Densification
Colourful blobs emerge from the rooftops of Ron Herron’s “Tuned Suburb”. The collage from 1968 shows a futuristic vision of densification along urban peripheries, and in many ways it anticipates the situation faced by cities today. Since Archigram, the need for densification has grown dramatically. Existing buildings are gaining extra floors, gaps are being filled, parking lots are becoming building plots and vacant spaces converted and repurposed.
Our April issue on densification shows current projects in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg as well as in London, Amsterdam and Bahrain, which are successfully creating more space for education, living and working in densely populated city centres. In each case they have successfully confronted difficult conditions, i.e. infill development of building gaps or scraps of land that are dark and hard to access. Meanwhile, former industrial buildings are being converted into microlofts or family apartments. Now as then, existing stock offers enormous potential for densification.
Our documentations are supplemented with interviews and information on the building process, which replace our Technology section in this issue.
You are likely well aware of how the coronavirus has impacted the international trade fair calendar. The Light & Building trade fair in Frankfurt am Main has been postponed to September, and Salone del Mobile in Milan will now take place in June. We will keep you informed of any developments in this matter.
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