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KATARXIS

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On Contemporary New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism

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Eishin University Campus in Japan
 
by Christopher Alexander and Associates
 

KATARXIS  is a new webzine dedicated exclusively to a New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism: one that in its vernacular and classical expressions, incorporates a re-evaluation of the many World Cultures; includes the humanist heritage of the West and  the East; and acknowledges the evidence of New Sciences, and the positive logistics of the contemporary world.
 
KATARXIS supports a broader Culture of Reconstruction and participates to the emergence of a New Architecture and a New Urbanism of the 21st Century, solidly anchored in the most updated knowledge of man and nature, and in the most universal intuitions and feelings of mankind.
 
KATARXIS offers a platform of information and interaction for everyone interested in the construction of contemporary buildings, cities and landscapes; and for all those who are sympathetic and supportive of concepts of a vital new humanistic culture, as articulated through the regenerating process of tradition, and through a refreshed alliance of Science and Art.
 
KATARXIS will dedicate its pages to the works of contemporary New Traditional Architects and Urbanists; to works in science, history and theory; to building technologies and materials, and to discussion and exposition of issues of graphics and rendering, related arts and crafts, Internet, and New Technologies --all the things that are relevant to the building of a beautiful, comfortable and durable modern world.
 
KATARXIS considers that its purpose is to promote the efficiency and importance, the quality and appropriateness, and above all the reality and realism of new traditional architecture and urbanism as essential and influential contributions to the unfolding of a truer, a more humane and universal modernity .

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" Al-Esch ", a painting by Rita Wolff (1991)
It shows an " Analog City " of Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) with its post-industrial identity and the acknowledgement of a regeneration by its own traditions.

There are numerous web-zines dealing with architecture. However the impressive production of very popular new traditional architecture and new urbanism is hardly touched upon in the professional press!

Katarxis is exclusively dedicated to publishing the type of architecture and city-building which most of people all around the world bear in their hearts, love and desire: Traditional architecture, both in its Classical and Vernacular expressions!

Tradition is the result of selected popular wisdom and of the intelligence and experiences of whole generations of craftsmen, artists and citizen. It is the most advanced form of collective intelligence yet devised by humanity.
 
The common sense, reason and sentiment of a contemporary generation of traditional architects and urbanists - representing a vital and judicious reappropriation -- must be acknowledged as the most fruitful contributions to the renaissance of a contemporary Art of Building. This is a most vital regeneration of modern city-building and environmental planning! 

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The Roman Baths in Charlottenhof park, built in 1829-1835 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Ludwig Persius.

The creation of this web-zine grows out of both frustrating and stimulating experiences with other architectural publications. The written architectural press is generally closed to anything about classical and traditional culture, in spite of the fact that this is an issue of relevance to a majority of people!
 
Most publications are  solely interested in the propaganda of modernism and deconstructivism, which represent less then 10% of the world's achievements in contemporary architecture and urbanism.

On the other hand the web offers new spaces for the expression of a refreshing variety of creativity and imagination. The web bypasses the censorship of senile academies and reactionary institutions, and proposes a democracy of cultural plurality, where new classical, and traditional architecture and city-building can legitimately blossom!

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" Filadelfia ", painting by Rita Wolff (1983)

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Street-view in Poundbury (Dorset, England), the most emblematic new urban creation by Leon Krier, commissioned by HRH the Prince of Wales (1988-1991)

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A Belvedere for the new town of Poundbury in Dorset (England), by Duncan McCallum McRoberts

" For the first time in half a century traditional buildings and towns are being constructed around the world, with increasing support and appreciation from a public eager to reinvest in a balanced co-existence with nature and the city."

Richard Economakis and Michael Lykoudis (Building Cities,1999)

New Town of Brandvoort Rob Krier

New Town of Brandevoort, Helmond, Holland (under construction) by Krier & Kohl

The development of the Katarxis online version will soon be followed up by print versions, both in book and magazine format . With a growing number of interested visitors worldwide, and because of the large spectrum of works and writings regarding New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism, - not published by the established professional press -, the expansion of the publication endeavours of Katarxis has presented itself as a most evident option!
  
Katarxis acknowledges positively the Internet and new technologies of communication and interaction, and participates consistently to a wider virtual "polis" afforded by the networking potentials of the web...From out of their isolation and exile, Katarxis brings together a wide diversity of works and operational theoretical concepts supporting the practice of a modern traditional architecture and city-building.

Enjoy the reading and please recommend Katarxis to your friends!

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Public Loggia in Main Square
by Rita Wolff (1977)

Palm Beach Rattner

Palm Beach Residence by Ferguson, Shamamian &Rattner
Residential Architect Design Award 2001
(www.residentialarchitect.com)

" The global destruction of cities and countryside, of human cultures and of nature itself, can only be reversed by a global philosophical, technical, cultural, moral and economic project: by an ecological project. The city is not the unavoidable result of a society's activities. It can only be built and maintained when it represents the goal of individuals, of a society and its institutions. A city is not an economic accident but a moral project. Forms of production ought no longer to dictate the form of the city; but the form of the city, its organic nature and moral order, must qualify and shape the forms of production and exchange. "

Leon Krier

PoolVilla Portugal

House in Malveira, Portugal
by Jose Cornelio da Silva and Jose Franqueira Baganha

" That tradition was not mechanical or predictable.
On the the contrary, the classical language enabled Michelangelo not just to build, but to compose, fitting detail to detail in his own Palazzo del Senatore, while matching his work to the other buildings of the square. The strength of his composition is of a piece with the humility through which it was achieved. "

Roger Scruton

" The Future is Classical "
(www.opendemocracy.net)

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Senior Citizen Housing as an organic village extension.
Muehlheim an der Ruhr, Germany, by Rob Krier (Krier&Kohl) (1989-1991).
" The individual residential units are grouped around an oblong square. These mostly single-storey "houses" are mixed with two-storey buildings housing common rooms and apartments for nurses. A chapel forms the center of the ensemble."

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Urban reconstruction in historic center of Esch-sur-Alzette by Mulhern&Steil (1993)

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Public Housing in Esch-sur-Alzette by Lucien Steil with Herr&Huyberechts (1986)
Built in a traditional way with low budget to accomodate affordable housing in the very heart of the city!

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Tatum Residence, Scientists Cliff, Maryland (USA)
by Wayne L. Goode
Residential Architect Design Award 2001
(www.residentialarchitect.com)

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" Silver Oaks ", French Chateau style house
(Coastal Homes) Miami (1999)
(www.Forbes.com)

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Art,Architecture&Photography


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