Chongqing's Redding International Tower A, a 48-story structure right in the heart of the city’s CBD. The tower is famous for its vibrant variety of offerings, seemingly unlimited possibility to explore, and hint of mystery. From cat cafes, to bridal photo studios, experimental dining, and themed cinemas, Redding International Tower A is an ever-changing vertical city and quiet an unique anomaly in Chinas real estate landscape.

Let’s be honest: We got stuck. Stuck in between the business of work­ing multiple jobs, writing grant applications that hardly ever work, overseeing a new (digital) VOLUME shop (which some of you have been finding by now, but there is room for more), making social media posts, and caught up in the bonanza of bi/triennials that happened in the fall/spring (more about that in the next issue!). Then, it got even worse as our/your subscription management company bailed on us by going bust. Still, we needed another issue and fast.

The recently rebuilt castle in Berlin, known as "Das Schloss”, which host the Humbolt Forum, was one of the most discussed architecture in Berlin because of its political, symbolic and financial implications. The German federal government spent approximately 700 million euros to build a "fake castle" as a combination of revenge and nostalgia for the destruction of Berlin's original beauty by East Germany, while demolition one of the symbols oft the DDR, the Palast der Republik.

Architecture doesn’t always play the role of nation-builder. But thanks to TV, architecture is often the site where nation-building takes place. In the great domestication of television-watching following Word War Two, our living rooms have become the main receptor for a TV-led nationalism. Andrés Jaque describes its quintessential case: Italy and Berlusconi’s own development of Milano 2.

2016 has been a year of significant and uncelebrated milestones which, whether we have acknowledged them or not, serve as a very real reminder of fundamental shifts each redefining how information is being processed and delivered.

Architectural practice requires a degree of intimacy and insight into complex sets of forces. While building is architecture’s bread and butter, it’s not always the best format to make a statement. It’s sometimes not even the most appropriate language to respond to a brief. Volume spoke with Reinier de Graaf of OMA/AMO about how research and media can become a vessel for political agendas.

In light of recent political events and those to come in the United States and beyond, we've decided to dig into our archive and pull out some uncannily relevant articles. The first, originally published ten years ago in Volume #7: Power Logic (Architecture of Power, Part 3), is a reflection by Gwenda Blair on the rise of Donald Trump and cultures of salesmanship.

Berlusconi’s role in Italian and Global politics had a great influence, to the point that in 2016, during the rise to the US presidency of Donald Trump, he has been described his political ancestor. The Italian politician owns his political success to his real estate and media companies that created, with projects like Milano 2, a new visual and cultural imaginary for the country. In 2001 Luca Molinari wrote for Volume a piece right before Berlusconi was nominated prime minister for the second time after winning the elections in June.