Summary: We are pleased to bring you this end-of-summer treat: Welcome to the second Fantasy Architecture episode of AIArchitect. When we called for entries earlier this summer, we left the definition of “fantasy architecture” purposely vague and kicked backed to enjoy the interpretations. We were far from disappointed and thank everyone who sent in their work.

Although we had more entries this year, we again chose to include 10 fantasy projects in this issue, plus the Doer’s Profile and the blog. The number just felt right, and none of the entries within required an impassioned champion to convince the rest of us to include it.

Three categories of projects—different from the themes of last year—presented themselves as organizing elements.

• Alone features projects of isolation, through remote location, unique function, or both. There seemed to be a lot of work submitted along these lines, intellectually fascinating and somehow poignant. In this category, the designers bring you a fortress in which to meet the end of time, an arctic military base, an intellectual retreat for scientists, and a temple of laughter that walks the razor’s edge between comedy and tragedy.
• Green In Between, with its emphasis on sustainability, depicts a more predicable category for entries at this place in space and time. Offered are a biophilic hurricane research center, a citywide recycling center that allows “digestion” of waste like a living organism, and a ghost fleet of recycled ships transformed to create living cities upon the water.
• Together brings you projects larger in scope, with cityscape in mind. We have a bridge/skyscraper in Miami, the future skyline of Des Moines as inspired by study of the layered complexity of an ear of corn, and a plan for the urban environment and buildings of Raijuki, which you won’t find on a map but is a very real place in cyberspace.
• (The fourth category, Down to Earth, offers an abbreviated look at AIArchitect’s typical features, including AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker’s monthly Architecture Billings Index.

Also like last year, some of this year’s projects couldn’t be built. Others just shouldn’t be built. Among the 10 works, the quality of graphic presentation, level of detail, and scope of work varies widely. But the ideas with which they came to life are sparking.

We hope you have as much fun looking at this end-of-summer interlude as we had putting it together. We would love to hear what you think. More theme issues? Other themes to suggest? Tell us what you would like to see—real or imagined.

—The editors at AIArchitect and the graphic designers at IDI.