sustainable architecture:magazine

I cite in this post a part of the dialogues between domus publisher and Stefano Boeri because I found it very interesting and in a way explains how domus works and whats the philosophy behind it.

LPP: Dear Stefano….but publishing Casamonti twice in domus and neglecting the rest of young Italian architecture is suicide.
…..Casamonti means in the Italian panorama; a bridge to the academic quagmire. And even if some of his designs are quite nice, they demostrate uncommitted eclecticism.
…..I like Casamonti on a personal level. But cultural choices are quite another thin and this approach contributes to serious work on experimentation resulting in nothing, opting for a drawing room avante-garde.

SB …… does it really seem to you that I am neglecting young Italian architecture?…….we can talk properly about Casamonti. If you really want to…….

LPP …….I know you have published a few Italians and you have neen right to do so……. To speak of the conferences about the Italian-ness of Italian Architecture and the dazzling rise of the magazine Area. Domus, for which I held out such a great hope (finally an aircraft carrier in the hands of a good editor), what does it do? I t tends to skate over architecture. It publishes little and even less that is Italian. But little even of foreign architects that are not part of the Star System. I realise that some stars you have to include, for sales reasons…….My feeling is that domus is an aircraft carrier taht could have an extraordinary power for cultural fire and instead is just outside the port doing some practice……..

SB……. I declared my project for Domus right from the cover of the first issue, dedicated to De Carlo and the Triennale of 1968, There I tried to talk about how architecture today has to have a role that is not exhausted in just the architectural construction. Of how there is need to believe in the social utility of our profession, not just because it can change the space we live in but also for its capacity to generate awareness regarding the places dedicated to urban life…….. It can and must find outlets;research, criticism, journalism, non-academic teaching, communication, visual arts, even politics…….And I believe that it is exactly our possibility to acomodate two such different and even conflicting spheres such as research and design represent an extraordinary resource also for architectural design…..It is for this reason that Domus today deals with social studies, relationships between politics and architecture, news, visual arts, photography etc…… Domus follows a precise idea on the possible future of our profession. I really don’t believe that you can say that Domus doesn’t do architecture. What does architecture mean today? Publishing projects, projects, projects?….I, we, follow  mush ambitious…and strong idea about the role of architecture. An inclusive idea of architecture that has also been the prerogative in other periods in the history of this magazine….This is something I also made clear in Domus. I do not want to make the magazine (that I would like to remind you sells half its copies abroad) a kind of “Indian reserve” where we safeguard and promote a protected species in danger of extention that is Italian architects. This I leave to other magazines who believe that the number of pages is a necessary condition of “proof”…….