Buildings and Almost Buildings

Is architecture inherently complete? Or is it a state of incompletion and seeming inadequacy that incites us to imagine architecture as an armature for an ever-changing daily life?

Buildings and Almost Buildings, made possible in part through a grant from the Graham Foundation, explores the work of nARCHITECTS as a single project - an anti-monograph with a subtle manifesto about the open-ended, incomplete, and ambiguous in architecture. Structured around a variety of modes of representation specially prepared for the book, Buildings and Almost Buildings reveals the ways in which the celebrated New York office led by Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang addresses contemporary issues of a world in flux. Across a range of buildings, public spaces, and ephemeral installations, nARCHITECTS argues for the formal and social potential of an architecture that remains somehow incomplete and ambiguously perceived--or in the authors' words, Almost Buildings.

nARCHITECTS is a Brooklyn based architecture office led by Principals Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang. In recent projects such as Carmel Place (New York City's first micro unit building), the design center A/D/O, and the renovation of Chicago Navy Pier, nARCHITECTS is tackling the most pressing issues that our cities face - how we live, work and activate public spaces in response to our nation's changing demographics, housing shortage, evolving workplace technologies and need for equality in the public realm.

The firm's awards and honors include a 2017 national AIA Institute Honor Award in Architecture, the 2017 NYS AIA Firm of the Year, a 2016 Academy of Arts and Letters Award in architecture, the AIANY Andrew J Thomas Award for Pioneers in Housing, the 2006 Architectural League's Emerging Voices and the Canadian Professional Rome Prize in 2005. The firm has been ranked within the top 10 in the US in the design category for the past five years by Architect Magazine.