MAP_Metropolitan Architectural Practice + MAP Studio

Drop by - it’s promising to be a lively conversation and we all need to be part of it!

CALIFORNIAN ARCHITECTS MAP ARE USING AI TO PUSH A NEW FRONTIER INTO UNCANNY VALLEY A new book from Californian architecture studio Metropolitan Architecture Practice sets out to explore the current status of AI in building design. Steve Taylor dives into a richly designed, image-heavy publication from Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers to find tech as collaborator, heavy texts, uncanny valleys & New Frontier ideologies. Read & See More at: https://recessed.space/00320-Architecture-X-Architecture-MAP Link in bio ----- Referring to Architecture X Architecture: A Dialectic (AXA from hereon in) as a weighty tome is not just metaphorical: the 272-page book clocks in at 1.12kg – 250g more if you include the equally chunky slipcase. It also aims to be heavy in the other sense: with an uber-cool design; cornucopia of 450 full colour and monochrome images; seven theoretically dense texts (I glance down inadvertently from the screen to the page at this point and the words “photography’s so-called indexical relationship to reality” catch my eye); and standout quotes from big thinkers that punctuate the flow. Apart from the deep orange of the endpapers and a handful of highlighted pages, the white type of the text sits on matt black coated stock. The whole artefact has been meticulously printed in China and beautifully produced by Hong Kong based Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers. ----- @map_studio_2022 @oscarrieraojeda.publishers @architecturebooks_ @persistentanomaly

CALIFORNIAN ARCHITECTS MAP ARE USING AI TO PUSH A NEW FRONTIER INTO UNCANNY VALLEY A new book from Californian architecture studio Metropolitan Architecture Practice sets out to explore the current status of AI in building design. Steve Taylor dives into a richly designed, image-heavy publication from Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers to find tech as collaborator, heavy texts, uncanny valleys & New Frontier ideologies. Read & See More at: https://recessed.space/00320-Architecture-X-Architecture-MAP Link in bio ----- Referring to Architecture X Architecture: A Dialectic (AXA from hereon in) as a weighty tome is not just metaphorical: the 272-page book clocks in at 1.12kg – 250g more if you include the equally chunky slipcase. It also aims to be heavy in the other sense: with an uber-cool design; cornucopia of 450 full colour and monochrome images; seven theoretically dense texts (I glance down inadvertently from the screen to the page at this point and the words “photography’s so-called indexical relationship to reality” catch my eye); and standout quotes from big thinkers that punctuate the flow. Apart from the deep orange of the endpapers and a handful of highlighted pages, the white type of the text sits on matt black coated stock. The whole artefact has been meticulously printed in China and beautifully produced by Hong Kong based Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers. ----- @map_studio_2022 @oscarrieraojeda.publishers @architecturebooks_ @persistentanomaly

The AXA “ conversation “ @sfmoma was nothing short of amazing - To be continued !

MAP’s recent project, “ Architecture X Architecture: A Dialectic”, 2025 has finally hit the book stores in the US- arriving w/ incisive essays & visuals- Many said Architecture once imagined a future…Now it’s optimized by systems that claimed to remember it.

Coming winter 2026 from MAP Studio: Architecture x Architecture: A Dialectic, by Katherine Lambert and Christiane Robbins, published by ORO Publishers @oscarrieraojeda.publishers . Drawing on two decades of practice and research at the intersection of architecture and AI, the book frames the rise of image-driven and AI-mediated representation as a critical inflection point for authorship, attribution, and value. Stay tuned for a book launch event in NYC this March. @map_studio_2022

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice#. - T.S. Eliot

#FrankGehry. A number of years ago we had the privilege of interviewing Frank Gehry for our film “No Place like Utopia”, as Frank had been Gregory Ain’s student @USC . I’ll never forget Frank’s largesse & decency in doing this interview as he had just had one of the toughest days in his career, having had to lay off a number of people as a project had fallen through. But there he was, and we will ever be in his debt. RIP.

Our A&D team is excited to begin working with MAP (Metropolitan Architecture Practice). Architect Katherine Lambert, AIA, and media maker and director Christiane Robbins lead MAP/MAP Studio — a post-disciplinary architecture and research practice operating between built environments, media culture, and emerging technologies. MAP, founded in 2005, advances material rigor, adaptive reuse, and ecological intelligence across residential, cultural, and commercial projects. MAP Studio, established in 2015 as the firm’s research arm, investigates architecture as a media ecology shaped by synthetic vision, algorithmic aesthetics, and AI-driven spatial systems. MAP’s forthcoming publication and visual research project (January 2026), Architecture X Architecture: A Dialectic, examines the legacies of architectural imagination, image-making, and design methodologies as they are transformed by generative technologies. Their collaborative practice has been featured internationally, and their work is represented in leading museums including MoMA, the Getty Museum, the Whitney Museum, SFMOMA, and the Center for Architecture. Lambert and Robbins bring a uniquely hybrid perspective to contemporary architectural discourse, design and visual culture. @map_studio_2022 1. Photo by Drew Kelly for WSJ. 2-4. Photos courtesy of MAP Studio.