This book is a free associative recount of the I Prefer Not To lecture series staged by
architect Peter Swinnen at the ETH Department of Architecture (Zürich). Twelve particular
guests touch upon various attitudes of professional abstinence and or obstinacy. In an offbeat
manner I Prefer Not To can be understood as a critical re-assessment of architecture's social
and political ethos often tightly contained and devoid of any unforeseen mischief. Through the
words positions and works of the speaker guests I Prefer Not To managed - for a brief moment -
to install an unformatted stage for problematization and debate. Each lecture is introduced by
an editor's note contextualizing specific choices and unadapted zooms. Text: Something
Fantastic Anne Lacaton Jan De Vylder Philip Ursprung Tom Emerson Laurent Stalder François
Charbonnet Anri Sala Maarten Delbeke Finn Williams Arno Brandlhuber ETH Studio Swinnen
Sophia Holst Beatriz Van Houtte.
