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In an age of casual dressing and informal, fluid social meetings, Pia Ednie-Brown, Associate Professor the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University, Melbourne, highlights the paradox of the highly formalist nature of many temporary structures. Often designed to be the event itself, pop-ups have become the ‘architecture of the occasion’. These are epitomised by the elaborate and eccentric one-off designs of cultural pavilions or follies. Could it be, Ednie-Brown asks, that this shift to a formalist architecture is giving us the unique opportunity to embrace the casual informality of today's social interactions, while still getting ‘glimmeringly sequined up for the event’?

The pressure to innovate has become pervasive. Both inside and outside the architectural profession we are increasingly pressed by the quest for the new; by an innovation imperative. But what does 'innovation' really mean for architecture? Predominantly framed in terms of technological invention, economics and consumption, the notion of innovation is often problematically applied to the arts. Design and creativity are widely considered as drivers within innovation economies, but how can architects understand and approach the imperative to innovate meaningfully, ethically and on their own terms? Suggesting a process that is fundamentally emergent, collective and environmentally situated, The Innovation Imperative explores architectural innovation in terms of the production of vitality. Emphasising attention to ways of doing as key to innovation, this title of AD brings together historical perspectives with a range of leading provocative, emerging approaches to architectural practice that together offer fresh insight into the often vague and ubiquitous atmospheres of innovation-speak. Ultimately, this issue asks how an emphasis on vitality might offer a more nuanced understanding of the aesthetic value and ethical know-how intertwined within innovative architectural endeavour.

Architectural innovators often work on the cusp of what is feasible, acceptable and convincing. Practising futuristically can also mean risking going down a blind alley. Over the last two decades, Greg Lynn has been one of the leading figures in innovative practice, demonstrating an instinct for the meaningfully inventive. One of his major contributions has been cross-fertilisation of technologies, introducing the likes of animation and robotics from other disciplines into architecture. Having interviewed Lynn in April 2012, Guest-Editor Pia Ednie-Brown reflects on the specific characteristics of his work and mode of operation.

An event and exhibition space opening on to the sidewalk of New York City's SoHo, Storefront is dedicated to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture and design. It seeks ‘to simultaneously shake and question the current state of affairs’. Guest-Editor Pia Ednie-Brown discusses with the Catalan architect, Eva Franch i Gilabert, her role as Director of Storefront, and specifically how she has promoted active, generative engagement through humour, disruption and innovation.

Guest-Editor Pia Ednie-Brown provides a foil to Mario Carpo's discussion of digital innovation. She argues for an emerging ‘strange vitality’ in contemporary computational design that is highly innovative: being disruptive rather than incremental in the manner in which it seeks out innovation. She specifically describes how MOS (Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample) and New Territories/R&Sie(n), led by Francois Roche, are reinventing digital design in architecture by reconnecting it through a variety of media to broader cultural and social issues.

In the last decade, biotechnical architecture has become one of the most fertile areas for speculative architecture. Guest-Editor Pia Ednie-Brown traces the recent lineage of this field, highlighting the work of Ginger Krieg Dosier and Michael Dosier of Vergelabs, which has pushed biotechnical architecture further towards actualisation; their company bioMASON specialises in the biomanufacture of building material and its architectural applications.

An interdisciplinary design research collaborative led by Alisa Andrasek, CONTINUUM emerged from a series of design research seminars at Columbia University's graduate school of architecture. Working collaboratively with Robert Aish, Andresek's workshops explored the potential of the new Bentley Systems' GenerativeComponents design software, which at the time was in beta testing. CONTINUUM was formed to extend the possibilities of such collaborations and has expanded its network, occupying an interesting and unique territory of intersecting interests between academia, corporate practice and the companies that create design tools. Traditionally understood as antagonistic, commercial and progressive interests and intentions find common ground in their shared need for research into advanced design software that will enable the retooling of architectural practice. Here, Pia Ednie-Brown, with illustrations by Alisa Andrasek, examines the unique ways in which CONTINUUM enfolds diverse professional and academic practices. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In the last decade, the impact of the digital on form-finding in architecture has been conspicuous. Could working with computational algorithms as the primary generative material, however, have deeper, more far-reaching effects on the creative field? Here, Pia Ednie-Brown asserts that a new paradigm in composition is being articulated, as exemplified by the Invisibles installation, created by the New York-based practice biothing.