Flat Out is an independent print magazine that enacts multiple genres of architectural criticism through fifteen recurring, fictitious characters. In each issue readers will find a series of columns—essays, exposés, memoirs, letters, pitches, illustrations, conversations, vignettes, and polemics—authored by a rotating cast of undercover writers and designers. Character portraits by a different artist are commissioned for every issue.

Published twice a year, Flat Out takes its time as fast as it can, providing distance from the present tense. We invite the brave, the curious, and the skeptical alike—architects, artists, critics, curators, designers, illustrators, journalists, scholars, students, and lovers of design culture in general—to participate in untimely dialogues across diverse positions and personalities.