Cities are infinite cultural hyper-objects that contain layers of history, of contemporary life, of material, capital, infrastructure, of future dreams of what may come. We sometimes call these dreams “urban design plans” — two-dimensional drawings that are meant to capture our aspirations for the future of a place. Yet these plans are often static images — or, worse, building masses without people, narratives, or even nods to contextual histories. Approximate Translation is a poetic and practical rumination on how to incorporate what makes a city a city — stories about place, an...