Our contemporary condition, governed by the abstract apparatus of the capitalist market, demands a critical reading of the distribution, ownership, and use of common resources such as land. This is especially true in Britain with its long history of privatisation stemming from land enclosure. The latest research campaign of Laboratory Basel (laba), a satellite studio of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, investigated the English manor house and how it can serve as a testing ground to reassess Britain's complex and ongoing relationship with the countryside. The south-west of England, the most rural region of one of the more densely populated countries in Europe, reflects all the absurdities of a globalised country under pressure to develop economically, physically and environmentally. Highly protected landscapes, both natural and composed, form the backdrop to historic seats of political power and wealth, whilst sites of intense modern productivity are neatly concealed behind natural veils. Manor Lessons: Commons Revisited, the concluding volume of laba's Teaching and Research in Architecture series, explores the lessons that can be learned from the compound history of the Manorial System, whose forgotten feudalistic origins were once rooted in the idea of the land, not as private property but as common ground.

The infamous Scramble for Africa in the late 19th and 20th centuries disrupted the entire African continent with enduring repercussions. Morocco - located at a crossroads between Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab-Muslim world in the Maghreb, and Mediterranean Europe - has struggled to withstand the resulting cultural and sociopolitical clashes ever since. Fez Lessons: Industrious Habitat looks at Fez, Morocco's famous former capital and today its second-largest city. Based on a recent research program conducted by EPFL's Laboratory Basel (laba), it investigates how these clashes have marked the city's socioeconomic structure and urban fabric, and whether or not it offers alternative and relevant means of human association and community. Given the growing stream of large-scale international investment, the constant enticement of tourism, and a worldwide revival of nationalism, Laba's student's and researchers were looking for tiny cues, nagging doubts, and signs of the fusion between form and life, raising questions about identity, authenticity, tradition, the globalisation of culture, and the use of local resources. Their findings are visualised in the book in striking images, graphics and maps. Students' proposals for architectural interventions addressing these issues are presented through images and plans.