The Same Something for Everyone

Artists Redefining Black Identity

by Valerio Olgiati

Wernicke documents with subtle grace the close bonds between two young women and the farm animals that they rescue, love, play with and care for, in a series mixing German romanticism and modern ethics.

Theorien und Projekte im Städtebau seit dem Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts

This issue of ‘El Croquis’ features the iconic works of Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. Spanning 2015–2023, the volume presents a wide range of projects such as the Abade Pedrosa Municipal Museum; the tourist complex in São Lourenço do Barrocal; the Doz Tua Dam hydroelectric power plant; the Colinas do Douro and Casa Sarmento wineries; the Alcobaça Monastery; and many more. Also included is the biography of Souto de Moura, as well as a conversation with him by Inmaculada Maluenda and Enrique Encabo. The architect opened his own office in 1980 and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, most notably the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2011.

Over the last five years, Norwegian artist Fin Serck-Hanssen followed and documented the gender confirming journey of close friend Hedda, who from her early twenties travelled from Oslo to Buenos Aires and Bangkok to undergo cosmetic surgeries and a vaginoplasty. Serck-Hanssen and Hedda’s images are made collaboratively to build a complex portrait of both physical and psychological changes within a young person’s life and show with unflinching honesty the realities of Hedda’s confirming, surgeries, and recovery. Hedda reflects on the construction of identity in the 21st century, mixing her selfies and curation of an online identity against Serck-Hanssen’s tender but direct portraiture of her most vulnerable moments. The book also bears traces of this identity being shaped: dark, almost imperceptible images, heavy with overprinted black ink, show the traces of photographs of that Hedda chose not to disclose of herself. Hedda finishes with an immersive short fictional story by novelist Genevieve Hudson, exploring ideas of ambiguity, transition and change.

Munich - Urbanity and Complexity

Mode - Fetisch - Fantasie

Photographs by Walter Pfeiffer, Design by Matteo Thun

Tradition - Material - Handwerk. Ein Handbuch

Geträumt, geplant, gebaut - Die neue Heimat der ZSC Lions

Wood is simply a clever material in a climate crisis – but that is not it – wood is a living material and so are we, and there is a special relationship between the human body and the material. While technological developments make this low-tech material the most digitalized and energy efficient to build with, wood’s naturally smart properties offer healthy interiors, low-maintenance exteriors, and spaces for happy lives? ”Vandkunsten Wood” features nine recent wood-based projects by renowned Danish architecture studio Vandkunsten Architects who have shaped the contemporary use of wood in Nordic architecture over five decades. Projects include the flexible housing at Lisbjerg Bakke, the Arctic House in Greenland, and Senior Cohousing at Diakonissestiftelsen.

Unseen Colour

Architecture and Storytelling in Times of Heat

Strategien zum Bauen im Lärm aus Forschung, Lehre und Praxis