From the editorial of issue 7-8/2020:
Built Landscapes
Architecture and topography often complement each other to form a whole. Before our eyes, spatial structures combine to create landscapes or topographical formations. Our understanding of landscape and nature, which lies at the core of the concept of topography, is the result of our subjective perception and is therefore a construct, just like architecture. The landscape architect Günther Vogt has dedicated a great deal of attention to this topic. He develops unique approaches for his landscape interventions, which Hubertus Adam presents in a portrait of the designer and university lecturer (page 14).
In our July-August issue on architecture and topography, we also present a selection of projects located in Norway, China, Switzerland and Belgium, which are integrated into the surrounding landscape. Our editor Barbara Zettel compiled these exemplary projects with a focus on the different ways in which they interact with the topography. An art museum in Qinhuangdao, China, for example, is carved into a sand dune of Bohei Bay. In Zurich, the Tanzhaus repeats the terraced structure along the bank of the Limmat River. The Kistefos Museum north of Oslo forms a bridge across the Randselva River and is an artwork unto itself. Interior and exterior seem to flow seemlessely into one another at the house designed by Okami Architects. Located along the border between Flanders and Wallonia, it is embedded into the sloping terrain and nearly invisible, like a protected cave.
Sandra Hofmeister
