Architecture book by Brighton lecturer published

A new book co-written by architect and University of Brighton lecturer Michael Howe has just been published. Places for Strangers, Ideas for places, people and the city is described as “a compelling mixture of manifesto and manual, building on the set of principles and attitudes that have long driven London-based mae Architects.” The mae partnership is an award-winning practice of which Howe was a founding partner for ten years.

The essays advocate a new position on urban design and architecture, while elucidating an approach to producing critically engaged design. Complementing the essays are contemporary analyses and revisitations of a number of mae’s projects that serve to illustrate how the firm’s core principles—themselves always in a state of renegotiation—can be enacted in actual designs and building projects. The result is sure to inspire creative new thinking about architecture and its place in contemporary society. Several of the firms's projects are used to illustrate 'key' concepts and ideas that run as a continuous thread throughout the book.

Originally written for such newspapers as the Guardian or professional organizations such as the Architects’ Journal, the essays featured are “polemic in their nature, aimed at illustrating the sociopolitical, ethical, and formal concerns”. 

Mae architects is a design-led practice delivering high-quality architecture, landscape and urban design. Established in 2001, they have designed award-winning projects, mainly in the UK but also for in Copenhagen and Oslo.