The European tradition of urbanism has two main lines. The more influential of these clearly addresses the "place" as the limit of architectural and urban design. We cannot conceive of life without profound roots in places. The other traditional line in urbanism gravitates around the "body". Although not as influential, it suggests a different approach to modern urbanism. The perspective developed here questions what happens in-between the "body" and "space". To do this, the "body" is understood as a transit channel between space and the urban project. The book unfolds a critical reading of contemporary architectural design and urbanism and criticises the way design refers to "space" using the "body". In doing so, it delves into the debates of architecture and urban planning of the eighties, as well as their ambiguous relationship with politics.

In the face of the radical convergence of a health crisis and an ecological crisis, it is not possible to return to the investigative trajectories on inhabitation and dwelling that yielded good results in the past. What is it that now defines inhabitation within the plurality of conditions, geographies, and politics that connote it? Lifelines is a work of collective research on the spaces where life intertwines, mingles, and twists in constant resistance to the mechanisms that capture, exploit, and create the social and environmental precariousness that characterizes the violent techno-capitalist present. The book investigates the roles and challenges of design in uncertain spaces and brings together empirical explorations from Italy, Ecuador, the US, Lebanon, Germany, and the UK.