a+u Architecture and Urbanism 21:10_613

In Stores Now! Price (Outside Japan): ¥3,000 + Shipping Publisher: A+U Publishing Co., Ltd. Distributor: Shinkenchiku-sha Co., Ltd. Kasumigaseki Building 17F, 3-2-5, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-6017, Japan Tel: +81-3-6205-4380 Fax: +81-3-6205-4386 E-mail: ja-business@japan-architect.co.jp URL: au-magazine.com Tel: 03-6205-4384 03-6455-5597 Fax: 03-6205-4387 E-mail: au@japan-architect.co.jp URL: japan-architect.co.jp Introduction: What Does Science Mean to Architects? Yuji Yoshimura Louvre Network Analysis Essay: Ildefons Cerdà Eric Mumford Making Sense, Pilot Projects at Plaça del Sol Decidim. Barcelona: Participatory Budget Essay: “Nervous System” of the City Council Institut Municipal d’Informàtica (IMI) 48h Open House Barcelona 2020 Mercè Geographies of the Lockdown Nocturnal Landscapes Ciutat Vella Land-Use Plan Air/Aria/Aire Essay: Commons, Health, and Livability: The Crisis of the Barcelona Model Mar Santamaria-Varas, Pablo Martinez-Diez Superblock Essay: The Clock, the Plow, and the Polygraph Jesse Reiser TreesCount! 2015–2016 Biobot CityScope Essay: Tange as Urban Scientist Seng Kuan General Transit Feed Specification Japan (GTFS-JP) PLATEAU Quantification of Urban Aesthetics A Plan for Tokyo, 2020: Five Purr-fect Points…

a+u’s October issue features 18 projects, ranging from private residences to urban plazas, by architect Marie-José Van Hee, whose practice is based in Ghent, Belgium. Guest editor Hera Van Sande notes how Van Hee’s buildings “blend in with their environment as if they have always been there” and her “architectural spaces evoke repose, reflection, serenity, silence.” Working almost entirely in Flanders, Van Hee creates architectural works that are intensely personal, as an extension of her aesthetic passion, which also encompasses cooking, literature, and fashion. The projects presented here all begin with an aerial photograph of the broader site context alongside Van Hee’s sketches. These sketches, or rather black drawings, are layers of pencil lines drawn on top of each other. They communicate the architectural images that Van Hee visualizes as…

Rock Paper Scissors The hand game rock paper scissors1 is an appropriate method for impartial selection, like drawing straws, flipping a coin, or throwing dice to settle disputes or make unbiased group decisions. As architects, we constantly make choices, and making a long sequence of them results in a far more complex game, bringing together the desires and wishes of those commissioning a project2 with those of the architect – not to mention various other stakeholders. Each decision can lead in a different direction, making the track leading up to the (un)realized design as interesting as the final result, as suggested by the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy.3 Life deals one a hand; the rest is perseverance, assertion, a great deal of energy, humor, and luck. Architect Marie-José Van Hee prefers to look…

“Sketching is the start point of architecture – the beginning of a story. It starts with lines and spaces in my mind – it’s just an imaginary world. I’m thinking about volume, but at a certain moment it needs to be drawn because it gets more and more precise.” MJVH A farmyard with an orchard, moat, and 19th-century barn formed the starting point for this commission. According to the guidelines, a free solitary volume could be added, with the restriction of a maximum volume of 825 m3. The new building, with its vertical “tower,” acts as a counterpoint to the existing horizontal barn on the estate. Its inspiration draws upon the figure of a vertical dovecote. Located in a corner of the land, it opens up toward the entire garden from…

“I never make presentation drawings. Nor do I make models – except now and then for a client. And if my office staff insist, I let them make models. As a designer, I mainly draw plans, using one sheet of paper and adding layer upon layer on the plan sketch, continually correcting and adjusting the lines, until they dissolve into a dark cloud. Then I erase most of them, to return to the correct one. I sometimes add a new sheet to draw an appropriate section or another floor, but I often also draw one floor simultaneously with the other on the same sheet. When I draw, I imagine the spatial consequences of the lines that I put on paper. Now and then I make small perspective sketches, both for…

“My desire is to create buildings that go unnoticed, that don’t stand out when seen from a distance. They should blend in with the city or the landscape, both in silhouette and materials. Only when you come closer, when you approach the building, might you notice some specific materials and their treatment, or some special details and a refinement in the detailing.” MJVH This small house for 4, situated on an 8-by-14 plot in the heart of Ghent’s Prinsenhof neighborhood, makes a generous gesture to the narrow alleyway in front of it. The public street seems to widen on the site and link to the garden in the back in one fluid movement through a narrow passage, while the front courtyard houses some bikes and potted plants and allows passersby to…