The Things Around Us

The architectural offices 51N4E and Rural Urban Framework operate at the seams of urbanization, with projects situated in transitional settlements in Ulaanbaatar, in the new vernacular of rural China, in the transforming centre of Europe’s capital and in Albania’s shifting public spaces. By collaborating with policymakers, local contractors, and NGOs and engaging their respective labs at the University of Hong Kong and ETH Zürich as key sites of research, both offices investigate new forms of cooperation and dialogue as crucial design strategies. Comparing their research and design processes, this book questions the extents and certainties of architecture against backdrops of unstable planetary urbanization, insecure economies and ecologies, and indeterminate notions of citizenship.