Architecture critic Hans Ibelings, together with the architects of Powerhouse Company (Charles Bessard and Nanne de Ru), explores the far-reaching consequences for architecture caused by the global economic downturn in 2008, searching for its deeper roots before the crisis, and anticipating its reverberations in Europe and elsewhere well into the future. Written from a particularly Western perspective, the book nevertheless explores these effects from a fresh perspective, and from various national and global levels, emphasizing the fact that they should not be viewed as being the same everywhere, despite generalizations presented in the media and in the fields of architecture and construction.