On a smaller scale, this proposal simply aims to produce a series of monographic manifestos featuring a small cluster of young and relatively unestablished yet daring architects. But the greater ambition for this project is to revisit the very idea of “paper architecture.” There seems to be a new class of architects who are on the verge of forming some strong opinions, and it is the desire for this project to expose them. This proposal knowingly regards three specific patterns of chapter-marking in the ongoing history of architecture: manifestoes, summits, and gangs. Considering Pamphlet Architecture (manifesto), Charlottesville Tapes (summits) and White on Gray (gangs) as three precedents, this work will reflect on these lessons as strategic whispers for Lai and his cohort on their journeys.

Jimenez Lai is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and leader of Bureau Spectacular. He graduated with an MArch from the University of Toronto. Previously, Lai lived and worked in a desert shelter at Taliesin and resided in a shipping container at Atelier Van Lieshout, on the piers of Rotterdam. In the past several years, Lai has built numerous installations, as well as exhibited and published widely. His first manifesto Citizens of No Place was published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. Draft II of this book has been archived at the New Museum as a part of the show Younger Than Jesus. In 2012, Lai became a winner of the Young Architects Forum/Architectural League Prize. His installation White Elephant has recently been collected by the Museum of Modern Art.