Candide 13 results of a joint effort of scholars, researchers and students who address the theme of "Experimental Architecture and Material Culture" from different perspectives. The issue reports on the outcomes of a transnational cooperation between the RWTH Aachen University (Department of Architecture) and the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (Department of Architecture and Planning). It gives voice to students and researchers who, traveling in Germany and India, have stored up intercultural experiences of intellectual and human growth. The issue features also scholarly contributions on experimental architecture, design-build procedures, and sustainable construction.

This title includes text in English & Portuguese. In the second half of 2007, the baton of the EU Council Presidency was passed to Portugal. The country decided to hold the majority of the planned meetings, conferences and summits at a central location in Lisbon. The chosen venue was the Sala Tejo des Pavilhao Atlantico, which was converted to host the meetings on the future of Europe, culminating in the Treaty of Lisbon. The architects commissioned for this project, Baixa, Atelier de Arquitectura, successfully gave the venue - as well as the event - an impressive identity, marked by Portuguese culture and contemporary architecture. This book pays tribute to this ephemeral piece of architecture with a comprehensive collection of sketches, drawings and photos. In the accompanying and introductory texts, the project is viewed through the eyes of two well-known architecture critics as well as the Head of Mission of the Portuguese Presidency.

In recent years, visual urbanism has emerged as a new research field. Photographers and researchers had been experimenting with critical visual methodologies in anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, and cultural geography. They underlined the importance of reflexivity and questioned the uncritical use of both cameras and images. Yet, until now, a discussion of incorporating visual research methods into the knowledge of architectural design and urban planning has been very minimal. Candide N° 12 gathers voices of a cross-disciplinary dialogue between theoreticians and practitioners of urbanism and photography. The authors of the forthcoming issue provide answers to a number of key questions: What can architects, urban planners and designers learn from photographers and visual artists and vice versa? How can we define a new common ground between making photography and designing urban spaces?

Text in French and English. Mouans-Sartoux, a small community near Cannes, has become a Mecca for concrete art. Since 1990 two collectors from Switzerland, Sybil Albers and the artist Gottfried Honegger, have been working to establish the Espace de l'Art Concret (EAC). Neither a museum nor a municipal gallery, this institution is located in the Chateau de Mouans and in two new buildings in its large park. The first of the two new buildings was a studio designed by Marc Barani from Nice for children who come here to paint and to develop their aesthetic senses. Barani began work in 1990 with the extension to the cemetery of Saint Pancrace in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. The way he located the cemetery in the local landscape and his use of original vegetable and mineral materials immediately brought him to international notice. In 2000 Albers and Honegger decided to donate their collections to the French state, on the understanding that it would finance a building to house the nearly 500 works of art. A competition was launched and was won by the Zurich architects Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer. The building, which opened its doors in 2004, stands on a steeply sloping wooded terrain. As one enters the park, one sees its yellowish-green hues through the branches of the trees. The monochrome colour unifies the five levels of the building that give no clue as to what it contains. While the outside of the building looks artificial, independent, sculptural, its interior is set up in accordance with Honegger's special instructions. He wanted the building that was to house his collection to be distinct from the official and sterile museums that are often laid out on the gallery model, passageways for contemplation, internal streets with overhead lighting. Honegger prefers an interior that is like a private home rather than a public institution. The domestic framework of the rooms must reflect a principle dear to the heart of the donors: that the works are to be lived with. Honegger takes an overall view of our material environment and emphasises that for him the distinction between fine arts and applied arts has no meaning, because "an unapplied art would have no purpose and would be bound to be insignificant and disappear".