Underworld, 2006 by Studio Job

The Occupied Territories and Israel throw-up a postmodernist concept of space at its peak. A geography of fear has transformed the notion of urban planning into a complex syntax of regulating the movement of people along the lines of nationality and destination. In the face of this, segments of Israeli civilian society are working to create seamless space with a series of architecture and planning projects that approach the situation bottom-up.

The Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury might be currently based in Beirut but that doesn’t mean he is willingly going to be slotted into some kind of geo-generational context with other architects in the region. Co-director of London’s Serpentine Gallery, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Rem Koolhaas, speak with him about his work and the inevitable political perspectives.

The Basilica Nuestra Señora de Altagracia near the Dominican Republic city of Higüey is a masterpiece of the expressionist branch of late modernism. The tale of its creation is full of twists, turns, political intrigue and artists blowing their fees in search of a tropical Dolce Vita. A career-consuming project
for its French architect, it is  now finally being celebrated.

Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective is just one of the participants in an upcoming exhibition at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. As a group of agile and nomadic media practitioners, the Collective’s baseline is gathering and processing information to come up with different ways of creating and thinking while engaging with new technologies.

For German fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm and artistic partner Jutta Kraus, clothing collections are treated like they were insane tableaux vivants. From traditional Bavarian clothing, stuffed rabbits, Björk as a glam duck and French porn stars, this is a universe that can be compelling, sarcastic, dark and fun.

The former German U-boat bunker in the French coastal town of Saint-Nazaire dominates the landscape. This huge hunk of concrete withstood a rain of bombs and its continued existence seems to be treated with ambivalence by the local residents. An architectural intervention by Berlin architects LIN realises a new art centre within its chambers.

The contemporary artists of Central Asia, in particular those from Kazakhstan, are the focus of the exhibition Time of the Storytellers, Distant Gaze in Post-Soviet Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki. Stories that bring together different fragments of reality, the periphery is not so far away as it sounds.

As Studio Job, Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel have produced a series of limited editions, installations and interiors for names such as Bisazza, Bulgari, Moooi, Swarovski and Prada. Is it relevant to question them in terms of the design-art debate, or is that missing the point by a million miles?

Using a palette of tools available to both the film and architectural industries, Squint/Opera creates films that flesh out architectural proposals in exciting and unexpected ways. Through a familiar medium, the team weaves stories that create engaging films that communicate often-complex design ideas.

Products & places that have caught our collective eye over the summer months, including works by recently-graduated students from London’s Royal College of Art and Design Academy Eindhoven.