On April 4, architect and critic Michael Sorkin talks with Monacelli Press editor Alan Rapp about the ways in which politics, infrastructure, and the idea of global cities interact with the field of architecture and architectural criticism in 2017.

Michael Sorkin is an architect and urbanist whose practice spans design, criticism, and pedagogy. Since 2000, he has been Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at City College of New York. He is the architecture critic for The Nation, contributing editor at Architectural Record, and author or editor of twenty books. Michael is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the recipient of the 2013 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Mind Award, and is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow. He is also Principal of Michael Sorkin Studio, an international design practice that works in close collaboration with the non-profit Terreform studio, of which he is founder and President. Michael is also editor-in-chief and founder of UR (Urban Research), a book series devoted to speculation about the condition and future of the city.

Alan Rapp is a senior editor at The Monacelli Press, where he develops and edits architecture, design, and photography books. As a critic, he has written for Modern Painters, Designers & Books, The Photobook Review, Wired Design, Dwell, Urban Omnibus and numerous other publications, and contributed essays to monographs by Joël Tettamanti and James Silverman. He holds an MFA in Design Criticism from School of Visual Arts, and has led graduate thesis and design seminars at Rhode Island School of Design and Pratt Institute.

Image: From the “Sustaining Peace By Design” initiative. Courtesy Terreform.