'A'A' SELECTION
STEVEN HOLL, A graduate from the university of Washington, Steven HOLL is one of the most influential contemporary American architects. He created his office in New York in 1976 and has been teaching at Columbia University since 1981. In 2001, Time Magazine named him as America's best architect.
For Steven HOLL, architecture is a singular process in which the concept defines the design. To achieve it, he does watercolours, founding visions of all his buildings. Poetic creations that play with codes and ideas.
An interview by John Gendall
Photos by Iwan Baan and Shu He
AA 391 – FOCUS section
'A'A' SELECTION
2A+P/A, NARRATIVE GRAMMAR
Rediscovering the basics rather than turning the discipline upside-down. The Italian duo 2A+P/A gives the language of architecture its imprimatur, re-interpreting precedents and creating a dialogue between concepts. Their still young production has hatched their school in Afghanistan and interesting ephemeral installation.
A portrait by Alexandre Labasse
Photos by Antonio Ottomanelli and Giovanna Silva
AA 391 – ÉMERGENCE section
'A'A' SELECTION
SITU STUDIO, SITU FABRICATION
The young designers of Situ Studio and Situ Fabrication, in Brooklyn, gaily go from an idea to its concrete expression, from the spirit to the material, without anything halfway. a rare combination which has opened many fields of application: architecture, museography, scientific prospective studies, etc.
A feature by Rafaël Magrou
Photos by Keith Sirchio
AA 391 – DESIGN section
LA SELECTION D'A'A'
MASDAR CITY,Whipped by torrid desert winds, Masdar is a city-laboratory with “zero carbon emissions” a stone’s throw from Abu Dhabi. Transport, energy, buildings... Its designers, including Foster+Partners, are experimenting with solutions that sometimes almost resemble science fiction.
A report by Jonathan Glancey
Photos by Adrien Buchet and Roland Halbe
AA 391 – CHANTIER section
'A'A' SELECTION
MICHEL DESVIGNE
Michel DESVIGNE, a landscape designer by training, crops up everywhere in France: with some hundred creations, he worked in Marseille, Lyon Confluence and today Lille, Lens, Saclay and Bordeaux. Awarded the Grand Prix de l’urbanisme in 2011, his practice looks after our metropolises and their neglected public spaces.
His work fits together the scales of territories, from exaggerating geography to prototype gardens. And also takes into account time, the unavoidable instrument of a discipline of patience. 'A'A' met him in his agency to discuss his latest projects and make an inventory of his glossary.
An interview by Fanny Léglise and Dany Sautot
AA 391 – URBANISME section
'A'A' SELECTION
MESCHAC GABA, IRONIC MUSEUM Kitsch, subversive, ironic, the Benin artist Meschac GABA drives our cultural paradoxes into a corner. This champion of contemporary African art open to the city explodes the traditional museum space and plays with post-colonial history as well as the complex processes of cultural hybridization. What results is a bracing practice and works of energy-filled beauty.
A portrait by Régis Durand
Meschac Gaba (Cotonou, Benin, 1951) is represented in Paris by the In Situ gallery / Fabienne Leclerc.
AA 391 – ART section
'A'A' SELECTION
BACK FROM DOHA
The temptation of the large city is fully incarnated here. In the middle of the desert, Doha unfolds its vertically, like a sudden mirage of a hyper-dense urbanity.
A travel diary by Lahlou Khélifi
Photos by Roberto Frankenberg
AA 391 – RETOUR DE section
'A'A' SELECTION
ENSAM, To assert its identity and stand out among the 20 French écoles nationales supérieures d’architecture, Montpellier is developing a theme-based approach focusing on specific regional features. With two master’s courses, Southern metropolises and Architectures and environments, its teaching staff are taking a critical stance with regard to standardized architecture.
An immersion into the school with Marie-Douce Albert
AA 391 – ECOLE section
A graduate from the university of Washington, Steven HOLL is one of the most influential contemporary American architects. He created his office in New York in 1976 and has been teaching at Columbia University since 1981. In 2001, Time Magazine named him as America's best architect.
For Steven HOLL, architecture is a singular process in which the concept defines the design. To achieve it, he does watercolours, founding visions of all his buildings. Poetic creations that play with codes and ideas.
An interview by John Gendall
Photos by Iwan Baan and Shu He
AA 391 – FOCUS section
