Sociopolis is a project for the building of a city neighbourhood of public housing in the 21st century. Under the direction of Vicente Guallart, thirteen international architects (Toyo Ito, MVRDV, FOA, François Roche, etc.) propose schemes for the construction of a neighborhood in the city of Valencia, schemes in which a new relationship is posited with the farming and natural environment, thus creating the conditions for a new shared habitat.

New Geographies journal aims to examine the emergence of the “geographic,” a new but for the most part latent paradigm in design today—to articulate it and to bring it to bear effectively on the social role of design. Although much of the analysis of this context in architecture, landscape, and urbanism derives from social anthropology, human geography, and economics, the journal aims to extend these arguments to the impact of global changes on the spatial dimension, whether in terms of the emergence of global spatial networks, global cities, or nomadic practices, and how these inform design practices today. Through essays and design projects, the journal aims to identify the relationship between the very small and the very large, and intends to open up discussions on the expanded role of the designer, with an emphasis on disciplinary reframings, repositionings, and attitudes.

Internet has changed our lives but it has not yet changed our cities. Any technological revolution takes paired radical transformations in the life styles. If the age of the car and the oil shaped the cities of the 20th century, the society of the information will form those of the 21st century. It is an unstoppable evolution that, nevertheless, it is necessary to be able to lead with criterion. It is a question of taking advantage of the urban experiences accumulated for centuries by the human beings and having present that the growth cannot be unlimited and the energetic resources that our planet offers have expiry date. Vicente Guallart exposes this fascinating process in a book loaded with ideas, information and proposals. As observer, thinker and pioneer of the architecture of the future, Guallart proposes the regeneration of the cities (from the housing to the metropolis) to stimulate a new economy of the urban innovation. A path with destined to the self-sufficiency local resources, and to the global connectivity as knowledge and information. Because the connected self-sufficiency get the cities and the persons who inhabit them been stronger, free and independent.

The importance of innovation and technology today brings with it a need for change in the definition of doctoral education, in the training of researchers, doctoral research itself, and in the dissemination areas targeted by doctoral theses. In Europe, doctoral education is the focus of wide-ranging reform in order to achieve coherence in higher education. Doctoral Education in Architecture: Challenges and Opportunities deals with a topic on which there is currently little literature available. While there are a considerable number of publications on doctoral education in general and in country-specific contexts, field-specific publications are rare. This book contains data obtained from a pilot study set up by the editors on “The Nature and Structure of Doctoral Studies in Architecture”, as well as excerpts from a workshop based on this study, held at Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Architecture. It includes excerpts from the discussion sessions and contributions on contexts, conditions, and problems in architectural schools in several European countries. This volume provides an overview and insight for future challenges for doctoral education in the field of architecture. Contributors include: Gülsün Sağlamer; Fatma Erkök; Gary Moore; Kemal Gürüz; Hans Beunderman; Murray Fraser; Stefan Simion; Katalin Marótzy; Vilma Hastaoglou-Martinidis; Georgios Papakostas; Constantin Spyridonidis; Olivier Masson; Jean Stillemans; Pelin Dursun; and Philip Ursprung.

This volume features the proceedings of the NATO AR Workshop held in Kishinev, the capital of Moldova, a fom1er Soviet Republic in the South Eastern Europe. OUiing 3 working days 26 reports were presented, 8 of them by, or in collaboration with, speakers from Kishinev. The reports arc presented in the order they were given at the Workshop. As the topic was rather wide-ranged, all the sittings were plenmy. The opening communication was made by the Mayor of Kishinev S. Urckian, who was the Chainnan of the Organizing Committee. It was followed by other reports of general orientation. The second half of the first day was devoted to the research results and problems of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. On the second day the Workshop was hosted by the Technical University of Moldova. At the beginning, the ceremonial sitting of its Scientific Council took place, at which two scientists were made doctors Honoris Causa of that University: Prof. K. Frolov from Russia and Prof. G.Parissakis from Greece. Then the plenary sessions continued. The round-table talk, held in the second half of the last day, appeared to be very fruitful. A relaxed and friendly atmosphere of it was appropriate for establishing closer contacts and discussing problems of mutual interest for scientists, ingineers, managerial heads and officers and businessmen.