15 | The Masterplan with Reinier de Graaf

For more than a decade, Reinier de Graaf has lampooned thirsty starchitects chasing commissions from boomtown to boomtown across the Global North and South — including the ambitions of his own firm, OMA, where he is a partner alongside Rem Koolhaas. In his new novel The Masterplan, de Graaf chronicles the rise and fall of a young architect tasked with designing the capital of a young African republic, and who is instantly caught in a crossfire of colonialism, Chinese ambitions on the continent, and the long arm of late capitalism. Is there a way out for either his protagonist or the profession?