Ceci tuera cela—“this will kill that,” Frollo’s lament in Notre-Dame de Paris that books would replace architecture as society’s main form of expression as the alphabet once replaced icons, was Victor Hugo’s great zero-sum evolutionary game, widely applied to digital media’s ascendance today. Yet, just as architecture survived books, books continue to thrive—implacably, stubbornly, and richly. These ORO Edition authors are forging new ground to discuss their work, proxies as provocations, and authorship as activism in design and beyond the Biennale’s theme “intelligens.”

Moderated by:

• Ashley Simone, Editorial Director, Axiomatic Editions
• William Richards, Editorial Director of Team Three

Participants:

• Jason Carlow, American University of Sharjah UAE, Cities of Repetition (ORO Editions)
• John Lin, University of Hong Kong, As Found Houses (ORO Editions)
• Susan Jones, atelierjones, Mass Timber: Design & Research (ORO Editions)
• John Jennifer Marx, Form4, Second Century Modernism (ORO Editions)
• Adèle Santos Naudé, Santos Prescott & Assoc., A Form of Practice (ORO Editions)
• Jordan Rogove, DXA Studio, DXA Ten Years (ORO Editions)
• Alan Ricks, MASS., Seeking Abundance (Axiomatic Editions)
• Charles Waldheim, Harvard University, Landscapes for Adaptation: Evidence from China (Axiomatic Editions)