Mohsen Mostafavi – författare

British architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (approx.1661 - 1736) is recognized as one of the major contributors to the traditions of British and European architectural culture. Nevertheless, there is insufficient visual documentation and analysis of his work. Nicholas Hawksmoor: Seven Churches for London reconsiders his architecture in relation to urbanism. The publication focuses on a series of important London churches the architect designed during the early part of the eighteenth century. The key distinguishing features of these churches are their spires, each designed with different qualities and motifs. While Hawksmoor was inspired by the ancient history of architecture, his work was considered radical and contemporary in its day. Photographer Helene Binet was specially commissioned to document the various aspects of the seven remaining London churches. Her immaculate black and white photographs demonstrate the beauty of Hawksmoor's architecture with special attention to the variety of scales, sites, interiors, textures, and materials

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established by His Highness the Aga Khan in 1977 to identify and encourage excellence in architecture and other forms of intervention in the built environment of societies with a Muslim presence. The award is given every three years and recognizes all types of building projects that affect today's built environment. Smaller projects are given equal consideration as large-scale buildings. Richly illustrated and with explanatory texts, the book presents this year's shortlist and the award recipients. This year's topic is centered around the relationship between life and architecture. Numerous essays examine how architecture interacts with the life of people who inhabit it.

Is democracy spatial? How are the physical aspects of our cities, houses, streets, and public spaces - the borders, the neighborhoods, the monuments - bearers of our values? In a world of intensifying geo-economic integration, extreme fi nancial and geopolitical volatility, deepening environmental crises, and a dramatic new wave of popular protest against both authoritarian government and capitalist speculation, cities have become leading sites for new claims on state power and new formations of political subjectivity. This volume brings together perspectives from history, sociology, art, political theory, planning, law, and design practice to explore the urban spaces of the political. A selection of contemporary photography from around the world offers a visual refl ection of this timely investigation. Contributors include: Michael Arad, Diane Davis, Keller Easterling, Gerald Frug, Mohsen Mostafavi, Chantal Mouffe, Erika Naginski, Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett, Loic Wacquant, Krzysztof Wodiczko.

Combining the talents of an architect, artist, and developer, John Portman was able to embark on a series of large-scale building projects-megastructures-that radically redefined the relationship of architecture to the city and its citizens.Portman's own voice and ideas complement the contributions of others, including new photographs by Iwan Baan, to present a more complex and nuanced reading of both the architect and his architecture.Finally, the repertoire of Portman's buildings is analyzed in meticulous detail and used by a group of students from the Harvard Graduate School of Design as a catalyst for a host of divergent and new architectural speculations.

Small stone hutongs, built within a courtyard-and-alley system, are emblematic of Beijing's traditional inner-city architecture which still contends with modern, cooperate redevelopments to shape the character of the city. In one of the oldest cities in China, the important tasks of preservation and revitalization require particular sensitivity. Captured at the centre of the battlefield between development, conservation and renovation, the hutongs, on the verge of erasure, call into question the paradoxical nature of these paradigms.The Micro Hutong Renewal series by ZAO/ standardarchitecture focusses on small structures which residents have added to hutong courtyards in the last 60 years. The anchor project of this publication is the Hutong Children's Library & Art Centre, which won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016.A foreword from the Aga Khan Award director, Farrokh Derakhshani, and a series of photographs and drawings by the architect will present this project alongside another project from the series; The Micro Hutong and Co-living Courtyard, as well as ZAO/standardarchitecture's social housing projects in the center of Beijing. In addition, scholarly essays from across disciplines will explore alternative perspectives of China's historical cities and the challenges they face.Several interviews with different people involved with the Hutong projects, such as residents and users of different ages will ensure a broad range of perspectives.The holistic message of the book will illustrate how ZAO/standardarchitecture's work considers the city and its components as living organisms. This is what gives rise to the title: Hutong Metabolism.