Introduction -- Identity and locality -- identity and economy -- Identity and scale -- Afterword -- Counterpoint.

Exceptional architecture defies commercial globalisation by celebrating the spirit of individual place; and by being rooted in its culture, its geography and in the experience and value systems of the people that have created it. By drawing from work across the world, this issue of AD will demonstrate that it is possible for architects, designers and engineers to design outstanding buildings that sustain a sense of local identity, both in terms of cultural heritage and the conservation of the environment. In the last few years, a groundswell of critical resistance to the homogenized imposition of a form-driven universal architecture, which defies local context, has continued to grow unabated, as has developing interest in an alternative pathway to the design of buildings.