Whether we have entered, or about to enter, a “dark age” is still open for debate. For our part, we do concur with Tom Fisher and his polemic, which opens this issue, that the signs of a “dark age are arising around the world today.” Taking inspiration from Jane Jacobs’ book Dark Age Ahead (2004), Fisher reminds us of our agency in resisting the current “cultural collapse” by clinging to Jacobs’ “five pillars”: families and communities, education vs credentialing, metropolitan economies, ethical governance, professional self-policing. Speaking truth to power, Fisher articulates a compelling argument for a wake-up call for an ethical stance, also specific to our design fields, that ties back to the discourse initiated on the platform of our journal through the last themed issue (fall 2024) on “democratic space.”    

Opening a rich tapestry of lines of inquiry and perspective views, as it is typical of our open issues, is Andy Bako, who brings us back to another topic (AI) that we explored in a former themed issue (fall 2023), but with a rather interesting thrust. In fact, his research tries to demonstrate “how architecture can productively engage this tension [between new computational tools and physical resources] through novel approaches to material recycling and digital transformation.”  

Still speculative, though on more operational terms (but at the urban scale), Gregorio Froio et al. try to revisit Oswald Mathias Ungers’ interpretive and projective model of the “archipelago city” and its agency vis-à-vis contemporary urban conditions. 

“Architecture is the thoughtful making of place”: thus, one could paraphrase Louis I. Kahn while embarking on the sentimental journey across the Swiss and Austrian Prealps proposed by Andreas Luescher and his reflections on a series of inspiring mountain chapels. The tactile dimensions of those chapels’ tectonics remind us of the unexplored possibilities offered to us by material innovation. In fact, Pablo Moyano Fernandez shares with us his research of tilt-up concrete wall construction as a casting alternative to cast-in-place and precast systems. As he notes, “the production of concrete building envelopes with complex geometries opens a range of design possibilities for load-bearing building envelopes with simple and affordable means.”    

Intertwining cross-disciplinary research and pedagogical studies, Hannibal Newsom uses the lens of Magical Realism to question geo-engineering strategies geared at fighting global warming, while Richard Hindle discusses patent innovation advancements to address climate adaptation, and Roberto Castillo Melo drills down into the very core of a fundamental question that confronts every educator on how the spatial character of an architecture school can impact its pedagogy.      

We conclude this issue with two book reviews and an exhibition report. 

Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa discusses Marianna Charitonidou’s book on the role of drawings and representation in building the ethos, as well as the contradictions, of modern architecture. Luis Miguel [Koldo] Lus Arana reviews Andreea Mihalache’s book on the theme of boredom across the works of three towering figures of twentieth century art and architecture, such as Bernard Rudofsky, Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown, and Saul Steinberg. 

In closing, we offer a few notes on the current Venice Architecture Biennale, not quite on the specifics of the large and rich exhibition (inevitably spurring controversy), but rather highlighting one of its most outstanding merits: that one of facilitating a public discourse within our fields (still at a nascent stage as it may be) as a catalyst to grow our collective design intelligence.