''MONU'' is an English-language, biannual magazine on
urbanism
Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and m ...
that focuses on the
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...
in a broad sense, including its
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
,
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...
,
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...
,
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
, its
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
. Therefore, architecture is one of many fields covered by the magazine - fields which are all brought together under the catch-all term “urbanism”. ''MONU'' is edited in the city of
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
, Netherlands. Continuous publication began in June 2004. It refers to itself as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independe ...
architects
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, urbanists and theorists from around the world on a given topic.
''MONU'' claims to examine topics that are important to the future of our cities and urban regions from a variety of perspectivesMONU "About" Retrieved on 9 November 2011. and to provide a platform for comparative analysis. The different viewpoints, contexts and methods of analysis allow for an exploration of various topics in a rich fashion. The combination of the writings and projects created within different cultures and from different professional backgrounds generates new insights in the complex phenomena connected to cities. The magazine functions as a platform for the exchange of ideas and thus constitutes a
collective intelligence
Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence (GI) that Emergence, emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. The term appears in sociobiology ...
on urbanism.
Mission statement
What ''MONU'' has been aiming at since the very beginning is exploring every kind of urban aspect, everything that appears around the city. The magazine was always intrigued to find out the hidden political, social and economic truths, formal realities and interdependencies in cities.
Opinions
''MONU'' is generally critical of the fact that often urban spaces only fulfill the wishes and dreams of a powerful minority, who neglect the needs of most other people. ''MONU'' criticizes the consequences of a financially powerful elite developing real estate projects in cities merely to accommodate their consumerist desires. (#12 in 2010)
The magazine also dismisses the lack of interest among architects and urban designers in dealing with the enormous potential of the existing urban material and topics such as urban and architectural restoration, preservation,
renovation
Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving broken, damaged, or outdated structures. Renovations are typically done on either commercial or residential buildings. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, ...
,
redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space.
Description
Variations on redevelopment include ...
adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the ...
of old structures as socially irresponsible and economically and culturally unacceptable. (#14 in 2011)
''MONU'' disapproves of the non-ideological - or better post-ideological - conditions of our society when it comes to cities and aims for a new
sincerity
Sincerity is the virtue of one who communicates and acts in accordance with the entirety of their feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and desires in a manner that is honest and genuine.
Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary and most scholars state ...
that is needed in a world consisting of a multiplicity of choices and urban outcomes without a single consistent urban ideology. (#15 in 2011MONU "Issues" Retrieved on 5 December 2011.)
History
''MONU'' was founded by
Bernd Upmeyer Bernd Upmeyer (born July 2, 1973, Göttingen) is a German architect and urbanist living and working in Rotterdam, where he opened his own architecture firm Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD) in 2005. He holds a Ph.D. in Urban Stud ...
and Thomas Söhl in 2004 and was originally conceived as a way to keep in touch and to continue to intellectually challenge one another after graduating in architecture and urban design at the University of Kassel in 2002. Both founders went their separate ways, however: Upmeyer started working in the Netherlands and Söhl moved to the United States.
The title of the magazine was created as an
acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in '' NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, a ...
: Magazine ON Urbanism. Upmeyer once explained in an interview that at the start of the new millennium it felt much more appropriate, in a globalized world, to investigate topics such as architecture as a part of a wider field – in this case urbanism. The topic of the first issue “ Paid Urbanism” was originally a University project that Upmeyer and Söhl were planning to do together during the late 1990s, but in the end never did. It was based on the idea of paying people to appear in deserted public spaces to inject artificially life into dead urban areas. Ever since, putting a different adjective or noun next to the word “Urbanism” has become a routine that continues to this day.
Since 2007 - after issue #7 - Upmeyer directs ''MONU'' alone, as
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
, supported by his Rotterdam-based Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD). In 2008 Beatriz Ramo joined ''MONU'' as managing and contributing editor, after having supported and collaborated with the magazine since its first issue. What was at first an almost underground magazine made available in pdf format and as a stapled-together, black and white printed version, has evolved over the years into one of the main independent publications and into one of the leading independent architecture magazines published today, bringing together challenging themes explored by interesting writers and theorists.
Circulation
In 2011, ''MONU'' reported an average circulation of 3,000 copies per issue, two thirds of which were sold in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
. ''MONU'' has been described as the biggest independent publication focused explicitly on urbanism. ''MONU''’s first print-run was very small, around 300 copies. From 2011 until 2015 ''MONU'' was also available digitally.
Innovation
''MONU''’s blend of radical passion and expert design has made the magazine itself the focus of several international exhibitions, including in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
and
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. In summer 2007 ''MONU'' was part of an open workspace at the
documenta 12
documenta 12 was the twelfth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 16 June and 23 September 2007 in Kassel, Germany. The artistic director was Roger M. Buergel in collaboration with Ruth No ...
- one of the world's most important exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. ''MONU'' was invited as part of the documenta's magazines project. ''MONU'' is considered to have brought back a new critical edge to the architectural and urban discourse at the beginning of the new millennium and has inspired many others to found similar magazines, particularly between 2005 and 2009. Many of those new magazines were featured together with ''MONU'' in the so-called Archizines Exhibition in London in November 2011.
Features
With every new issue, ''MONU'' uses the method of “call for submissions” or call for papers (CFP) for collecting contributions. This device of “call for submissions” has been based on the realization that the view of one person is limited. ''MONU'' wanted to open the magazine to different and changing perspectives and to focus on diversity, as the core value of the magazine. In that sense, the magazine aims to be open-sourced to its core, collecting and deploying a wide variety of articles, images, concepts, and urban critiques from designers and thinkers from all over the world, recognizing that the traditional journal no longer connects to today's informed audience. ''MONU''’s method of the “call for submissions” and its focus on diverse backgrounds and viewpoints from international contributors has found many followers in newer architectural publications that were established after 2005. ''MONU'' claims to have introduced the device of “open calls” as a tool to finding contributors to architectural and urban magazines – especially in Europe. Every issue features texts, topic-focused interviews, research, critical analysis, photography, conceptual artwork, and infographics on a defined topic."Every issue features" Retrieved on 5 December 2011.
Contributors
Past contributors to ''MONU'' include:
Center for Urban Pedagogy
The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of design and art to improve the quality of public participation in urban planning and community design.
History
CUP was founded in 1997 by the artist and archi ...
(CUP),
Reinier de Graaf
Regnier de Graaf (English spelling), original Dutch spelling Reinier de Graaf, or Latinized Reijnerus de Graeff (30 July 164117 August 1673) was a Dutch physician, physiologist and anatomist who made key discoveries in reproductive biology. He sp ...
Teddy Cruz
Teddy Cruz (born 1962 in Guatemala City, Guatemala) is an American architect, urbanist, Professor in Ancient Architecture and Urbanism in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego. Cruz studied at Rafael Landivar U ...
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international architectural firm with offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. The firm is currently led by eight partners - Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van L ...
MVRDV
MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1993. The name is an acronym for the founding members: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries.
History
Maas and Van Rijs worked at OMA, De Vr ...
(2010, ''MONU'' #12 – Real Urbanism)
Hans Frei (2010, ''MONU'' #13 – Most Valuable Urbanism)
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a r ...
,
Adolfo Natalini
Adolfo Natalini (10 May 1941 – 23 January 2020) was an Italian architect.
Biography
Natalini founded the architectural company Superstudio in 1966 along with Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Gian Piero Frassinelli, Alessandro and Roberto Magris, a ...
Wouter Vanstiphout
Wouter is a Dutch masculine given name popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is the Dutch equivalent of the English name Walter and French name Gauthier, both of Germanic origin, meaning "ruler of the army", "army of the forest" or "bright ar ...
, Thomas Ruff (2011, ''MONU'' #15 – Post-Ideological Urbanism)
Edward W. Soja
Edward William Soja (; 1940–2015) was a self-described urbanist, a noted postmodern political geographer and urban theorist on the planning faculty at UCLA, where he was Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning, and the London School of Eco ...
Saskia Sassen
Saskia Sassen (born January 5, 1947) is a Dutch-American sociologist noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration. She is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University in New York City, and Centennial ...
,
Kunlé Adeyemi
Kunlé Adeyemi was born on the and is a Nigerian architect, urbanist and creative researcher. Adeyemi is founder and principal of NLÉ, an architecture, design and urbanism practice, based in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Adeyemi studied at th ...
Richard Sennett
Richard Sennett (born 1 January 1943) is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and former University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. He is currently a Senior Fellow of the Center on Capitalis ...
(2013, ''MONU'' #18 – Communal Urbanism)
Antoine Grumbach
Antoine Grumbach is a French architect who amongst others designed Disney's Sequoia Lodge hotel at Disneyland Resort Paris
Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort ...
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international architectural firm with offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. The firm is currently led by eight partners - Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van L ...
Edward Burtynsky
Edward Burtynsky (born February 22, 1955) is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of indust ...
,
Bart Lootsma Bart Lootsma (born 1957 in Amsterdam, Netherlands) studied architecture at the Eindhoven University of Technology during 1975–1984. He is a historian, critic, and curator in the fields of architecture, design, and fine arts. He holds the cha ...
(2014, ''MONU'' #20 – Geographical Urbanism)
Winy Maas
Wilhelmus "Winy" Maas (born 1959 in Schijndel) is a Dutch architect, landscape architect, professor and urbanist. In 1993 together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries he set up MVRDV.
Education
He completed his studies at the RHSTL Bos ...
,
Candida Höfer
Candida Höfer (born 4 February 1944) is a German photographer. She is a former student of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Like other Becher students, Höfer's work is known for technical perfection and a strictly conceptual approach. From 1997 to 2000, ...
Bernd Upmeyer Bernd Upmeyer (born July 2, 1973, Göttingen) is a German architect and urbanist living and working in Rotterdam, where he opened his own architecture firm Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD) in 2005. He holds a Ph.D. in Urban Stud ...
Damon Rich
Damon Rich (born 1975 in Creve Coeur, Missouri) is a Newark, New Jersey-based designer, urban planner, and visual artist known for investigating the politics of the built environment. He attended Deep Springs College and received a B.A. (1997) fro ...
,
Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, feminist art, the relationship between the performer and aud ...
Arnis Balcus
Arnis, also known as Kali or Eskrima/Escrima, is the national martial art of the Philippines. The three are roughly interchangeable umbrella terms for the traditional martial arts of the Philippines (" Filipino Martial Arts", or FMA), which em ...
,
Bart Lootsma Bart Lootsma (born 1957 in Amsterdam, Netherlands) studied architecture at the Eindhoven University of Technology during 1975–1984. He is a historian, critic, and curator in the fields of architecture, design, and fine arts. He holds the cha ...
(2016, ''MONU'' #25 – Independent Urbanism)
Lars Lerup
Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries.
Origin
''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel".
A homonymous Etruscan name was ...
,
Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design
The Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD) is an architecture firm based in Rotterdam that was founded in 2005 by German architect Bernd Upmeyer.
Floris Alkemade
Floris may refer to:
People Given name
* Five count of Holland, counts of Holland:
**Floris I, Count of Holland (c.1017–1061)
**Floris II, Count of Holland (c.1085–1121)
**Floris III, Count of Holland (1141–1190)
**Floris IV, Count of Holla ...
Mark Power
Mark Power (born 1959) is a British photographer. He is a member of Magnum Photos and Professor of Photography in The Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the University of Brighton.Stephan Petermann, Levi Bryant,
Nicholas de Monchaux Nicholas de Monchaux (born July 30, 1973) is a designer and author, and currently Professor and Head of Architecture at MIT. He was formerly Professor of Architecture and Urban Design in the College of Environmental Design at the University of Cali ...
Cruz Garcia
Cruz is a surname of Iberian origin, first found in Castile, Spain, but later spread throughout the territories of the former Spanish and Portuguese Empires. In Spanish and Portuguese, the word means "cross", either the Christian cross or t ...
,
Kathrin Golda-Pongratz
Kathrin or ''Katrin'' or ''Kathryn'' or ''Kathrine'' is a female given name.
Persons with the name
* Ann-Kathrin Kramer (born 1966), German writer and actress
* Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff (born 1960), German athlete in equestrian
* Kathryn Adams (actr ...
Deane Simpson
Deane may refer to:
Places
* Deane, Greater Manchester, an area of Bolton and a former historic parish
* Deane, Hampshire, a village
* Deane, Kentucky
Ships
* USS Deane (1778), USS ''Deane'' (1778), US Navy frigate named after Silas Deane
* HMS ...
Frits van Dongen
Frits van Dongen (born 12 March 1946, in 's-Hertogenbosch) is an architect from the Netherlands. He designed a canal-side municipal theatre for the city of Leeuwarden with his firm De Architecten Cie. The building he designed that is known as The ...
Junya Ishigami
(born 1974 in Kanagawa prefecture) is a Japanese architect.
He acquired his master's degree in architecture and planning at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2000. Ishigami worked with Kazuyo Sejima from 2000 to 2004 at SANAA, ...
Karla Rothstein
Karla Maria S. Rothstein (born 1966) is an American architect and adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is also the founder and director of Columbia University's trans-discip ...
,
Miguel Candela
-->
Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael (given name), Michael. It may refer to:
Places
*Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands ...
,
Christopher Coutts
Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει� ...
,
Julie Rugg
Julie may refer to:
* Julie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name
Film and television
* ''Julie'' (1956 film), an American film noir starring Doris Day
* ''Julie'' (1975 film), a Hindi film by K. S. Sethumadhava ...
,
Katrina Spade
Recompose is a public benefit corporation founded by designer and death care advocate Katrina Spade in 2017, building upon her 2014 non-profit organization Urban Death Project.
Recompose is a Washington state based company offering a death car ...
,
Cameron Jamie
Cameron may refer to:
People
* Clan Cameron, a Scottish clan
* Cameron (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Cameron (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
;Mononym
* Cam'ron (born 197 ...
Anne Mie Depuydt
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
,
David Schalliol
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
DK Osseo-Asare
DK (or variants) may refer to:
In arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''DK'' (film), a 2015 Indian film
* Derek "DK" Kitson, a character in the television series ''Third Watch'', played by Derek Kelly
* Dark Kingdom (professional wre ...
(2020, ''MONU'' #32 – Affordable Urbanism)
Beatriz Colomina Beatriz Colomina (born 1952) is an architecture historian, theorist and curator. She is the founding director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University, the Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture and Direct ...
,
Jessica Bridger
Jessica may refer to:
Given name
* Jessica (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters with this name
* Jessica Folcker, a Swedish singer known by the mononym Jessica
* Jessica Jung, a Korean-American singer known by the m ...
Richard Sennett
Richard Sennett (born 1 January 1943) is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and former University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. He is currently a Senior Fellow of the Center on Capitalis ...
,
Alexander Jachnow
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants li ...
,
Nadia Shira Cohen
Nadia is a female name. Variations include Nadja, Nadya, Nadine, Nadiya, and Nadiia. Most variations of the name are derived from Arabic, Slavic languages, or both.
In Slavic, names similar to ''Nadia'' mean "hope" in many Slavic languages: Uk ...
(2020, ''MONU'' #33 – Pandemic Urbanism)
Mabel O. Wilson
Mabel O. Wilson (born 1963) is an American architect, designer, and scholar. She is the founder of Studio& and a professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University Graduate School of Architect ...
Ulrich Lebeuf Ulrich (), is a German given name, derived from Old High German ''Uodalrich'', ''Odalric''. It is composed of the elements '' uodal-'' meaning "(noble) heritage" and ''-rich'' meaning "rich, powerful". Attested from the 8th century as the name of Al ...
,
Hans Pruijt
Hans may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Hans (name), a masculine given name
* Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician
** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans
** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...