Marzahn is a housing estate of so-called «plattenbauten», speedily constructed in 1977 out of prefabricated concrete slabs in what was once East Berlin. TONK has erected wooden scaffolding in front of them. The intervention takes a new look at architecture that connotes an obsolete political system. It also resembles the way in which buildings are staked out in Switzerland prior to construction, so that the public may exercise its right of objection. As an expression of direct democracy, the stakes represent a political tool of communication between society and architecture.

Thus, interpretation may oscillate between retrospective contemplation of the past and a future-oriented look at architecture that has not yet been built. <trans18> deals with the relations of society - politics - architecture and art in a bid to contribute to the critical and constructive debate in this arena from a variety of perspectives.

The events of recent years not only shook the markets, but the fundamentals of our social self- understanding, our capitalist economic system and probably not least our understanding of architecture. Architecture that is serious about its role in defining social values is necessarily also architecture that cannot exist independently of its political, social and economic environment; it is by definition incumbent upon architects to take responsibility towards the society in which and for which they build.

When Werner Oechslin begins by asking, «Where do we stand? and anyway!» he is addressing the uncertainty that currently prevails as to the role of the architect, pitting it against the seemingly «intact» world of the past. However, without giving too much away, let it be said that his diagnosis of the crisis is both a comfort, of sorts, and an incentive. «There is a lack not only of inner directives, but also of an awareness and assessment

of [the architect's] own situation and the resulting purpose-oriented action.» The objective of this action, according to Oechslin, is to give momentum to something in the outside world that is useful to life.

Douglas Klahr advances a similar argument. In his article, he calls for more social responsibility among architects. Given the huge global housing crisis, where millions of people live in the most precarious, inhumane conditions, it is disturbing and indeed alarming that architects present no viable and, above all, no pragmatic solutions. «The result is that we have become a profession that is stunningly irrelevant to the vast majority of humanity.» What the world needs are builders, «not a feel-good, add-on studio or two of partici-patory design, but rather an entirely new pedagogy parallel to the existing one that will train experts - not «designers» - to respond to

this crisis.»

Rahul Mehrotra and Georg Aerni give us a deeper insight into the mechanisms and appearance of an urban conglomerate of almost uncontrollable growth. They deal with the current situation in Mumbai, each taking a different tack in examining similar phenomena. Mehrotra analyses the impotence of public planning in the face of the daunting challenges posed by the city, while the forced resettlement of slum dwellers in Aerni's deeply moving photographs makes the tension between the aesthetic appeal and the cruel hostility of his subject matter almost unbearably palpable.

From distant countries back to Switzerland. As a former architect who has gone into politics, Patrick Gmür talks in his interview about the challenges that he faces as a municipal architect in Zurich. He, too, appeals to architects to take responsibility, deploring their lack of political commitment and urging them to recognize, accept and act on the fact that they are part of a greater whole.

In contrast, artist San Keller deliberately addresses the realm between architecture and politics by «contributing» to our magazine an application form for a building permit. As a standardized medium between private developers and the public planning authorities - and in a wider sense between the individual and society - the application is symbolic of the omnipresent, but often unperceived interface between architecture and politics. That interface is much more obvious when it comes to borders: borders define territories. They may be social barriers or even prisons, as in Bartleby's world, but they may also delimit productive areas of new, unexpected and catalysing interaction. Territories are also the subject matter of the contribution by Marc Angélil and Cary Siress, who demonstrate the power exerted by abstract maps on real territory. They examine a Switzerland clamped between the extremes of isolation and expansion, a country seeking to reformulate its identity and, with it, the sovereign control of space with its internal and external contingencies.

«Where do we stand?» - We live in an increasingly complex world, a world that can be no longer be reduced to polarities, a world that is sometimes confusing and sometimes frightening, and yet we know that there is only one way to go, and that is forward. It is up to us to give the world shape and preserve it as a livable place. The basis for this action is called orientation. Where do we come from - where are we now - where should we go.