Unless dissects the construction ecology, material geographies, and world-systems of a most modern of modern architectures: the Seagram Building.

In doing so, this book aims to describe how humans and nature interact with the thin crust of the planet through architecture. In particular, the immense material, energy and labor involved in building require a fresh interpretation that better situates the ecological and social potential of design. The enhancement of a particular building should be inextricable from the enhancement of its world-system and construction ecology. A beautiful building engendered through the vulgarity of uneven exchanges and processes of underdevelopment is no longer a tenable conceit in such a framework.