The sniper's log : architectural chronicles of Generation-X / Alejandro Zaera-Polo ; text editor, Gavin Keeney.

Includes bibliographical references.

Pt. 1 Global positioning systems -- USA 1990: Survey of an artificial territory -- The material organisation of advanced capitalism (1994) -- Frank O. Gehry: still life (1990) -- OMA: notes for a topographical survey (1992) -- Herzog & de Meuron: between the face and the landscape (1993) -- Jean Nouvel: intensifying the real (1994) -- Eisenman's machine of infinite resistance (1997) -- A world full of holes (1998) -- The alchemical brothers: a compact material history of Herzog & de Meuron (2001) -- RGBGlobal(TM), installation at the Spanish Pavilion at the Architecture Venice Biennale, Venice, 2002 -- In memoriam: Cedric Price (2003) -- A scientific autobiography + post-[yen]€$ postscript (2002, 2004) -- Pt. 2 -- Breeding sciences : Generative processes and new material agencies (1996, 1997) -- Abstract matters (1999) -- Message to the engine drivers (1999) -- Back to the hard cord, geometry: a conversation with Alejandro Zaera-Polo (2004) -- Methodological proposal for the Staedelschule Frankfurt (2001) -- The Berlage menu: a new "productive" rather than "critical" paradigm (2002) -- Five points for now, British Pavilion at the Architecture Venice Biennale, Venice 2002 -- Processes, materials, prototypes (2002) -- AZP crib sheets glossary (2002) -- Mediating between ideas and matters: icons, indexes, diagrams, drawings, and graphs (2009) -- Architectural education in a global world (2009) --- Ecotectonics (2010) -- Localizing networks: physical terminals for Web 2.0 engines (2011) -- Theory of the excuse (2012) -- Pt. 3 Nomad practices -- Forget Heisenberg: a discussion on the formless (1996) -- The virtual house (1997) -- New platforms (1999) -- Remix 2000 (2000) -- Roller-coaster construction (2001) -- Species/phylogenesis (2003) -- United we stand (The Bundle Tower (TM)), installation in the Graz Latent Utopias, Graz, 2001 -- Grunge Olympics (2004) -- 30 St. Mary's Axe: form isn't facile (2004) -- The Hokusai wave (2005) -- High-rise phylum 2007 (2007, 2008) -- Patterns, fabrics, prototypes, tessellations (2009) -- Opportunity conversation with Jeff Inaba (2008) -- Pt. 4 Material politics : For an ecology of high metabolic rate (1997) -- Disciplines (2003) -- Rethinking representation (2005) -- Mediators (2006) -- Local smart (2006) -- Re-empowering architecture, Berlage's Institution's installation at the Architecture Venice Biennale, 2006 -- The urban age (2007) -- The politics of the envelope (2009, 2008) -- Bare life, no frills: cheapness and democracy (2010).

This compilation of texts written since 1986 reveals a parallel activity to Alejandro Zaera-Polo's professional life. The book is like a sniper's log, a register of events for the purpose of accumulating experience for future missions, be it academic or professional, trying to identify tendencies and to assess performances, rather than to establish truth. Written for different media and formats (professional magazines, speaking engagements, and academic presentations), the texts are thread together as part of a biographical experience that reveals that theory is here primarily instrumental and seeks efficiency rather than truth. We do not theorise because we want to understand the deep truths of the world, but because we need to organise the realm where we operate, understand how reality works and find an effective way to perform within it.