For nearly fifty years "the building" has primarily been viewed as a means rather than an end within architectural history and theory. This volume presents an alternative to that trend by reconceiving it as a central discursive category in its own right. Contributors-including architects and thinkers from world-renowned institutions-offer poignant explorations of key architectural structures conceived across Asia and the West from the late 1980s to the present. In doing so, they propel the importance of architectural thinking as a domain of knowledge. Furthermore, in exploring those structures through a number of questions both intra- and meta-disciplinary, this book suggests ways in which buildings can trigger conceptual frameworks whose influence extends well beyond the boundaries of architecture. A balanced text-to-image ratio caters to readers in both practice and academia. "By closely analyzing these structures, the forty-three contributors are able to consider both the discipline and domains far beyond its reach." -Archinect

"Contributors based in Europe and the United States offer incisive explorations of key architectural structures from the 1980s to the present" -El Croquis

"In sum, a dense study of the area between the tangible world of buildings and the intangible world of ideas" -Arquitectura Viva

"Many of the essential figures in the discursive scene worldwide contributed to this unprecedented volume with a view to propel architectural thinking to a new level of importance" -e-flux