Volume 22 The Guide + Beyroutes. A guide to Beirut
Don’t be confused by the title – guiding is not entirely the issue here, rather creating realisable alternatives and a new reality. Volume takes the reader on a ‘guided’ tour around the world to explore different cities, their possibilities and new discoveries. Respective projects visited in different cities include those found in Melbourne, Istanbul and different locations in Russia, while other highlights include; Atelier Bow-Wow’s guide to the 13th Arrondissement of Paris; an atlas of love and hate – a visit to the Detroit unreal estate agency, and an essay on the relevance of Jane Jacobs. Included in a separate edition is an invaluable guidebook to Beirut which presents an exploded view of a city with its multiple truths, myths and historical falsifications that in turn acts as a field manual for the 21st century urban explorer.

Paperback / 170 + 54 pages / text English / January 2010

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Volume 21 The Block
Custom-made but Mass-produced. In rich countries population shrinkage seems a bigger issue than growth. Yet globally, housing shortage will be a main problem for decades to come. Vast urbanizations in developed, developing and under-development economies have one common denominator: an immediate need for quality housing. Housing the billions: never before were those involved in architecture and construction confronted with such a challenge. A one-fits-all solution seems unthinkable since most mass housing schemes in the past failed and originated in dictatorship or total absence of power. Based on an analysis of one of the housing experiments of the past, the Soviet Microrayon, Volume proposes a new prototype. A housing block, which is custom-made but mass-produced and conceived via open source standards.

Paperback / 176 pages / text English / September 2009

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Volume 20 Storytelling
This past year numerous dramas have competed for our attention: sub-prime mortgages, banking meltdown, bailout, stimulus, pandemic, bankruptcy. The all-consuming effort to follow these events seldom leaves a moment to contemplate the explanations themselves. What is the stated dilemma, context or motive for any one of these problems? And most importantly, how does a problem’s formulation determine its proposed solution? Volume 20 is dedicated to the art of storytelling. It presents the storylines of current events and architecture to show that while the truth is important, so is the ability of fiction to elevate fact. Perhaps the best way to understand our era is through narratives that distort, pervert and animate reality?

Paperback / 160 pages / text English / July 2009

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Volume 19 Architecture of Hope
Robert Venturi once wrote ‘Main Street is almost all right’ – a celebratory comment on the messy vitality of the built environment of the ordinary. In this connection, society’s ambiguities, its causalities and improvisations have led to a wide and diverse range of practices such as top-down interventions + subcultures + subversive acts + minority expressions.. practices which architecture embraces along with the manifold experiences of the city. Volume examines the architectural task of relating the design of spaces that advance and address new collective dreams, myths while also examining scenarios about what we are and desire.

Paperback / 160 pages / text English / April 2009

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Volume is a global idea platform to voice architecture any way, anywhere, anytime. The magazine promotes the expansion of architectural territories and the new mandate for design.

Format: 17 x 24 cm
160 pages illustrated in colour
Text: English
Frecuency: four issues per year

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Volume 12 Al Manakh
Unveiled at the International Design Forum, held this year in Dubai, “Al Manakh” provides a long overdue, and much needed survey of the current state of architecture and design in the Middle East. Comprising three sections, the first features a guide to Dubai, edited by Moutamarat; the second, a survey of planning and development in the Gulf States, by AMO; and lastly; a Global Agenda for design, as envisioned by Archis. Illustrated throughout, and accompanied by essays and commentaries, “Al Manakh” provides valuable insights into a dynamic and volatile region.

Paperback / 496 pages / text English / 2007

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