to po s. no 100
Time
2017
30 THE AL GORE RHYTHM – The former US Vice President on cities in times of the climate crisis
50 WAR AND PEACE – How the 9/11 Memorial encourages the discourse about global memory
TRADITION MEETS MODERNITY – The city of Guangzhou celebrates its multiple layers of time
ISBN 978-3-7667-2343-7
64
Contents
THE BI G P I CTURE
C UR AT E D P R O D U CT S
Page 8
Page 102
O PI NI ON
R E F E R E NC E
Page 10
Page 106
TALE N T VS. M ASTERMI ND
ED I TO R ´S P I C K
Page 12
Page 108
MET ROPOL I S E XP L A I NE D
Page 14 WA R A N D P EAC E
Page 50
BAC KF LI P
Page 110 CITY C LOS E U P
TR AD I TIO N M EETS M O D ER N ITY
Overcoming time and space through photography Page 18
Celebrating history in Guangzhou Page 64
URBAN T IM E FRAM E S
T H E N EW A ES TH ETES
An analysis of cities’ temporalities Page 26
Calling for a departure from rigid designs – a portrait of S2L Page 72
TH E AL G ORE R HY TH M
What keeps the famous climate activist going? Page 30
ESCA PE P LA N
Page 112 F R O M T H E E D GE S
Page 114 I MP R I NT
Page 113
S L EEPI N G U N D ER TH E C R UC IF I X
How abandoned churches are reused Page 76
IN TO THE W I L D
R EA DY FO R A B S U R D ITY
Detroit: From General Motors to urban wilderness Page 38
Berlin: Building an airport can take a few years or an eternity Page 82
SEISMOGR AP H S OF TI ME
What type of street art are we entitled to today? Page 44 WAR AND P EACE
Healing wounds at the 9/11 Memorial Page 50
LA N D S CA PE EF F ICACY
Transformation of an airport in Vicenza, Italy Page 88 TH E U LTI MATE D R EA M S CA P E
A story about a never-built Los Angeles Page 94
TIME: FACTS AND FI G URE S
Page 58
C O N TR IB UTO R S
Page 100 CIT Y AS PA L I M P S E S T
Who said cities can’t tell stories? Page 60
T HE N E W A E S T H ET ES
Page 72
006
topos ISSUE 100
Time
City Close Up The city is a matrix that cannot be apprehended in its entirety at once. One cannot visit more than one place at a time. Circumventing this limitation, French architect and photographer Jérémie Dru found a way to perceive the city – in his case Paris, his hometown – from more than just one point of view. He freezes the city’s moments and overlays them. By that, Dru puts the observer between two places and into a dimension where time and space seem to have no meaning at all. JÉRÉMIE DRU
018
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City of Paris: Light can erase the tangible boundary between the surface and the underground of the city.
topos
019
Time
030
topos ISSUE 100
The Climate change hangs like Damocles' sword over metropolises around the globe. With torrential rains and floodings occurring almost on a daily basis, the menace has become omnipresent. Al Gore, former Vice President of the USA, has been fighting for many years to raise awareness of the dangers of global warming. As the front man of his own climate initiative he is viewed as one of the most influential non-political figures in the environmental arena. Despite persistent, often scathing criticism, Gore never considered letting go of his mission. What keeps the man who was once ridiculed as the climate clown going? An encounter. TANJA BRAEMER
Al Gore Rhythm topos
031
Time
Seismographs Graffiti and street art oscillate in a fleeting space between illegality and establishment, between social criticism and artistic aesthetics. They make the city a gallery of current events, render faรงades into political canvases and turn public spaces into the Agora. In 2010, Banksy proclaimed that graffiti is the art that turbo capitalism had earned. This inevitably raises the question: What type of urban art are we entitled to today? And what can it give to our cities and their residents? A plea. ANJA KOLLER
of Time 044
topos ISSUE 100
Photo: picture alliance / AP Photo / Kirsty Wigglesworth
London Street Artist Bambi’s work “Lie Lie Land” features a dancing British Premier Minister Theresa May and American President Donald Trump in the pose made famous by the movie “La La Land”.
Time
The aerial photograph, taken after the 9/11 attacks in New York, shows the smoking ruins of Ground Zero and reveals the destruction.
050
topos ISSUE 100
War September 11, 2001 is a date that is part of global memory. Most adults clearly remember where they were when the incomprehensible happened, but for New Yorkers, the tragedy of the attack was very personal, interrupting countless lives and changing the city forever. The 9/11 Memorial encourages a discourse about global memory, individual grief, and political agendas in the urban context. WOLFRAM HOEFER
and Peace topos
051
Time
The ultimate A new book unveils a Never Built Los Angeles. Far from being a one-dimensional criticism of existing architecture, it instead expresses the potential of the urban sphere. No other metropolis, it seems, is more constantly mobilizing this potential than the City of Angels. ALEXANDER GUTZMER
Dreamscape 094
topos ISSUE 100
International Marketland from 1959
topos
095