Venice, one of the world's most famous places, has a dual nature of real city and myth. It is suspended in the struggle between sea and soil and unable to survive without cyclical preservation and continual compromise. The myth, which is largely shaped by nostalgia and ideals of the past, superimposes today's real city with its infrastructural challenges and can hardly be reconciled with a concrete future. Venice Lessons: examines this conflict. Based on a recent research program at EPFL's Laboratory Basel (laba), it demonstrates how the city must constantly redesign its historic image to retain its position as one of Europe's prime tourist attractions while the necessary permanent renovation undermines its livelihood. The findings are visualised in striking images, graphics and maps. The book also features proposals for architectural interventions by laba's students. Interlaced is a reprint of Miroslav Sasek's famous picture book This is Venice which reflects the common Venice nostalgia while the Venice Lessons research context enables a fresh reading of this children's classic.

Architectural objects confront their environment. They constitute a boundary, a form with an internalised point of view. Understanding architecture as environmental objects suggests a questioning of these dichotomies of separation between the symbolic landmark and the landscape background. It represents an architecture that amplifies nature, attunes to it and makes us aware of it. Portugal Lessons takes Portugal as a case study for such contextualism going beyond an understanding of design as immunisation. Based on the latest research program conducted by EPFL's Laboratory Basel (laba), it explores the topic of this architectural boundary: with whom we live, to whom we open our house, how permeable the boundary should be. The findings are visualised in striking images, graphics and maps. The book also features proposals for architectural interventions by laba's students, all of them tackling issues of housing.