About Slab Mag

Slab Mag is an online journal exploring architecture, urbanity and the socio-spatial realm. Underlying our writing is the conviction that the built environment constitutes a mesh of codified meaning – containing phantom narratives – which can only be perceived and better understood when critical analysis gives equal footing to the personal and the theoretical. To this aim, we cultivate a hybrid writing style which sees no contradiction in weaving together satirical conjecture with careful empirical research and academic reflection.

Slab Mag was founded in 2006 by British graphic designer and writer Ian Warner, as a belated reaction to his relocation to Berlin in the mid 1990s. Addressing the emergence and invention of a new German capital through the lens of humorous architectural criticism, Slab allowed him to reconnect with and build upon his bachelor’s thesis. That work dealt with the rebuilding of Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, the erosion of public space, architectural spectacle and the idea that Berlin, by achieving the status of modern myth, has become a commodified signifier in popular culture.

Early articles were often satirical vignettes focussing on specific buildings or architectural epiphenomena. From 2012 onwards, long-form pieces emerged and the focus shifted to include themes more broadly related to the built environment. Slab’s activities now extend beyond the website to include workshop participation, publicationstalks, lectures and semi-random thematic interventions.

Editorial body
Cormac Deane, Allison Dring, Oliver Miller, Daniel Schwaag, Ian Warner, Karen Eliot

Elsewhere
Slab on Facebook
Slab on Instagram