In This Issue [1/2026]

After having explored in our last themed issue (Fall 2025) what I called “a compelling design dilemma” ¹ for our times, that is the overheating of our urban environments and the consequent weaving of nature within the city as a possible, though partial, solution, we offer in this open issue a fanning out of research work, starting precisely with other important crises: the contested re-appropriation of the Arctic eco-system (Nay), the explosion of the overtourism phenomenon (Dalzero), and the challenge of understanding the complexities of informal settlements (d’Avila and Luque Martín). Countering these examples of seemingly intractable urban conditions, a couple of possible attempts at devising some kind of environmental and urban order may be appreciated from re-visiting the visionary efforts by Ludwig Hilberseimer, one of the greatest urbanists of Modernity (Wang), and the highly articulated reading and proposal for the contemporary metropolis by Oswald M. Ungers, as applied to a specific American case study in Texas (Hättasch and Almy), equally important and cogent, though very different.

From the territorial and urban visions of those urbanists, two contributions at an actual architectural scale follow, both pertaining the transformation of the same city, Pisa (Italy). While one retraces the urban strategy and design process by a rather singular “civic architect,” Massimo Carmassi, through the case studies of three schools (Marcheschi), the other one develops the design strategy for the type of a university facility on one of the city campuses (Stillavato). 

We then continue with two contributions on the experience of architecture. One on a new emerging type, microcinemas, promising to add an important element to the culture of our times, thus tying architectural space to the always fascinating cinematic art (Terna and Fabris). The other one to the ever-puzzling museum experience (Alghaemdi). Concluding the essays is an exploration on the intriguing 3D technology applied to a sand-based masonry block tectonics (Baudoin).

To complement the issue is a rich set of reviews on two books and two exhibitions. 

For the books, we are invited to appreciate a monograph by Pierre-Alain Croset on the high-quality work of Italian firm Corvino + Multari (Canclini), and the theoretical reflections on the always relevant artistic modality of Mannerism by Lina Malfona (Mucciolo). 

For the exhibitions, we are pleased to share discussions on two major shows held in recent months: the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial (Serbanescu), and, circling back to urbanism, Rome in the World (December 17, 2025 – April 26, 2026), curated by Ricky Burdett and Izabela Anna Moren at the MAXXI in Rome (Padoa Schioppa). Fitting tributes to current, at times tormented, design explorations, and to the inexhaustibly rich urban palimpsest of the complex and always changing Eternal City.