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A zine produced by members of ARCH 5602, Kean University School of Public Architecture
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A zine produced by members of ARCH 5602, Kean University School of Public Architecture
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Vol. 1
Letter from the Editor -
Davis Richardson
Reclaiming 432 Park Ave - Kamila Diaz Calderon
Ultrathin Worlds -
Anyi Liranzo-Payamps
Finance Over Function -
Jared Britton
The Housing Shepherd -
Kacper Kowal
Livestream Dystopia -
Jake Haenggi
VR Architecture -
Ryan Barbour
Metaverse Architecture -
Danny Gavino
From Fi-Fi to De-Fi -
Scott Gleason
Realistic or Reality? -
Stephan Argent
Dubaifying Saudi Arabia-
Rasha Labibidi
NEOM’s Sustainability Mirage - Andrew Lazarte
Living in the Model -
Bryan Tome
Planting the Illusion -
Lauren Taravella
Critical Regionalism -
Nolan Aucone
About
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CGZ-VOLNO1-ARCH5602-FA2025-LFTE
Cartogram Vol. 1
Cartogram Vol. 1
Letter from the Editor
Davis Richardson
In contrast to a cartograph — literally, a map —a cartogram is an abstraction of the world — closer to a diagram — organized around a particular feature or variable. Though not a literal reproduction, it is a targeted representation, a microcosm or core sample of larger phenomena. The cartogram becomes a visual way of understanding the world through a particular lens. In the same way, Cartogram Vol. 1 is a journal that explores the composition of the contemporary world through various architecture-adjacent topics.
Cartogram Vol. 1 is the culmination of the Fall 2025 graduate-level seminar, “Globalization and Urbanism: Architecture in the Neoliberal World,” at the Kean University Michael Graves College School of Public Architecture. Each student’s submission here is their final “paper,” a polemical essay in which they were assigned to propose a topic and thesis relevant to our semester-long discussions on globalization, neoliberalism, capitalism, and architecture’s role within it all. The seminar focused on reading two books in their entirety: Matthew Soules’ Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultrathin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century — which describes the nature of contemporary architecture as an essential tool of finance capitalism — and Keller Easterling’s Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space — on the infrastructural acts of design which shape the world outside the purview of traditional nation-states. You’ll see students reference these two often, and several themes recur — including Billionaire’s Row, the metaverse, and NEOM in the Middle East, among others — but each piece takes a unique perspective on the state of both the discipline and the broader world.
Kamila Diaz Calderon reimagines 432 Park as a vibrant, collective community for ordinary working people — a “Vertical Harlem” — instead of an enclave for the wealthy. Anyi Liranzo-Payamps critiques the contemporary obsession with “ultrathinness,” here meaning not the impossibly slender towers of 57th Street but instead architecture’s equivalent of the frictionless screen and digital interface. Ryan Barbour wonders about virtual reality and the opportunities it could provide beyond the oxymoron of virtual real estate. Rasha Lababidi is concerned with NEOM and the pressures of westernization on the tradition of modesty in the Muslim world, culturally and architecturally. Jake Haenggi conceives a short story of a dystopian near-future on the labor and environment of livestream influencers. In light of corporate architecture’s global homogeneity, Nolan Aucone revisits critical regionalism and finds intrigue in Michael Meredith’s new manifesto for “Smaller Architecture.” And much more awaits — feel free to explore.