboration between Foster and Aston Martin has produced a vehicle which, though conceived for the streets of London, is proposed as a new standard for urban public service, and intends to offer the comfort of an auto and the liveability of a building, with wooden floors and leather seats.
It indeed devotes utmost attention to safety, in particular to driver total visibility, and the complete control of the vehicle via monitor and radio connection with headquarters. The bus will be particularly environmentally sensitive: zero emissions ready, equipped with solar cell panels on the glass roof to produce energy and, naturally, completely accessible by the mobility impaired.
The bus design also re-introduces the rear open access platform whose suppression in the latest models had aroused much disapproval among people.
We’ll see it in service as of 2011.
Lord Foster said: “This project has really captured my imagination. London’s buses are so much a part of the essence of this city – functionally, symbolically and geographically. They help us draw a mental map – their destinations are London’s historic places, often green: Shepherds Bush, Islington Green, Hampstead Heath, Green Park. Our design seeks to combine contemporary innovation with timelessness. Like the original Routemaster – which was ahead of its time and consequently endured – a new bus for London should establish a whole new travel experience that espouses 21st century aspirations, while celebrating the memory and the experience of the original.”

December 18, 2008
The commemorative 5 euro coin that Holland has minted as a tribute to its own architecture, is already in circulation. The “Holland and Architecture” competition, announced by the Ministry of Finance was won by Belgian architect and artist Stani Michiels.
Michiels has conceived a coin which on the front portrays the face of Queen Beatrix. Her royal countenance is drawn with the names of the principal Dutch architects written concentrically, playing with the depth of the fonts. The order of appearance was determined by the number of citations of the illustrious architects on Internet sites. Starting from the outermost circle, we can therefore read the names of Rem Koolhaas, Pierre Cuypers, Aldo van Eyck, Gerrit Rietveld, Ben van Berkel, Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Winy Maas, Erik van Egeraat, Wiel Arets....
The back of the coin depicts the ribs of the books that many of the architects on the front have written in the course of their activity. The volumes are depicted as buildings projected towards the sky and, at the centre of the coin, the resulting skyline draws the profile of the state of Holland. The birds in flight in this suggestive sky correspond to the major cities of the Dutch provinces.
Also a programmer in Python language, Stani Michiels did all of the graphics which led to the coin’s realisation, utilising free software.
A splendid specimen of graphics and an exemplary sign of the attention shown by a government for contemporary architecture where, and it is no coincidence, Holland has won a place of pre-eminence.

December 12, 2008
The Milan-Bologna tract of the Italian High-Speed Railway Network will be inaugurated tomorrow, thus enabling a great leap forward towards the completion of this powerful infrastructure. Once up and running full blast, it will become a sort of “high-speed underground” that, in very short time, will connect the major Italian cities (Milan-Bologna in just over an hour, Milan-Naples in 4 hours and 10 minutes) and the major European capitals.
The interest of the world of architect lies principally in the consequent realisation of the new train stations, including the reconstruction of already existing stations.
The design of these new poles of urban requalification – this is what the New Stations for High-Speed will become – have indeed been entrusted to some of the great names of world architecture: AREP in Turin, Santiago Calatrava in Reggio Emilia, Arata Isozaki in Bologna, Norman Foster in Florence, ABDR in Rome, and Zaha Hadid in Naples.
Bon voyage!

December 10, 2008
The 2009 AIA (American Institute of Architects) Gold Medal has been awarded to Australian architect Glenn Murcutt for the depth of his work and the great influence his works have had worldwide.
Born in London in 1926 (but 100% Australian), he has conducted his activity exclusively in Australia, and against the trend of gigantism of a lot of contemporary architecture. His principal works are indeed one-family houses, often built in isolated areas, characterised by a rigorous respect for the environment, and wonderfully integrated with the morphology and climate of the areas where they are sited.
He draws inspiration from the vernacular forms of his country, from the rigorous geometries of Mies van der Rohe, and from Alvar Aalto’s naturalistic Modernist revisions.
Already the recipient of the Pritzker Prize in 2002, Glen Murcutt will receive this award in the course of a ceremony which will be held in Washington D.C. in February.

October 7, 2008
The new Westside complex designed by Daniel Libeskind will be inaugurated tomorrow in Berne. This is the largest private investment ever made in Switzerland, and is expected to welcome 3,500,000 visitors a year, and to become a point of reference and attraction for the entire region.
Built covering part of the A1/E25 motorway, the building complex is proposed as a new gate of entry for those approaching the city from the west; its construction required two and a half years to complete and, in peak periods, employed up to 2,000 people a day.
The project is conceived as an integration between architecture and landscape, which reflects the soul of the Berne districts; the facades that look onto the countryside, on its western side, are faced with wood to create a point of encounter between the city and nature.
The complex’s backbone is a shopping centre, characterised by a “medieval-like” spatial complexity which fully adapts, however, to the demands of contemporary living. It includes 55 shops and 10 restaurant-bars. It is completed by a 114-room hotel, a residential complex for the elderly, composed of 95 apartments, a cineplex with 11 movie theatres, and a swimming-pool with wellness centre.

October 2, 2008
Renzo Piano has been awarded the Sonning Prize, one of the most prestigious cultural acknowledgements of Denmark. Instituted by author and publisher C.J. Sonning, the prize is awarded by the University of Copenhagen to a person who has contributed, with his work, to promoting European culture.
The prize was awarded for the first time in 1950 to Sir Winston Churchill, and since then has been assigned 30 times more to various personalities in different areas of the world of culture. Awardees include philosophers Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper, actors Sir Laurence Olivier and Dario Fo, directors Ingmar Bergman and Krzysztof Kieslowski, writer Simone de Beauvoir.
To date, only two other architects have been awarded this prestigious acknowledgement: Alvar Aalto in 1962 and Jørn Utzon in 1998.
The Sonning Prize, which amounts to 1,000,000 Danish crowns (approximately 134,000 euros), was presented to Renzo Piano in the Ceremony Hall of the University of Copenhagen.

Septmber 23, 2008
Diego and Andrea Della Valle have presented the project for the construction of a multipurpose area that will become a veritable “football city”. The project’s catalysing element is the new stadium for the Fiorentina Football Club, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas and destined to replace the glorious “Artemio Franchi” stadium, designed by Pier Luigi Nervi and restored  by Italo Gamberini and Loris G. Macci for the 1990 World Cup. The stadium will be characterised by transparent roofing, which will envelop it like a cloud.
There are other novelties, too, though. The new installation will indeed host a theme park on football where, thanks to the latest-generation technologies, football lovers will find themselves in a sort of “wonderland”.
There will also be a “downtown”, where the city’s tradesmen will be able to “replicate” their activities, a museum of modern art, hotels, shopping centre, and sports facilities. And all this immersed in greenery and traversed by waterways, in the wake of what has always been the goal of the Della Valle family: to bring families back to stadiums, eliminating the fringe of violent supporters.
The entirely private project is promoted by the “Fondazione Viola”, which from the management of the complex will draw the profits to take the Fiorentina to the top level, thus inaugurating a new management model for sports clubs. The site of the installation will be at Castello, to the north of Florence: the entire park will have an extension of some 80 hectares, and the stadium will have a capacity of some 40-50,000 spectators.
A great opportunity for Florence of the future, promoted by a company that as already displayed a marked sensitivity towards quality architecture, entrusting the design of the Tod’s headquarters of Tokyo to Toyo Ito.

September 22, 2008
The Minister for Cultural Properties and Activities, Sandro Bondi, is drafting a bill on the quality of architecture and town-planning of urban areas and the territory. Its main objectives are to stimulate the use of architecture competitions for designing new public works, not limiting participation to architect-stars, and instead opening up to young professionals by means of greater transparency in assigning projects and, especially, privileging the evaluation of project merit. The final goal is to bring the Italian quality standards in line with those of Europe.
The good news doesn’t stop here, though: at its web site, the MiBAC (Ministry for Cultural Properties and Activities) solicits observations and suggestions to improve the bill from those parties that deal with these issues every day.

» For details and information

May 5, 2008
The 11th International Architecture Exhibition entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, directed by Aaron Betsky and organised by La Biennale di Venezia presided over by Paolo Baratta, will take place in Venice from Sunday, September 14th to Sunday, November 23rd 2008.
According to Aaron Betsky –for six years director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam, one of the most prestigious museums and architecture centres in the world, and from last year Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum– the 11th Architecture Biennale, entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, “will point the way towards an architecture liberated from buildings to engage the central issues of our society; instead of the tombs of architecture, which is to say buildings, it will present site specific installations, visions and experiments that help us figure out, make sense of and feel at home in our modern world.”
The beginning of the Corderie of Arsenale will present Hall of Fragments, by David Rockwell with Casey Jones + Reed Kroloff. An architecture before building in the form selections of science fiction films that once showed us what our world would look like, as well as historical films that recreated older worlds, will be projected on screens. The Corderie will present large-scale site specific Installations, that will ask the question how we can be at home in the modern world. These Installations will be accompanied by Manifestos for an architecture beyond building. These Manifestos will both be spoken on large video screens and printed. Participants will include: Diller Scofidio+Renfro, UN Studio, Massimiliano Fuksas, Nigel Coates, Droog Design, Philippe Rahm, M-A-D, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vicente Guallart, Zaha Hadid, An Te Liu, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Penezič and Rogina, Asymptote, Atelier Bow Wow, Barkow Leibinger Architects, Frank O. Gehry, Matthew Ritchie in collaboration with Aranda/Lasch and Daniel Bosia/ARUP AGU, Kramervanderveer, and Thonik. Continuing this theme, a modern-day yurt from Kazakhstan by Totan Kuzembaev and a “paradise garden” by Kathryn Gustafson will continue this line of installations through the remainder of the Arsenale.
While the Arsenale will map out the fragments and figments before and after architecture, in the Padiglione Italia at Giardini, the work of experimental architecture that in themselves move beyond building will be on display. A survey of experimental architecture Experimental Architecture in collaboration with Emiliano Gandolfi will show the work firms from around the world who are engaged in such work. This survey will be anchored by small monographic shows on firms whose work has been based on such experimentation: Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Morphosis, Madelon Vriesendorp, Zaha Hadid, and Coop Himmelb(l)au.

August 6, 2008
To mark Jørn Utzon’s 90th year the newly opened Utzon Center, in collaboration with Aalborg University will be holding the Second International Utzon Symposium on the theme “Poetics of Construction”, to be held at the newly constructed Utzon Center and Alvar Aalto’s Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum in Aalborg. This symposium will present and discuss current developments within contemporary architecture, as a continuation of the inspiration and principles previously developed in the work of Jørn Utzon.
The Second International Utzon Symposium will bring together internationally renowned architects, Rafael Moneo, Gerard Reinmuth (terroir), Matti Sanaksenaho, Enrique Sobejano, Lene Tranberg, Richard Weston and Alejandro Zaera-Polo (Foreign Office Architects).
The symposium will take place on the 4th September 2008 and will be held at Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum (Museum of Art, Northern Jutland) and the Utzon Center, Aalborg.

» For details and information

August 4, 2008
Liesbeth van der Pol will take up the post of Chief Government Architect (Rijksbouwmeester) on 15 August 2008. She will succeed Mels Crouwel who is resigning after nearly four years. Her appointment is for a period of three years. She will fulfil her appointment part time and will remain associated with Dok Architekten in Amsterdam.
As Chief Government Architect, Liesbeth van der Pol is the primary advisor to the director-general of the Government Buildings Agency (Rijksgebouwendienst - RGD) and the minister of Housing, Districts and Integration (WWI) for the policy on Government Accommodation. The Chief Government Architect promotes and watches over the architectural quality and urban positioning of government buildings, such as courthouses, prisons, government museums and ministry buildings. The Chief Government Architect is also the Chair of the Board of Government Advisors, which advises the government on issues related to architecture, landscape architecture, infrastructure and cultural heritage.

July 3, 2008
Foster + Partners presented designs for a new waterfront development in Rimini. Revealed at a public presentation to the City last week, the proposal is designed to strengthen the relationship between the town centre and the seafront and to create a year-round attraction for an international tourist industry.
The scheme comprises a new seafront promenade with a mix of related activities and public spaces including a hotel tower, which will extend Rimini’s historic beach culture and continue the existing urban grain. The project celebrates Rimini’s tradition of green boulevards, best characterised by the Via Vespucci. The waterfront will be pedestrianised at certain times and will link directly to a linear public park – or green spine – which will provide much needed shade during the hotter months. This currently links the seafront to the historic city and will be enhanced with improved connections to the new promenade area.
A new hotel tower includes space for a Fellini film museum at its base. Its curving form anchors the wider project, while the building extends out to sea along a new 300m long pier, continuing the dialogue between the city and the water and referring to Rimini’s tradition of piers.
The scheme will use new technologies, such as rainwater collection and photovoltaics, to establish a long-term, sustainable commercial and environmental strategy for the town that is balanced with its rejuvenation in the short-term.

June 28, 2008
During the UIA World Congress of Architecture, Turin 2008, parallel events and initiatives will be held, the Off Congress Official Events: this will prolong the impact of the congress on the culture of architecture in Turin. The exhibition "Ferrari architecture in Maranello - The "Formula Uomo" program between aesthetic values and sustainability” will be held at the Automobile Museum in Turin and it's part of the Architecture Flows way, as a stop along the river Po, linking the Lingotto, seat of the Congress, to the city centre.
Through photos, sketches, samples and projects, the exhibition, organized by Architect Marco Visconti, recounts how the agency of important architects, such as Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, Massimiliano Fuksas, Luigi Sturchio, and Marco Visconti, realized the will of a purchaser like Ferrari, focused on human, cultural and environmental values.
The buildings reflect the most salient Ferrari features: extraordinary dynamism, high technological content and the peerless allure of the Maranello "Reds".

Torino Esposizioni, Padiglione Giovanni Agnelli
Corso Massimo D’Azeglio, 15 - Torino
30 June - 17 August 2008

June 27, 2008
The Board of the Foundation La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, gathered today in the offices of Palazzo Querini Dubois, and on the proposal of the Director, Aaron Betsky, attributed the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 11th International Architecture Exhibition to Frank Gehry. With this award, the desire is to stress –in line with the spirit of the 11th Architecture Biennale– how much Gehry’s work is the significant result of years of experimentation. “Frank Gehry has transformed modern architecture”; writes Aaron Betsky in his motivation. “He has liberated it from the confines of the ‘box’ and the constraints of common building practices. As experimental as the art practices that have been his inspiration, Frank Gehry’s architecture is the very modern model for an architecture beyond building”.
The Board has also underlined the important presence Gehry will have in Venice with his Venice Gateway, the water gate linking the city to the airport.

June 27, 2008
After hosting the Olympic Games, Turin is about to play a central role at international level once again. Indeed, following a period dedicated to physical competition, it’s now time for an intellectual, scientific and cultural event. Between June 29th and July 3rd 2008 the XXIII edition of the World Congress of Architecture, promoted by the UIA (International Union of Architects), will be taking place here. The event, which dates back to 1948 and represents both the state of the art and the debate on the future of world Architecture in the 21st century, within an increasingly complex and global society, will be taking place in Italian city for the first time.
Indeed, following Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin and Istanbul, Turin, a city that is constantly undergoing change and transformation, will be hosting the world event that every three years brings together thousands of architects and students to discuss subjects concerning architecture’s perspectives in relation to great social and cultural issues of the moment.
The topic chosen for the 2008 congress is particularly ambitious and stimulating: Transmitting Architecture, in other words the strength and ability architecture has of expressing and communicating values, feelings and diverse cultures through time.
It’s a title enclosing two meanings: architecture communicates its social and design action, but at the same time, gathers the positive energy and emerging phenomena expressed by society. It’s important for the values transmitted to be given recognition, not just appreciation for what it produces.
The event takes place at the Congress Centre Lingotto in Turin and at the Palavela.

June 23, 2008
Foster + Partners successfully built a conical structure, interwoven with fabric panels hand-printed by the public to kick off the Kensington and Chelsea hub of the London Festival of Architecture on 21 June.
A focal point of the Exhibition Road Festival, the tensile structure was hauled into place with a tug-of-war rope by the public at 2pm. More than 4,000 visitors walked through the ten metre-high structure in the afternoon and enjoyed its sound installation by Bill Fontana.
Overall turnout on the day was high – more than 30,000 visitors were reported at the event.

June 19, 2008
Tomorrow is the inauguration of The London Festival of Architecture 2008, a celebration and exploration of the city's buildings, streets and spaces.
The Festival runs from 20 June – 20 July and includes street installations, exhibitions, guided walks, cycle rides, boat tours of the city's river and canals, parties, design workshops, debates, breakfast talks, and weekend street markets.
Headline events include lectures by leading international architects David Chipperfield, Daniel Libeskind, Cesar Pelli and Rem Koolhaas and by LFA President, Peter Ackroyd as well as Big Breakfasts at spectacular venues such as the British Museum, with speakers including Jon Snow and Janet Street-Porter sharing their views of London.
Over twenty-five international embassies are exhibiting architecture from their particular countries, and a dozen temporary installations will occupy streets across the city as part of the National Architecture Student Festival.

» For details and information

June 6, 2008
Tomorrow begin the European Soccer Championships 2008. Theatre of the inaugural game, between Switzerland and the Czech Republic, will be the St. Jakob Stadium of Basel, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, built in 2001, and enlarged last year, precisely in view of this event.
And it will be an exceptional theatre, considering that the two great Swiss architects have designed a structure capable of setting off an osmotic reaction that involves architecture and its function.
The structure casing consists of a series of “cupolas” made of white polycarbonate (transparent), which react to the events that occur inside the stadium. The sports event dynamic is thus “recounted” on the outside in real time: with each goal, the casing turns red, transforming the stadium into a great pulsating heart.
St. Jakob-Park can be considered as the forefather of the Allianz Arena of Munich, also designed by the Herzog & de Meuron Studio, and venue of the inaugural game of the World Soccer Championships 2006.
The stadium will be the most important venue of these championships in Switzerland, organised by Switzerland and Austria. It will indeed also host the two games of the quarter-finals and a semi-final, before the conclusion with the final in Vienna.

May 20, 2008
Norman Foster has been named ‘Britain’s Best 2008’ for ‘his ground-breaking designs around the world’. Accepting the award by video link to a ceremony attended by Gordon Brown, he beat stiff competition from J K Rowling, Damien Hirst and ‘Atonement’ Director, Joe Wright to win the Arts category.
There were seven award categories in total, with one award presented in each to ‘honour those that have achieved the highest level of international acclaim in their chosen fields over the past twelve months’. The panel of judges featured Lord Coe and Marks & Spencer Chief Executive, Sir Stuart Rose.
Norman Foster said: "I'm absolutely delighted to accept this prestigious award. It is wonderful for our team, which is spread around the world, to receive such recognition for our global achievements."
In 2007 Foster + Partners celebrated its fortieth anniversary and greatly extended its international reach. With a staff of 1,250 and a talented team from more than fifty nations, the practice is now working across five continents, with offices in 20 cities worldwide.
During this period, the practice completed several major international projects, including Beijing International Airport Terminal 3, the world’s largest covered structure, the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard for the Smithsonian Institution, as well as Wembley Stadium, closer to home.

May 16, 2008
The doors of Villa Celestina in Castiglioncello reopen tomorrow. An important example of Italian Rationalism, the villa occupies a splendid position, facing the sea, between the pine forest and the cliffs. The building owes its current form to architect Vittorio Cafiero from Rome, one of the most prestigious names of his epoch. The decline of Villa Celestina, which reduced it to a state of near decrepitude, had begun in the 80s when, following various functional destinations, it was closed for safety reasons. In 1998, the State Property Administration granted the structure to the Commune of Rosignano Marittimo which began restoration, thanks to a joint agreement with the University of Pisa and the Ministry of the Environment.
The premises of the first and second basement floors will be destined to the Laboratory of Ecology and Marine Biology, which will become a veritable detached headquarters of the Department of Biology of the University of Pisa. Direct access to the sea indeed makes the building particularly suited for the research activity that will be conducted there.
The premises of the elevated floor will instead continue to be used by the Commune of Rosignano Marittimo which will set up a Centre for Environmental Education and organise courses, small conferences and other public events.

May 14, 2008
Foster + Partners has completed a new UK headquarters for Willis at 51 Lime Street in the City of London. The project is significant in both urban and environmental terms. Open and integrated at street level, its shops and cafés extend the spirit of nearby Leadenhall Market; and its progressive environmental strategy surpasses statutory carbon reduction targets by more than 20 per cent.
The development comprises two separate buildings which step down to a public plaza. Located to the east of the Lloyd’s Building, the 9-storey building at 1 Fenchurch Street responds to the smaller scale of Billiter Street and Fenchurch Avenue, while the 28-storey Willis Building rises to the west of the site. The smaller building’s concave façade shapes the plaza and its curved corners maintain important view corridors, as well as reinstating an historic route through the site. A fringe of shops, cafés and bars at its base together with linear seating and landscaping, combine to enhance the public realm.
Norman Foster said: "Thirty years ago we worked with Willis to challenge the conventions of an office building. Today, we are delighted to have completed their new UK headquarters at 51 Lime Street. A collaboration with both Willis and British Land, this building has come out of a very different design process, yet continues the practice’s commitment to developing humane, flexible and dynamic workplaces that are both informed by, and woven into, the urban fabric."

Jean Nouvel of Paris, France has been chosen as the 2008 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor will be held on June 2 in Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress. At that time, a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion will be bestowed on the 62-year old architect.
Nouvel who came to international attention with the completion of his Institut du Monde Arabe (usually referred to as IMA) in 1987 as one of President Francois Mitterand’s Grands Travaux in Paris, now has several projects in the United States, including the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis completed in 2006, a 75-story tower (Tour Verre) next door to MOMA in New York, and recently announced plans for a high rise condominium (Suncal Tower) in the Century City district of Los Angeles. In Europe, some of his other important works are the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art (Paris 1994), the Branly Museum (Paris 2006), the Agbar Tower (Barcelona 2005), a Courthouse (Nantes 2000), a Cultural and Conference Center (Lucerne 2000), an Opera House (Lyon 1993), and Expo 2002 (Switzerland). Also currently under construction is a concert hall in Copenhagen.
In announcing the jury’s choice, Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, quoted from the jury citation, “Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel, foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field.” And further, Pritzker added, “The jury acknowledged the ‘persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation’ as qualities abundant in Nouvel’s work.”

February 20, 2008
The intuition, dynamism and creative ingenuity of world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind is the subject of a new exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, curated by art historian Cynthia Goodman and Studio Daniel Libeskind. The CAC exhibition moves architectural designs beyond constructive forms to the realm of creative acts as illustrated by Libeskind, the architect of the nearly completed residential project, The Ascent at Roebling’s Bridge in Covington, Kentucky, near Cincinnati (Ohio).
This exhibition brings together represented by three independent, but related structures and allowing for an interactive relationship between the visitor and architecture. Images of Libeskind’s first North American high-rise project, the Ascent, as well as the aforementioned projects, are on view.
Exhibition dates: Saturday, February 23 – Sunday, May 11, 2008

» For details and information

With the realisation of the new hospital-university centre, located in the modern part of the city, greater access will be afforded to the buildings and premises of the Santa Chiara area that since 1257 have housed the hospital complex and the university clinics.
The area measures more than 10 hectares and is located near the extraordinary world heritage site of the Piazza dei Miracoli with the Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and Baptistery.
The international competition to redo the area, returning it to the citizens of Pisa and the world, was won by the British studio David Chipperfield Architects. Now, in view of presenting the project guidelines, Felici Editore, Locus magazine and the City of Pisa have promoted a conference that will be held on Friday, November 30, at 4.30 pm at Pisa’s Stazione Leopolda.
The proceedings will be opened by Giuseppe Sardu (Chairman of the Department of Town Planning of the City of Pisa) and Cristiana Torti (editor of Locus magazine); speakers will be: Mario Pasqualetti (City of Pisa and Jury Foreman), Nicoletta Novelli (Editor of Architectour.net), Massimo Dringoli (University of Pisa and jury member), Fabrizio Rossi Prodi (University of Florence), Domenico Taddei (University of Pisa), Riccardo Ciuti (Locus editorial staff).
The conference minutes will be published in a special issue of Locus magazine.

Kisho Kurokawa, one of the greatest exponents of contemporary architecture, has died in Tokyo at the age of 73 from a heart attack.
A student of Kenzo Tange, in the 1960s he was one of the youngest founders of the Metabolist Movement, which sprang from the desire to promote an architecture that would follow the rapid growth of Japanese cities. This theory distinguished many of his works and is characterised by a structural basis inspired by DNA cells or other, similar structures.
The Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo (in the photo) remains perhaps his most famous work, known also to non experts.