Articles by Romullo Baratto

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage we present Public Without Rhetoric the proposal for the Portuguese Pavilion. Below, curators Nuno Brandão Costa and Sérgio Mah describe their contribution in their own words.

The well-known saying “all roads lead to Rome” seems to be true, at least, that’s what the Moovel Lab team in Stuttgart, which is dedicated to urban mobility research, points out. Titled “Roads to Rome,” the project has mapped out over-land routes across Europe that converge to the city. 

Modern architecture has had many faces and developments, ranging from post-war reconstruction strategies in Europe to the International Style in the United States. One of these facets – perhaps the least glorious – are the social housing buildings of the eastern part of Europe, the results of initiatives by the Soviet regime to offer low-cost housing to the population. 

It’s not uncommon to happen upon works of architecture that resemble everyday objects. Sou Fujimoto even created an entire exhibition of “architecture” made of ashtrays, potato chips and matchboxes. Cheese graters, beehives and bottle openers appear to have been enlarged and given an architectural program (given the resemblance to their smaller counterparts). 

It is rare to find artists who can instigate critical reflection on architecture by combining references such as ‘The Red Wall’ (La Muralla Roja) by Ricardo Boffil, with the complex illustrations of Giovanni Battista Piranesi and pop culture icons. But Tishk Barzanji, a London artist, is one who does.

This year, ArchDaily marks our 10th anniversary as a global platform for architecture. In the past 10 years, we have democratized access to architecture and brought a daily dose of information, knowledge and inspiration to students and professionals.

Art, in general, is produced to be seen or experienced by another, an interlocutor, who, in turn, establishes various relationships with the work. However, this does not appear to be the case with the Bataan Chapel, built by the Swiss artist Not Vital in the Philippines.

Following up on their series of urban block flashcards, Spanish publisher a+t architecture publishers recently launched a new deck of cards featuring architecture that “promote[s] the compact city and the desirable dwelling.” Titled  50 Housing Floor Plans, this new version contains examples of recent collective living projects, featuring buildings constructed between 2000 and 20017. 

To avoid hyperrealistic renderings we have witnessed the emergence of other options for architectural representation which seduce the viewer, not for their overwhelming resemblance to reality but rather the opposite, its resemblance to everyday life’s textures presented through unpretentious drawings inspired by collage, watercolor, and painting. Digital collage and other similar representation tools have gained more popularity when discussing how architecture can be communicated. 

To avoid hyperrealistic renderings we have witnessed the emergence of other options for architectural representation which seduce the viewer, not for their overwhelming resemblance to reality but rather the opposite, its resemblance to everyday life’s textures presented through unpretentious drawings inspired by collage, watercolor, and painting. Digital collage and other similar representation tools have gained more popularity when discussing how architecture can be communicated.