It seems that—with increased urgency—we are more frequently finding ourselves grasping for an “after,” especially as we face futures with apprehension. “After” exists at different scales of time and context: there’s after an instant, after a day, after an era. And each after contains both a conclusion and a beginning.
This volume of the Cornell Journal of Architecture looks at a vast range of the “afters” we architects find ourselves confronting, and offers not just warnings, but solutions; not just reminders, but projections. Because, while we humans are obliged to stand squarely within the present, as architects we’re equally obliged to cast our work into a hereafter that can be only loosely understood. And then we can hope that, in the aftermath, our intentions bear some resemblance to their consequences.