Böcker i Grundlagen / Basics-serien

After the discovery of oil, the Kuwaiti State established a means of wealth distribution for its citizens through housing programmes aimed at improving standards of living. It allocated residential neighbourhoods for Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis through the introduction of two main architectural typologies: the apartment and the villa. However, in response to certain economic, sociocultural and regulatory constraints, an unplanned hybrid typology has recently emerged. The multiplex, specific to Kuwait and yet not officially recognised by the state, has become the informal expression of specific living needs that is now ubiquitous across Kuwait.Here, for the first time, the authors of "The Multiplex Typology" explore everyday life in these hybrid homes, arguing that the one-size-fits-all housing model of the past is both outdated and unsustainable. But this book is not merely a documentation of the current state of living in Kuwait, nor a straightforward analysis of Kuwaiti domestic architecture today. It is also an urgent and timely call for alternative approaches to housing that are sustainably driven, culturally rooted and responsive to future change.

This is a book about four cities who were several times, and especially in connection with World War II forcedly put into completely new national contexts. This was affected by coercion from outside. The changes included genocide and forced displacement, but preserved built environment testifies past populations and national contexts. This book describes the urban environment in the four cities before World War II, and how the present population handles the memories of the past for future development.In connection with World War II and its aftermaths, many of the four cities Chisinau, Cernivci, Lviv and Wroclaw residents were either killed or subject to forced migration beyond the new national borders. People settled in the city environment which still bore the traces of the earlier population and the earlier urban life that had been brutally put to an end.Due to the continued Russian military aggression on the territory of Ukraine, this study takes on a new relevance.This title is part of the Histories of Ukrainian Architecture programme initiated by DOM publishers in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine's sovereignty on 24 February 2022.

In 1960 and 1961, a group of young Indonesians ­completed their studies in Berlin and Hanover with a degree in architecture (Diplom-Ingenieur Architektur; in Indonesian: Dipl.-Ing. Arsitek). Most of these graduates returned to Indonesia. At that time, the country sought independent forms of built expression to represent a modern civil society with contemporary structures that would reflect the culture and accommodate the climate. During this highly dynamic period, those who returned soon became influential architects in their homeland. Around a third of the graduates remained in Europe, where they pursued successful architectural careers in Germany, Switzerland, or the Netherlands.Using the final diploma projects of ten of those students as a starting point, Dipl.-Ing. Arsitek: German-trained ­Indonesian Architects from the 1960s provides multi­faceted insights into this little-known aspect of German-­Indonesian relations. Many of the cited plans and documents come from the architects' personal archives and are now available to the public for the first time. Fifteen exemplary buildings are documented in their current context in new photographs produced for this project, highlighting their unique characteristics and qualities.

In its early decades, the ­Ethiopian capital, founded in 1886, witnessed a very specific form of ­architecture. At the beginning of the East African country's first ­urbanisation process, a mixture of vernacular knowledge and a new cosmopolitan mindset led to an archi­tectural type that local professionals refer to as the 'Addis ­Ababa Style': Pavilion-like buildings of different sizes, made of stone, earth, and wood, characterised by expressive pinched roofs, generous verandas with curtain walls, and a high degree of detailing. Today, those graceful, ­appropriate, and nature-based buildings are under threat of being swallowed up due to shortsighted economic interests. In cooperation with the Institute for Architecture in ­Addis Ababa (EiABC), architects of Berlin's Technical University studied this typology with regard to its embeddedness in local resources, climatic conditions, and craftsmanship. As such, they employed the ­'Addis ­Ababa House' as a case study to discuss the possibility of a non-­industrial building type that ­reflects the desire for a cosmopolitan urban life.