Edited by Kersten Geers & Jelena Pancevac

This book chronicles the fourth academic year of the studio led by Kersten Geers at the Academy of Architecture USI in Mendrisio. It was produced as a counterpart to Experiments in Thickness, a book which focused on the work of Giancarlo de Carlo in Urbino. As a means of grappling with that elephant in the room—the modern project—and its perceived failure of good intentions, all the projects gathered here are an update of sorts. Abstract overarching narratives were updated as premises for projects in Milan, De Carlo’s campus in Urbino was updated to accommodate current student population, and unrealised projects in Milan were revived to create a radically contemporary urbanity. But this was not an exercise in nostalgia and retrieval of the lost cause, as much as seeking an opportunity in a modernist ending.