Despite our skill and experience in manipulating space and material, architects are incapable of addressing the needs of society unless they have first been explicitly asked to do so. Unsolicited architects do not wait to tackle the big issues often overlooked by the market. They create briefs where none are written, discover sites where none are owned, approach clients where none are present, and find financing where none is available. Unsolicited architecture offers an alternative to a reactive, service-oriented role, and instead calls for a new, more socially-motivated approach to procuring projects.

First introduced in issue 14 of Volume, unsolicited architecture is being re-presented at the extra/ordinary conference in Sydney between April 22-24, to continue spreading the unsolicited message. The bootleg, a transfusion of the Volume archive and new material, sketches out case studies and financial modeling along with interviews by unsolicited practitioners – and the essential twelve steps to becoming an unsolicited architect.

Don’t wait for the phone to ring, architects. Read the twelve steps and be on your way. The bootleg edition of Volume magazine, initiated by Anneke Abhelakh, Rory Hyde and Timothy Moore is now available on Issuu.

Guiding – as it is commonly understood – is not about creating; it’s about helping. The guide has no goal other than to lead someone safely to the destiny of their choice. The guide is skilled; he or she actually can lead the way, but does so without ambition beyond delivering quality service. The guide sells safety where risk is involved.

With The Guide, VOLUME presents a diverse collection of guides and attempts to guide. From strange maps, bike tours and magnetic navigation belts to the conception of Paris’ 13th arrondissement as a series of islands; here, the guide is understood as not simply a service or selling point, but as an exploratory tool, a generator for a proactive engagement with the city.

As a supplement to this issue of VOLUME, we also present the separate publication Beyroutes, a guidebook to Beirut, one of the grand capitals of the Middle East.

As a supplement to VOLUME #22, we also present the separate publication Beyroutes, a guidebook to Beirut, one of the grand capitals of the Middle East. Beyroutes presents an exploded view of a city which lives so many double lives and figures in so many truths, myths and historical falsifications. Visiting the city with this intimate book as your guide makes you feel disoriented, appreciative, judgmental and perhaps eventually reconciliatory. Beyroutes is the field manual for 21st century urban explorer.

With contributions by Maureen Abi Ghanem, Romy Assouad, Hisham Awad, Cleo Campert, Joane Chaker, Tony Chakar, Zinab Chahine, Steve Eid, Christian Ernsten, Christiaan Fruneaux, Edwin Gardner, David Habchy, Mona Harb, Pascale Harès, Jasper Harlaar, Janneke Hulshof, Hanane Kaï, Karen Klink, Niels Lestrade, Mona Merhi, Elias Moubarak, Tarek Moukaddem, Kamal Mouzawak, Joe Mounzer, Alex Nysten, Nienke Nauta, Ahmad Osman, Haig Papazian, Pieter Paul Pothoven, Rani al Rajji, Joost Janmaat, Jan Rothuizen, Ruben Schrameijer, Reem Saouma, Michael Stanton and George Zouein.

Beyroutes was initiated by Studio Beirut in collaboration with Partizan Publik, Archis and the Pearl Foundation. Supported by Prince Claus Fund, Fund Working on the Quality of Living and the Netherlands Embassy in Lebanon.

ARCHIS Never Walk Alonely Planet series – city guides with an eye for people.

The Prince Claus Fund and the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture invite you to a lunch lecture by Colombian architect and 2009 Principal Prince Claus Laureate Simón Vélez.

Simón Vélez’s aesthetic and technical innovations in bamboo have enhanced its construction potential and challenged mainstream architectural trends. He invented a new method to build foundations and roofs, which transformed one of the world’s oldest building materials, namely bamboo, into a modern resource that meets the strictest international construction regulations and can even outperform steel.

For this contribution, on the 16th of December Simón Vélez will receive the 2009 Principal Prince Claus Award.

What: Lunch lecture
When: Thursday 17 December 2009, 12.00 – 13.00 hrs
Where: Zuiderkerk, Zuiderkerkhof 72, Amsterdam, NL
Register: www.princeclausfund.org

This lecture is organised in cooperation with Dienst Ruimtelijk Ordening Amsterdam, Tolhuistuin en Archis/Volume.

Image: Simón Vélez, Crosswater Ecolodge, Nankun Mountains, China.