Under the premise that architecture makes life >better<, architecture is often presented as the >solution< to social problems, made >green< when promising sustainable futures, or fetishised as a cultural object for the creation of urban identities. Yet what is it exactly that links architecture so closely to the pursuit of a good life? How is this link interrelated with crisis and crisis thinking? To what extent do belief systems in architecture influence its capacity to deal with crises? Carolina Crijns not only explores the transformative potential in radically rethinking architecture's central concepts but introduces a method of utopian speculation for practices ambitious of social change. With a preface by Sabine Knierbein.