If the school’s existing website can be described as GSAPP’s daily newspaper, CC: is seen as its Sunday magazine. The goal of the project is to keep readers informed about the school and its broad global network of activities. CC: offers a real-time monitor of the wider GSAPP: the expanded school that reaches from the deepest recesses of Avery Hall to the most energetic forms of practice and discourse in the furthest corners of the planet.

When it comes to the occupant of a given building there exists, of course, an infinite variety of customers. Certain buildings render most evidently the type of customer one can be. There are those whose restrictive nature rouses no revealing peculiarities among their occupants. Other buildings bear a distinctive neutral character, which is often born out of the specificity of their function. Time and capitalism have made of some buildings places whose physiognomy reminds us of better days.

How do we materialize peace? On the level of fundamental and basic needs, global society more or less knows what is wrong, and what to to do about it. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience in relief and first aid organizations, as there is with architects. We’re ready to intervene in conflict areas, to fight for peace, but what are we to do next? Experts seem agreed on strategies, but are the architects and politicians ready for the long-haul?

When things start talking back, you’ve become part of an Internet of Things. Auto-sensoring, basic intelligence, interaction, we’re increasingly part of a world were things and living souls are equally connected. The fridge is a node just as you are. Volume #28 dives into these new dimensions of reality, into the consequences for design and for our understanding of our own position in the world. Coders and architects are different beings and speak different languages, this issue seems to conclude.

“According to recent demographic studies, Vienna is expected to increase in population by 450,000 people within the next three decades. This projection poses new challenges to the city’s infrastructure and housing. Concurrently the city is experiencing a geo-political repositioning within Europe to a more centralized position. In this new context Vienna is challenged to redevelop its immediately eastern periphery; and perhaps more strategically, the area around the unused Aspern Airfield in the 22nd District.

At the center of modernist architectural polemic for much of the twentieth century, concrete’s role in the built environment has continued to expand while seeming to slip from view. Recent technological developments and growing demand for the Earth’s limited resources have further highlighted its central role in the transformation of architecture and urbanism worldwide.

In times of crisis, there is an increasing demand for strong leadership. A call for guides who can lead us out of the misery. In this latest issue VOLUME explores ‘the guide’ as both a figure and a product that can blaze a path to the future. This issue also includes the bonus supplement ‘Beyroutes’, a guidebook to Beirut. Guiding is helping: to lead someone safely to the destiny of their choice. A guide delivers a reliable service, selling safety in potentially risky situations. With The Guide, VOLUME presents a diverse collection of guides and attempts to guide.

The Counterculture issue of Volume goes beyond the boundaries of architecture to tap into a key moment in the history the US in the 1960s, examining how it has influenced our beliefs today. With the aid of countercultural leaders, historians, and architects, Volume identifies three strands of counterculture-- technology, environment and community--and looks at their legacy in relation to contemporary practice.