Guest-edited by Agostino De Rosa, Alessio Bortot and Francesco Bergamo
Penumbra, from the Latin paene (almost) and umbra (shadow), can be defined as an intermediate zone of transition between light and shadow. Penumbra is therefore that space, both physical and imaginary, where everything is possible: it is the place of the uncanny, where presence and/or absence can produce wonder or horror.
This AD positions the presence of this archetype in the contemporary world of architecture, investigating the ways it permeates different expressive forms – from critical theory to architectural drawing, from design and planning to photography. The contributors illustrate and discuss how penumbra has shaped their creativity and modified their approach to the design process. As a physical phenomenon, penumbra has supra-historical and global connotations; nonetheless, different cultures elaborate its symbolism in different ways. Its wide semantic spectrum powerfully inspires creative forms that hover between fullness and emptiness, presence and absence, past and future. The critical perspectives in this issue offer a wide analysis of penumbra’s expressive potential and the key to an in-depth understanding of this elusive layer of reality.
Contributors: Matthias Bärmann, Silvia Benedito, Filippo Bricolo, Edwin Carels, Javier Corvalán, Dris Kettani, Stephen Kite, Giancarlo Mazzanti, Akira Mizuta Lippit, Susanna Pisciella, Renato Rizzi, Paul O Robinson, and Antonella Soldaini.
Featured architects and artists: Alexander Savvich Brodsky, Neri&Hu studio, Quay Brothers, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, and Marco Tirelli.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction A Eulogy to Penumbra
Chapter 2 At the Edges of Transparent Language
Chapter 3 Eden to Eden: At the Dawn of the Name
Chapter 4 ‘In the Womb Yet Out-of-Doors’: Penumbra and the Spaces In-Between
Chapter 5 The Warmth of Death: Alexander Brodsky and the Necropolis in the Womb of the Metropolis
Chapter 6 A Path to the Light: Variations and Multiple Dimensions
Chapter 7 Charged Space: The Anatomy of the In-between
Chapter 8 Efficiency Versus Game: Twilight Spaces for Homo Ludens
Chapter 9 Seeking the Almost: Designing Shade
Chapter 10 Rhythmic Alternation: Metaphors of Light, Dark and Shadow
Chapter 11 The Intimacy of Neglect: Thresholds, Interconnectedness and Unexpected Glimpses
Chapter 12 As If Without Time: The Nuclear Twilight Zone
Chapter 13 Things In Themselves: The X-Ray and Its Embodied Space
Chapter 14 Projecting the Indeterminate and Enigmatic: The Painting of Marco Tirelli
Chapter 15 Subliminal Blueprints for Other Dimensions: The Time-warped Sanatorium of the Quay Brothers
Chapter 16 From Another Perspective - The Shadowy World of Domesticity
Contributors
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