Citizens of No Place: An Architectural Graphic Novel

by Jimenez Lai

Citizens of No Place is a collection of short stories on architecture and urbanism, graphically represented using manga-style storyboards. Fiction is used as a strategy to unpack thoughts about architecture. Modeled as a proto-manifesto, it is a candid chronicle of a highly critical thought process in the tradition of paper architecture (especially that of architect John Hejduk and Bernard Tschumi's Manhattan Transcript). The short stories explore many architectural problems through the unique language of the graphic novel, helping usher the next generation of architectural theory and criticism.

Genres: Architecture, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Design, Graphic Novels Comics, Art

143 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Jimenez Lai loves art and architecture. Lai is widely exhibited and published around the world, including the MoMA-collected White Elephant. His first book, Citizens of No Place, was published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. Draft II of this book has been archived at the New Museum. Lai has won various awards, including the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Debut Award at the Lisbon Triennale, and the 2017 Designer of the Future Award at Art Basel. In 2014, Lai represented Taiwan at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2015, Lai organized the Treatise exhibition and publication series at the Graham Foundation. Lai's work has been collected by MoMA, SFMOMA, Art Institute of Chicago, and LACMA.