Typology

This highly anticipated new volume in the Review series documents some 200 largely unpublished buildings in Tashkent, Genoa, Tbilisi, and Casablanca. These cities experienced rapid development during the 20th century, with each offering its unique response to modernism. Rather than merely providing a historical survey, this book uncovers the underlying logic of these cities’ urban fabric through an examination of their prevalent built heritage.

Over four years, architects Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, together with teaching staff and students at their joint chair of architecture and design at ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture, analysed the featured structures to offer a wide-ranging array of original typological solutions for contemporary architecture and urban design. Each example is documented with an image, site and floor plans, axonometric projection, key data, and a brief description. An introductory text by Emanuel Christ, Victoria Easton, and Christoph Gantenbein relates the case studies to the theoretical framework of type and typology. Concise essays by Shukur Askarov and Boris Chukovich (Tashkent), Vittorio Pizzigoni and Valter Scelsi (Genoa), Levan Kalandarishvili and Jesse Vogler (Tbilisi), and Lahbib El Moumni and Karim Rouissi (Casablanca) explore the four cities’ historic evolution. A photo essay with colour images capturing the urban atmosphere of the places rounds off this volume.