People in Europe are more and more interested in shaping their own surroundings. Self Building Building transforms the current top- down building practice into a more flexible system with a bottom-up and adaptive approach. How to create your own affordable building as an individual or a group without it being an illegal or unsafe structure. How to negotiate with your neighbors and collaborate with the local government. An international exchange on personal ways to create space.

Cities are filled with numerous – at first sight invisible – borders. Between rich and poor, between ethnic groups, between high and low, between dense and sprawl, in short between center and periphery. But who and what define these borders? Are they problematic? Do they tell underlying stories? Explore some borders of Shenzhen (Meilin and Dalang) with us and each other.

Megacities are filled with numerous – at first sight invisible – borders. Between rich and poor, between ethnic groups, between high and low, between dense and sprawl, in short between center and periphery. But who and what define these borders? Are they problematic? Do they tell underlying stories? Mexico City seems to be full of telling borders that generate ideas on the past, present and future of the city. There is the border of the former lake, the border of the public transport systems, the border of federal states, borders for legal abortion, and possibly many more.

Macomb County, one of the suburban counties surrounding Detroit, is currently undergoing a process similar to the economic devastation that the Motor City has been experiencing over the last 40 years. Tax foreclosures, social fragmentation, budget crisis at every level of government, the fragility of the auto industry and a dearth of leadership have intersected to create a growing state of emergency. The current real estate crisis is hitting homeowners in Macomb County hard.

What are the urgencies and opportunities of these spaces in terms of design of social security and cultural sustainability, as well as housing and business?

How do we know Kabul? As a city of warlords, a frontline, a zone of utter destruction caused by modern warfare, a place of religious intolerance, the capital that is painstakingly reconstructed while a war is fought in the south. Kabul is a far-away place, dangerous and hostile – this is our outsider’s point of view. Reality, however, is more complex.

The illegal building activities after the war seriously affected the city structure of Prishtina heavily and raised social, infrastructural, and security problems. Because of the specific political situation and the lack of in its responsibility clearly differentiated institutional structures, the local administration as well as the responsible department of the United Nations (UN-HABITAT) have been not able to establish necessary standards in the building process. There is also no public awareness of the fundamental problems of illegal settlement.

After destruction through war or any other inhumane deployment of technology, capital and energy, we are left with sites, minds and societies unbuilt. Leveled to the ground. Making room for denial, doubt and a divided society. Understandable but unacceptable. This condition needs those who dare to envision perspectives beyond the ruins…

Communism is a theory of the future. Capitalism is a practice of the present. Traditionalism is a longing for the past. We are used to make a choice between these three concepts, according to character and personal interest. But what if it all happens at one place, at one moment? What if we stand still and think about it in contemporary China?