2024-11-21T13:40:30-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150048934/the-power-of-smallness-by-aina-coll-torrent MAGAZINEONURBANISM 2018-02-08T00:24:00-05:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/1o/1otwdt3es85q7cm8.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>MONU magazine's current issue #27 on "Small Urbanism" shows how small things can have a great impact on city life and planning, exploring themes such as micro-occupations as political protest, urban furniture to recover public spaces and fight criminality, acupunctural interventions for refugee settlements or tiny models used for military strategies.</p></em><br /><br /><p>There are architectural spaces that capture you through their smallest details. Almost five years ago, I visited the Crematorium building by Asplund in the Woodland Cemetery, in Stockholm. After crossing the artificial landscape along a seemingly introverted building, I remember entering a forecourt, grabbing a beautiful door handle and entering a waiting room before reaching the chapel. A wooden bench was softly emerging from the wall, like a curved silk fabric, oriented towards a long window to an enclosed courtyard. The warmth of the space, enhanced by the metaphor of a domestic carpet and the rounding and softness of the corners, was suddenly disturbed by the image of a very small window which was framing very precisely the artificial hills and trees that were guiding the visitor when entering the site. The feeling of connection to an endless outside world condensed in a window was, somehow, sublime. </p><figure><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/st/std32ic6aqelcoyg.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1200"><figcaption>View through the window at the Woodland Crematorium, by Erik Gunnar Asplund....</figcaption></figure>