BACKGROUND, FRAME, PLATFORM
by Nazmi Anuar
SUBURBIA PROJECTS
Malaysian imprint Suburbia Projects’ first book is a call by architect and educator Nazmi Anuar to rethink architecture. ‘Why is good architecture synonymous to “foreground” buildings when architecture aims to create a dignified background of our lives?’ asks imprint founder and fellow architect Naadiya Hani in her introduction.
The work is thus a manifesto of sorts. As the author describes the title, ‘The core idea… is that what is enabled by architecture — events, sets of relations, everyday life — is always more intriguing than the architectural object itself.’ The ideas are explicated through seven peripatetic illustrated chapters and an appropriately sardonic postscript on the author’s experience with architecture competitions. Though compact, the book covers informal urban adaptation, the importance of the commons, houses as homes, praxis and learning, creating truly free
