MONU #24: Domestic Urbanism
Spring 2016
Reviewed by Colin Billings

[Cover of issue 24 | All images courtesy of MONU]

This, the 24th issue of MONU, is dedicated to "Domestic Urbanism," arguably the root urbanism of the city as a coherent human settlement. It prominently features interviews by MONU editor Bernd Upmeyer with Andres Jaque and Herman Hertzberger ? one of the most important and vocal humanizing figures in architecture ? along with 17 other contributions from brilliant emerging practitioners and critics.

Shot from the perspective of urbanism, MONU #24 exquisitely illustrates the tensions between architecture and its building. The cover artwork by STAR strategies + architecture illustrates the sacred, intricate meshworks of our inner dramas brutally cemented together by the thinnest, most minimal of buildings. Many of the contributions delve into the poetics, profound political aesthetics, or advanced experimentation with the domicile-as-an-interior and it?s influence on the urban realm.
[Spread with Andres Jaque interview]

Let?s play a game! As an exercise, I challenge you to read through this and the past issues of MONU (particularly Interior Urbanism and Participatory Urbanism) and note the recurring presence of play as an achievement of a great urbanism; an achievement that supplies us with a vibrant, enchanted ambiance that seems to be infinitely brimming with energy and constantly on the verge of erupting into some form or another of social ...