13 / Ownership
Spring 2012

The concept of ownership, the exclusive rights and control over a property of any kind, has existed for centuries and in all cultures. Whether state, collective or personal, ownership is probably one of the most determining factors not only in defining our built environment but in the way we have shaped our society. But what if the way we live has changed? Can we redefine ownership to adapt it to the needs of the society? Can that redefinition provide new opportunities for our built environment? This issue will be dedicated to examining ownership in our current culture, ancient traditions, legal system and physical environment.

Contributions by Martin Adolfsson, William F. Baker, Kate Bingaman Burt, Eleanor Chapman, Santiago Cirugeda, Killian Doherty, Kirby Ferguson, Pedro Hernández, Jeanne Gang, Iker Gil, Network Architecture Lab, Quilian Riano, Denise Scott Brown, Richard F. Tomlinson II, XAM, and KLAUS who is the cover designer.

1. Introduction
   Moving beyond buyer and seller. Issue statement by Iker Gil, editor in chief of MAS Context
   
2. Invention and Tradition
   Essay by Denise Scott Brown, architect, planner, urban designer: principal of Venturi Scott Brown and Associates, and theorist, writer and educator
   
3. Suburbia Gone Wild
   Text and images by photographer Martin Adolfsson
   
4. Everything is a Remix
   Iker Gil interviews Kirby Ferguson, writer, director, editor and author of the Everything is a Remix series
   
5. Where Do Good Ideas Come From?
   Essay by Benjamin Brichta, the Network Architecture Lab, an experimental unit at the Columbia University GSAPP directed by Kazys Varnelis
   
6. Ownership is Dead
   Essay by architect Eleanor Chapman
   
7. On the Question of #whOWNSpace
   Essay by Quilian Riano on behalf of the #whOWNSpace collaborative project
   
8. Cape Town: The City Without and Within the White Lines
   Essay by Killian Doherty, architect and lecturer in Rwanda
   
9. The Party is Over
   Essay and photographs by architect Pedro Hernández
   
10. Cooperative Dream
    Iker Gil interviews Jeanne Gang, founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects and 2011 MacArthur Fellow
    
11. Negotiating Legality
    Projects by Santiago Cirugeda, architect and director of Recetas Urbanas
    
12. Birdhouses/Feeders
    Urban interventions by street artist and designer XAM
    
13. Bridging the Tracks: Air Rights Development and the Urban Fabric
    Essay by William F. Baker and Richard F. Tomlinson II, structural engineering partner and a managing partner respectively at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP
    
14. Obsessive Consumption
    Text and illustrations by Kate Bingaman Burt