N°2 | 2008 ON EVOLUTION

During the 19th century the term ‘kiosk’ was sometimes used to indicate both a building intended for open air musical performances, effectively a variant of the garden outhouse (gazebo), and the many news-stands, namely small structures within the city dedicated to the sale of newspapers, drinks, tobacco products, flowers or toys. This sort of small commercial enterprise has never ceased to operate in the city spaces and for this reason it has been the protagonist of some interesting evolutionary processes at both the technological and conceptual level.

This second monograph of 2008 presents a number of ‘single items’, signed by important protagonists of architectural design, which have characterized from the 1980s onwards the urban redevelopment projects of which they are a part. By this means it has attempted to rediscover the true connotations of the kiosk as a design object. This is achieved without prejudice to the functional purposes for which it was created, but by reinforcing and redefining them to meet a demand which has become more exacting and which needs to be answered today not only by care for the aesthetic profile  a feature which already marked this typology of articles in the 19th century  but also by sophisticated technology.

INDEX

KIOSK, GAZEBOS, PERGOLAS, PAVILIONS. Evolution and fortune in the contemporary city project

THE KIOSK. From domestic temple to commercial space