When resistance arises, convictions come to the fore that determine the crux of the project. AgwA maintains that everything can be negotiated, but always in the interests of brilliant spatiality, genuine appropriation and a structure that remains flexible over time.

At the risk of stating the obvious, architects’ critical thinking begins with an analysis of a brief in relation to its location. One of the examples discussed here illustrates a type of negotiation that pits the dream of a large-scale project against the reality of a budget constraint. This is by no means an isolated case.