Strategic Practice
OMNIBUS
OMNIBUS is an urban design and research practice created in 2009 by Noboru Kawagishi and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes. From the beginning on, OMNIBUS has been defined as a trans-disciplinary structure, meant to be at crossroads of media, art, politics, illustration, landscape, architecture, and urban design. Born as a critique of the obsolete ways of architecture and urban design practice, OMNIBUS believes that planning disciplines must open up towards other fields and should be political and controversial whenever needed.
OMNIBUS is engaged in several projects, from competition design, consultancy to self-initiated and collaborative research. The most recent research is ‘Other Urbanizations‘, a project that investigates the relationship between various political economies and urban forms in European cities (Berlin, Marseille, Zürich among others) and an ongoing, decade-long research and teaching practice on urban development in Asia (Singapore, Japan, China, etc).
OMNIBUS is a registered company in Japan.
2009-... with Noboru Kawagishi
Never Demolish! Project for Hoffmateli, CH, 2021.
Building Cairo
with Bernardo Falcao (based on works of the MAS Urban Design 2015-17)
Ardilewa, informal Cairo
Allotment Garden: A Tactic
A long-term project on the allotment garden of the agglomeration of Zurich evolved in proposing an urban design tactic to defend the gardens against the municipality's strategy of land reserve, ultimatly leading to the demisse of these gardens for public infrastructure related to real-estate fueled urban growth.
Garden of Paradise, view
Project entry for Hardau housing block competition, City of Zürich, 2010
Garden of Paradise, plan
Project entry for Hardau housing block competition, City of Zürich, 2010
Hardbrücke: The Shadow of the City
A long-term research on infrastructure and interstitial spaces, published with DOM.