Many contemporary critics suggest the profession finds itself at a moment of crisis; but is it not a period for opportunity? At a time when technology is rapidly changing and evolving, is the digital offering a reinterpretation of the modes of production and technique? Has the architect been given an opportunity to reinvent its position within the production of the built environment?

In a series of interviews dispersed throughout AR134, practitioners such as Dennis Shelden, Greg Lynn and Paul Minifie, highlight a need to grasp opportunities rather than purvey crisis. Indeed, Preston Scott Cohen states that ‘the problem today is that architects don’t know what they want’. It is the lack of current disciplinary authority and an absence of authorial voice in contemporary discourse that permits a misunderstanding of the potential of technology, culminating in meaningless objects. If architects take ownership of the digital, will it reinforce the authorial nature of architecture or will the profession simply become outmoded?

AR134 has a host of projects from many eminent global offices: UNStudio’s Ardmore Residence, Zaha Hadid Architects’ Jockey Club Innovation Tower, and Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Notably, there is a return to the Abedian School of Architecture by Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau – first featured as Under Construction in AR131—Present.