ARCH+, an iconic architecture magazine that holds a leading position within the German-speaking discourse and beyond, dedicates its 261st issue to the question of urban transformation through the lens of universities. Published under the title Stadtumbau – Schulen der Transformation (“Urban Transformation – Schools of Transformation”), the issue examines how higher education institutions are reconfiguring their spatial, social and political roles in a context shaped by ecological and structural challenges. Long regarded as institutions removed from everyday urban life, universities appear here as active agents capable of influencing societal and spatial change.

Curated by Thorsten Erl, Tobias Hönig and the collective c/o now, the issue brings together essays, analyses and case studies, including one focused on the University of Siegen. The publication highlights how academic spaces can function as testing grounds for new forms of urban organisation and renewed relationships between campus and city.

The issue, designed by Dan Solbach, features a typographic system combining AL Sigla by Alex Lescieux, Futura by Paul Renner, which has been part of the magazine since its very first issue in 1968, and ABC Displayy a.k.a. Display Grotesk by Chi-Long Trieu, to be released by Dinamo. The interplay of these three typefaces creates a visual rhythm that is both distinctive and clear, supporting the variety of contributions assembled in the edition.

Julien Creuzet represented France at the 60th Venice Biennale, held from April 20 to November 24, 2024. His catalog carries a title that stretches like a great wave: Attila cataracte ta source aux pieds des pitons verts finira dans la grande mer gouffre bleu.

The 368-page volume, designed by Alliage and WIP Office, centers on a constellation of collages and seventy text fragments from authors of the African diaspora. White is replaced with silver ink that catches light like reflections on water, while the black layer is removed so that darkness itself shines and the images vibrate in unexpected colors.

Set in AL Sigla Neretta and Neretta Corsiva, typefaces designed by Alex Lescieux as a revival of Umberto Fenocchio’s FTC Sigla, an Italian version of Times, the catalog emphasizes Creuzet’s shifting, diasporic poetics. Like its title, it moves and resonates, highlighting diasporic histories and decolonial stakes, where poetry, collage, and voice converge in a tide that resists erasure.

Sotto le Pietre, il Sale is the first publication by studio x01, founded by Giorgio Viscardi and Gabriele Rossi. Based in Milan, their studio focuses primarily on producing videos for commercial clients. This marks the beginning of their first adventure as independent art publishers, highlighting the photographic work of Giovanni Galanello on the island of San Pietro, Italy. This photographic series, limited to 100 copies, depicts the sea, rocks, seaweed, boats, nets, hands, salt, cold scales, and buildings with barely lit rooms, capturing the daily life of the fishermen on the island in the Sulcis archipelago. On the back cover, it reads (translated from the Italian):

They return when the Moon is already high. They drag the sleeping bodies into the dimly lit room. With their fingers, they rummage through the entrails. They spread the pale sacks filled with eggs on the bed of white crystals, covering the heart like in a limestone mound, a large, still warm ruby. Salt to salt. Purple streaks stain the white bed. Under the stones, in the salt, hung on threads to dry, they prepare the organs for divination.

It was designed by the studio Aisslinger Pellegrino, with a composition in AL Linea Nera for the text and AL Sigla Medium for the titles. Both are revivals of typefaces designed by Umberto Fenocchio for the Fonderia Tipografica Cooperativa in the 1960s.

Story for a book presentation at Sansecondo

Self-promotion for the musical artist Tam Bor, the other side of designer Giacomo Bastianelli.

The black and white caps were produced in a limited edition of 50 (x2) copies, hand-numbered with each purchase, on a dedicated inner label composed in AL Sigla Nera. The outlined “tam bor” is custom lettering.

AL Sigla is a revival started in 2022 and aiming to be as faithful as possible to the original FTC Sigla by Umberto Fenocchio likely launched in the sixties, using very precise scans of all the characters shown in the original specimens. AL Sigla is already available on request in six weights including the three original versions, Neretta (Regular), Neretta Corsiva (Regular Italic) and Nera (Bold), with the addition of three intermediate weights (Book, Medium, and SemiBold). The expansion of the italics in all weight is currently under development.