An interview with Adam Caruso features in a new gta Verlag publication, Against and For Method. Edited by Jan Silberberger, the volume tries to tackle the deficiencies in studio teaching and proposes possibilities for integrating research approaches into teaching and practice.
It features a range of contributors, including Bernhard Böhm, Johan De Walsche, Kim Helmersen and Monika Kurath, among others. In addition to these essays, five interviews were conducted with practising architects, who are also studio professors at ETH Zurich. These contributions and conversations are intended to urge studio teachers to consider that conceptually coherent approaches aids their students.
Book design and photos © Brighten the Corners.
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Peter St John's London Met Unit will investigate the theme of Second Life. The term comes from the artist and social activist Theaster Gates, who states that almost everything can be reused. This is evident in his work which has involved collating discarded objects and materials, as well as salvaging and refurbishing whole buildings.
Students will look at the question of how to renew buildings; how construction can be less energy-demanding and creating systems where buildings are indivisible components in a regenerating ecological system.
Students in studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich will spend their Autumn semester working on a group of structures around Helvetiaplatz in Zurich. Through model-making and drawing students will engage with not only the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, but also how we can reframe the cultural value of them.
Published by Mack Books, The Triple Folly presents an account of the collaboration between Thomas Demand, Caruso St John, and textile manufacturers Kvadrat, which led to the construction of the new pavilion at Kvadrat's headquarters in Ebeltoft, Denmark.
The Swiss Life Arena is featured in Casabella 944. Federico Tranfa introduces the project and discusses its key references – the ruins of an ancient mosque in Syria and the 18th century Guards Tent in the gardens of the summer palace at Drottingholm in Stockholm.
The Swiss Life Arena is reviewed in the March edition of Werk, Bauen Wohnen. Benjamin Muschg takes in the atmosphere at a sold-out game, as the ZSC Lions triumph over HC Davos, and describes the building's unconventional organisation and approach to minimizing energy consumption in use.
Marco Biagi explores the approach of international practices to decommissioned industrial buildings. Citing a range of recently completed projects, including Caruso St John's Veemgebouw, he discusses the rise of adaptive reuse. Biagi explains through our urgent environmental crisis, the reuse of industrial plants and depots is more necessary than ever, offering a new challenging creative outlet for contemporary architects.
Profile
Der Standard
A visit to the pioneers of adaptation in Zurich
Vienna, Austria
17th December 2022
Maik Novotny visits Caruso St John's Zurich office to discuss the new arena for the ZSC Lions ice-hockey team and, despite the scale of its most recently completed project, discovers the practice's long-term interest and growing commitment to projects that prioritise renovation and adaptive re-use over new construction.
Casabella issue 940 features a review Caruso St John's Complete Works, Volume I, published by Mack Books. Federico Tranfa commends the book's thematic collation of projects, found texts and commentaries, stating it is a 'courageous way to come to terms with the past, because it is not analysed a posteriori, but instead with the cultural context of the epoch of pertinence'.
Edmund Fowles, director of Feilden Fowles Architects, reviews Caruso St John's monograph published by Mack books. Discussing the books openness, he praises the presentation of projects and references alongside commentaries, a 'constellation of culture, memory, construction and emotion'.
Caruso St John's newly opened Swiss Life Arena is reviewed in Hochparterre. Deborah Fehlmann explores the project's materiality and composition, touching on its fabric inspired façade and efficient internal organisation.
Sofie De Caigny, director of the Flanders Architecture Institute, reviewed Caruso St John's Collected Works: Volume I for Drawing Matter. She discusses the book's choice to submerge the reader into the cultural sphere of the end of the 20th century, through contemporary texts, lectures and references.
Caruso St John's Veemgebouw building is reviewed in the Architects Journal's Climate Crisis issue. Rob Wilson explores the project's respectful and flexible retrofit of the listed 1940s warehouse, part of the former Philips factory complex. The building now provides a mix of housing above a range of public and commercial spaces.