Guest Editor: Tadashi Kawamata 

After having architect Marc Barani as guest editor in 2019 (AA No. 432), this year L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui chose to turn to an artist, Tadashi Kawamata. Inside as well as out, inside and outside, on the ground, in the sky…. His field of invention is all space. With AA, he chose to deal with the theme ‘parasite’, as his works evolve as organisms dependant on others ones, mainly the city.

“Kawamata’s work feeds on the existing but also,
as a feedback, changes the perception of it.
Isn’t this the way to read any constructed work?”

asks Emmanuelle Borne in her editorial.

This issue designed with the artist questions various forms of ‘parasites’ in the architecture field, from Ensamble‘s carved house in Menorca to Recetas Urbanas‘ prosthetic structures, not forgetting French architect Jean-Louis Chanéac‘s ‘parasitic cells’ in the 1970s. The ‘Viewpoints’ section features Charles Simonds’ work, Lang & Baumann’s installations in the urban space, and the words of a parasitologist, Jean-Lou Justine.

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Image credit: Tadashi Kawamata, Gandamaison, Versailles, 2008 © Photo. Laetitia Tura, La Maréchalerie. Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour Paris/London.