At first glance, EM2N City Factory is a monograph about an architectural practice like any other. However, on the back cover it says ‘Advocating for a City of Tolerant Co-Existence’. That is also the true purpose of the book. It also explains why EM2N’s architecture is ostentatiously averse to flashy design and just as ostentatiously oversized. Matthias Müller and Daniel Niggli, who founded EM2N in 1997, together with co-editors Caspar Schärer and Medine Altiok, make a case for a city that disregards narrow-minded regulations and ostentatious real estate, but offers space for a full life. They demand space for work alongside ‘exclusive’ living and consumption.

City Factory documents some 30 projects, but when you leaf through the book, they almost pale into insignificance alongside the many short essays, meta-texts, declarations of love for buildings and beautiful documentary images of Zurich, the city that is the touchstone of EM2N’s thinking.