Yesterday, the Storefront for Art and Architecture launched #1 (meaning, technically, #2) of the new urbanism/architecture/design journal, “New Geographies”.

This issue explores the conditions of developing a site based in the permutations of a context of “zero”: “zero-context cities”, “cities from scratch”, “zero-carbon developments.” The periodical started at the number zero, so number #1 (the second issue) is called “After Zero.” The editorial explains,

As much as the zero point presents naive innocence and embodies contradictory notions–such as crisis versus redundant abundance, or context versus model–it also creates a ground or doubt, self-critique, and rejuvenation for architecture and urbanism.

Essays in the issue range from “Mimetic Utopias: Themeing and Consumerism on China’s Suburban Frontier” by Thomas J. Campanella to “Architecture as Framework: The Project of the City and the Crisis of Neoliberalism” by Pier Vittorio Aureli and Martino Tattara.

The launch party was held at the Storefront and featured speakers Neyran Turan, Stephen Ramos, Hashim Sarkis. The Storefront is always a great space to visit but, with a floor plan the shape of skinny slice of pizza, not exactly conducive to the lecture format. The presentations were nearly impossible to see or hear, but the current exhibition, Reef, an experiment in imbuing interior space with “behavioral qualities”, was worth seeing.

For more information, or to buy a copy, click here.

Next up: New Geographies 2: Landscapes of Energy.