The International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (ILAUD) aimed to rethink the city in terms of discourse and pedagogy. It brought together prominent architects – including its founder Giancarlo De Carlo and members of Team X – with teachers and students from Europe and North America. Together, they addressed topics such as user participation, building conversion and eclecticism.

In the 1970s and 1980s, ILAUD was a barometer and active contributor to theoretical discussions in urban planning and architecture. Nevertheless, its influence in research has been largely overlooked. The authors in this volume recount the complex history of the laboratory's early years and explore its archive using their own conceptual, methodological and geographical expertise. They shed new light on this central experiment in architectural education, eschewing heroic narratives and protagonists in favour of a polyphonic representation of design education.