Volume editorial (collective)
#1 – 2005
A New VOLUME for Architecture One issue ago this magazine appeared under another name. But it already announced a new project: VOLUME. A title as an object, as energy, and as a container full of reflexive content, representing the expansion of architectural territories and the new mandate for design.
It is becoming irrevocably clear that architecture today has a growing potential to be more than shelter, enclosure, occupation, and spatial accommodation. Beyond all that, there is a growing awareness of a potential that may ultimately challenge the very character of architecture as we know it. For some this means anxiety and perhaps despair about a profession in distress. Others face this challenge with full confidence and intellectual curiosity about the implications for architectural intelligence. Let’s resume what was said: Architecture has reached three of its most respected limits:
-its definition as the art of making buildings
-its discourse through scripted printed media and static exhibitions
-its training as a matter of master and apprentice
The pushing of these limits challenges the mandate and self -conception of architecture. Architecture needs new modes of operation, converging the creation, the mediation, and the appreciation of space.
That’s why we launch VOLUME, a global idea platform to voice architecture, anyway, anywhere, anytime. An instrument of cultural invention, and re-invention. It will be dedicated to experimentation and the production of new forms of architectural discourse.
4 + 5 = Editorial
We named the protagonists in this project:
1) ARCHIS- pushing beyond the magazine an independent and experimental think tank devoted to the process of real-time cultural reflexivity through timely and provocative special issues, ARCHIS is evolving from a bimonthly bilingual magazine monitoring and extending the latest trends to a multi-media platform. http://www.archis.org/
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2) AMO – pushing beyond the office a research and design studio that applies architectural thinking to disciplines beyond the borders of architecture and urbanism – including sociology, technology, and politics. -AMO operates in tandem with its companion company the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, an internationally renowned firm, based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. http://www.oma.nl/
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3) C-lab – pushing beyond the school an experimental research unit devoted to the development of new forms of communication in architecture,- the Columbia Laboratory for Architectural Broadcasting -has been set up as a semi-autonomous think and action tank at GSAPP. CLAB maintains a portfolio of creative partnerships to broaden the range and increase the intensity of architectural discourse, acting as a kind of training camp and energy source for incubating new channels for debate about architecture. http://www.arch.columbia.edu/
A promise for future collaborations. We have also already listed in a non-hierarchical order some imaginable modalities for this project: magazine; objects; space; event; debate; webcast; consultancy; talk show; travel; and other surprises.
And here is VOLUME#1, a first tour d’horizon of the new possibilities of architecture beyond itself. It might give you some directions. But it is also an invitation to see yourself differently. You may think of yourself as a customer of this magazine, having purchased an information product. You are correct, because we need your faith to make sure this intellectual endeavor lasts. But hopefully you want to see yourself as something else as well. Perhaps you may be interested in becoming a member of a global intelligence community to help us find the places, the moments, and the reasons for architecture to surface, to intervene, to make a difference. For architectural opportunities to sound, to resonate, to echo. If it is true that architecture can shift its focus from a reactive mindset, waiting for sites, clients, and budgets to decide to get together in an architectural brief, towards a proactive, pre-emptive attitude to speak up and step forward and propose architecture before it has been considered an option, then we need you to substantiate the claim.
Therefore, let us know your ideas. Get yourself a stake in this ARCHIS + AMO + C-lab + _ _ _ project and make yourself known through pointed and decisive argument. We are grateful if you want to support this project, we will be delighted if you could share it with us.