The first guest-curated issue of topos magazine has been published. The office with whom topos dared to engage in this experiment is none other than West 8. The issue 117 deals with the topic of infrastructure, which will be of no surprise to those who are familiar with the renowned office.

The issue 117 marks the first time topos has been curated by an individual office. And by curated, we mean not just the content, but also the sometimes nerve-racking journalistic and editorial work involved in producing a magazine. The office with whom topos dared to engage in this experiment is none other than West 8 – where roughly 70 landscape architects, architects, urban designers and engineers are designing and shaping landscapes all over the world from their offices in Rotterdam, Belgium and North America. West 8 is multidisciplinary, thinks in complex, large-scale terms and develops concepts and visions for major planning projects that also address the big questions of our time, i.e. global warming, urbanization, infrastructure, identity. Dutch architect Florian Idenburg, founder of the New York-based office SO-IL and a contributor to this issue as well, said the following about his collaboration with West 8: “…one reason why I wanted to work with West 8 was their approach to landscape. The Dutch traditionally see land as something man-made, as constructed. … Together as a team, we did not want to create a narrative based on a romantic, a picturesque idea of landscape. We both had in mind that the land had been shaped by humans and power…” This is precisely one of the reasons topos wanted to work with West 8: Their preoccupation with landscape, their approach, which is always intellectual, but never too highbrow, yet always involves engineering. It feels as if poetry met engineering.