Senses Atlas

Water management in the Netherlands has always been a major issue for the survival of the country. As more than half of the country’s land is below sea level, the majority of the territory is vulnerable to flooding or submergence. This has also influenced the land use and demography of the country. Some regions, highly exposed to natural hazards, have remained sparsely populated for several centuries.

The Fujian Tulou are rural dwellings in the Fujian region of China. The earthen buildings were built by the Hakka people from the 12th century to the 20th century. Their architecture is recognizable for its size, shape, construction technique and above all for its unique function both defensive and organized for the community.

Tomás Sánchez is a Cuban artist renowned for his landscape paintings. He developed a contemporary interpretation of landscape painting, inviting to meditation, absorbing the viewer confronted with his loneliness in an almost spiritual process. These forests, where there is almost no living soul, are havens of peace allowing one to take refuge under the foliage of the trees.

Carl Chun was a German zoologist who led the Valdivia Expedition. The purpose of this scientific expedition was to deepen the discoveries previously made by the Challenger Expedition. The marine biologist was an expert in octopus and squid and took advantage of the expedition to perfect his knowledge of the great depths.

Otto Neurath was an Austrian philosopher, sociologist and political economist. He is mainly known to be the inventor of the Isotype, a system of pictograms. He created this method in order to organize, analyze and graphically represent complex data and statistics to visually educate the population.

The study Parliament explores through 5 typologies the relation between architecture and politics. These typologies are often inspired by ancient influences and most of them have not changed since the 19th century. But the question remaining is how could architecture shape political culture ?

Between 2002 and 2005, Haubitz + Zoche travelled the Sinai and documented abandoned hotel resorts. These ghost-towns are filled with unfinished hotel structures, isolated in the middle of the desert. Due to the instability of the region and dubious investments, these hotel sites were never completed. They are photographed as the sad consequence of a tourism policy of uncontrolled urban development.

This Russian maze is a lithographed game dating from the 1870 Russian Empire. It includes the coat of arms of 57 major cities of Russian Empire, all numbered. Besides being a maze game, it is also kind of a map as the russian cities are located on the leaf in accordance with their geographical position.

La Description de l’Egypte (The Description of Egypt), is the first encyclopedia devoted exclusively to Egypt. It is a work from Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign, recounting the discoveries made during this scientific voyage. The fifth book of plates is La Description de l'Égypte: Antiquités, Volume V. It describes the pyramids of Giza, the city of Alexandria, and the Rosetta Stone.

The Basilica of San Petronia in Bologna is a huge religious example of Gothic architecture which has the specificity of being made of brick with only half of its facade in marble. The basilica is dedicated to the city's patron, saint Petronius. It was not consecrated until 1954 although its works began in the end of the 14th century.