• OASE 110
        • The Project of the Soil
        • 2022

        Abstract
        This issue of OASE makes a critical analysis of how soil connects to urban planning and urban design, and how it can adjust those practices in exploring new agendas.

        For a long time, the theme of soil – as matter, not as territory – has been the quasi exclusive subject of agriculture, geography and soil science. Only in the last few decades, due to a rapidly growing awareness of climate change, has soil increasingly come into focus in urban design, in particular as a matter that can also provide ecosystem services in urban environments.

        The editors of OASE 110 believe that soils, although degraded and fragmented, call to be looked upon with a new gaze. They should be rearticulated in a new project aimed at the construction of a shared, productive and inhabited nature, containing different elements of urbanity and offering – at the same time – a more resilient and sustainable environment for all.

        Inspired by Bernardo Secchi’s 1986 text ‘Progetto di Suolo’, this issue of OASE makes a critical analysis of how soil – as an intermediary package that connects surface and subsurface – can further connect to the practices of urbanism and urban design, and how it can guide those practices in exploring new agendas.


    1. 21/11/2023
      call for conversations OASE 118

      Rationalism Revisited

      This Call is written by Justin Agyin, Bart Decroos, Christoph Grafe. The deadline is 17 December 2023.

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    2. 11/11/2023
      call for abstracts OASE 119
      1. Review of Jean-Louis de Cordemoy's Nouveau traité de toute l'architecture in Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences & des beaux-arts, September 1706

      Book Reviews
      From Words to Buildings
      In this issue of OASE, the history of the architectural book review is outlined through case studies. This Call is written by Christophe Van Gerrewey and Hans Teerds. The deadline is 20 December 2023.

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    3. 06/03/2023
      BK Talks on 16 March 2023 about 'Design with Soil: Urbanizing the living surface'

      On 16 March 2023 the TU Delft will host a debate inspired by OASE 110.

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    4. 21/02/2023
      Call for Abstracts OASE 117. Village Variations

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    5. 31/01/2023
      Now available: OASE 113. Authorship

      What does the author’s ‘owning’ of a project mean? And does this sense of ownership still prevail in contemporary architecture culture? Other more open forms of cooperation and co-creation are emerging alongside the concept of individual singular authorship.

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    6. 02/12/2022
      Presentation OASE 112 on 8 December 2022 in Rotterdam, NL

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    7. 24/11/2022
      Call for Abstracts OASE 116
      1. Carmen Portinho in front of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (source: Wikimedia Commons)

      ‘The Architect as Public Instellectual’
      Deadline: 23-12-2022

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    8. 15/10/2022
      Now available: OASE 112. Ecology & Aesthetics

      Through a series of concrete projects, the contributions in this issue explore the field of tension between architectural aesthetics and issues of energy, technology and materiality. Ecological practices in architecture must not only be effective in providing solutions, but inevitably raise questions of beauty, affection and perception as well.

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    9. 23/05/2022
      Call for Abstracts OASE #115. Interferences: Migrating Practices in Europe

      Call for Abstracts OASE #115 about “Interferences: Migrating Practices in Europe”, written by Justin Agyin, Kornelia Dimitrova, Christoph Grafe and Bernard Colenbrander. Deadline is June 19, 2022. Read the full text of the OASE #115 Call for Abstracts in the PDF.

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    10. 20/05/2022
      Now available: OASE 111. Staging the Museum

      Museums stage public encounters between visitors, objects and stories. This is not limited to a tour through the exhibition spaces, it starts already with monumental or ‘tresholdless’ entrances.

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