The photographs taken by Michele Nastasi of L'Aquila after the earthquake lay the city implacably bare as a place where it has become impossible to live: a deserted and surreal landscape, choked with structures shoring up the buildings and fixing the city in a state of suspension without any time limit. The photographs, accompanied by a set of drawings and critical essays written by Giorgio Agamben and Maddalena d'Alfonso, conjure up images of surgery: prostheses, braces and splints stabilize the body of the city, but while the operations have been a technical success, the patient shows no...

How and why do spectacular buildings get commissioned and procured? What are their visible urban effects? What can urban planners, architects, and policymakers learn in order to engage in more successful citymaking?
In recent years, media and critical attention has been lavished on famous architects, and the contributions of their designs to the branding of cities. The post- Bilbao effect global landscape is one where cities compete for the highest-profile skyscrapers, cultural projects, and high-profile developments designed by star architects whom even casual readers know by first...