The Modernist magazine #46

massive

Here at the modernist we are not prone to fits of hyperbole, nor do we like to make overblown claims about our humble little magazine. However, on this occasion we can confidently say that this issue is going to be MASSIVE.

In fact, we’ll just come out and say it: for now, big really is better. In this issue, we’re looking at all things grand, large, colossal and epic; literally, metaphorically and otherwise.John Grindrod celebrates the much maligned Millennium Dome. While its initial ambition was perhaps never reached, it could now be said that the world’s ninth biggest building stands today as a monument to a more optimistic time in Britain’s recent past. Meanwhile, Gillian Darley looks at the work of master factory builders Albert Kahn Associates.

Not only did they change the physical landscape with their enormous industrial buildings, they also helped shape global economics and geo-politics. We would be remiss if we didn’t feature some large social housing schemes, so here we visit two. Photographers Stefano Sam and Rick Moran take us around Rome’s Nuovo Corviale and London’s Heygate Estate respectively, both lamenting the loss of the ideologies and ambitions upon which these projects were conceived and constructed.

At the other end of the scale, Patrick Millar throws off the shackles of our own planet altogether as we join him on a voyage to the moon, where he contemplates the almost inconceivable challenges to establishing life on other worlds.

Never let it be said we are scared of tackling the biggest subjects within our pages. With this issue, it’s safe to say we’ve packed a huge amount into a relatively slim volume. So with that in mind we suggest you take a seat, prepare yourself a soothing beverage and cut yourself a MASSIVE slice of modernist pie.

the editors