Volume #32: Centers Adrift

Centers are on the move – and so too peripheries. As the world grows more complex different systems are claiming different territories. Distribution networks, financial hubs, industrial zones, food belts, wind farms, data centers, they all develop their own logic and territorial claim, not necessarily overlapping in what was once called the center. And our traditionally conceived centers (downtown, the Western world, global cities) are slipping away. When assessing these claims, the question is forced: Are you in or are you out?

Volume 32: Centers Adrift checks out new notions of centrality, of emerging patterns and entities that influence our understanding of relationship and interdependency as a new common ground for design. An issue featuring a 900 kilometer long city challenging our notion of ‘city’ and ‘actor networks’ as challenging our notion of planning. Centers become peripheries and vice versa, new centers and new peripheries emerge. Is one better than the other and can design make a difference here?