In an era of globalisation, there is an unprecedented scale and nature of contemporary migrant flows, as well as the flow of goods, capital, ideas, images and technology. This sheer number and mobility of contemporary migrants clearly has massively disruptive effects on traditional modes of dwelling however they were manifest in everyday life. But contemporary migrancy also has important consequences for the way dwelling is conceptualised more generally. This book is concerned with the modes of dwelling that emerge through migrancy; it is also concerned with the effects these modes of dwelling have for dominant conceptions of space and place; and finally, it is interested in the kinds of architectures that become possible if those effects are taken seriously.
This book inspects the intersections between architectures of place and flows of migrancy. It does so without seeking to defend the idea of place, nor lament its passing. Rather, this book is an exploration of the often complex and unorthodox modes of dwelling that are emerging precisely from within the ruins of the idea of place. This exploration is informed by post-structuralist analyses of architecture and urbanism, and their representation in media such as film. It focuses on the Pacific Rim as an intensified zone of global flows. Within the Pacific Rim there are complex tensions between the new economies of Asia and the settler nations of Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. These tensions produce difficulties for the narrative of the nation state, and herald conditions that no longer conform to the geo-political norms of the old world.

Stephen Cairns teaches architecture theory and design at the University of Edinburgh. He works on contemporary architecture and urbanism often in the context of postcolonial criticism, cross-cultural and transnational studies, and with a particular empirical focus on Southeast Asia.

Preface Introduction 1. Drifting: Architecture / Migrancy 2. On Cosmopolitanism 3. Architecture as Evidence 4. Mythforms: Techniques of Migrant Place-Making 5. Why Architecture is Neither Here nor There 6. Migration, Exile and Landscapes of the Imagination 7. Building Hong Kong: from Migrancy to Disappearance 8. Conflicting Landscapes of Dwelling and Democracy in Canada 9. Too Many Houses for a Home: Narrating the House in the Chinese Diaspora 10. Emigration / Immigration: Maps, Myths and Origins 11. Earthquake Weather 12. Pacific Migration 13. La Frontera's Siamese Twins 14. Screening Los Angeles: Architecture, Mobility and Migrancy 15. By the Bitstream of Babylon: Cyberfrontiers and Diaspora Vistas