A certain inventive disregard, or just a need to do things differently. This is what Nicolas Michelin, the architect and urban planner, recommends in this new work. In other words he means shunning routine, getting around regulatory or uncertain objectives, or avoiding ambiguous environmental excuses so as to escape the stranglehold of standardization which grips current architectural production.

However, Nicolas Michelin then suddenly makes a sidestep. In an unexpected way, he unfurls four short stories which bring the reader into a strange universe, inviting them into paralell worlds where architecture always appears in the shadows. From constructions and real landscapes, he outlines hallucinations on temporalities and spatialities which have been bizarrly subverted.

He goes on to lead three conversations with collaborators who share his approach. He discusses the practice’s approach of working on both the urban and architectural scales. Finally, he exchanges a couple of words about the Renaissance with an artist and chats with two younger architects about the notion of commitment.

Througout these texts, he clarifies his position as an architect as well as his political position.