Book Details
Exteriorless Architecture: Form, Space, and Urbanities of Neoliberalism
Author: Stefano Corbo
Publisher: Routledge
Publication date: 2023
138 pp.
ISBN: 9781032170817
A thorough examination of how modern capitalism shapes space may be found in Stefano Corbo's book EXTERIORLESS Architecture: Form, Space, and Urbanities of Neoliberalism (Routledge, 2023). Stefano Corbo’s EXTERIORLESS Architecture: Form, Space, and Urbanities of Neoliberalism is part of the Routledge Research in Architecture series, which promotes global scholarship in areas such as architectural history and theory, technology, design, and urban studies. Corbo examines contemporary building types—data centers, warehouses, logistics parks—not for their aesthetic qualities but for the systems of values, power relations, and capitalist logics they embody. Within the series, the book shares thematic ground with Laurence Kimmel’s Architecture of Threshold Spaces, which similarly critiques hyperconnectivity, segregation, and socio-political inequities, and with Liam Ross’s Pyrotechnic Cities, whose focus on standardisation echoes Corbo’s analysis of ISO containers and Class A warehouses. In contrast, titles like Architecture and the Housing Question and Mies at Home address housing or specific architects, diverging from Corbo’s broader critique of capitalist spatialities.
An Italian architect and educator with a Ph.D. in Advanced Architectural Design, Corbo has taught internationally and, since 2022, at TU Delft. His EXTERIORLESS project originated from speculative drawings on neoliberal architectures and evolved into a study of space within capitalist development. This research underpins his Spring 2025 MSc.2 elective seminar, “Exteriorless. The Design of the Ordinary,” which analyzed and redesigned logistics-related buildings—data centers, storage facilities, distribution hubs—within the Netherlands. Students investigated supply chains for items such as food, flowers, and consumer goods, envisioning these infrastructures as public structures capable of fostering collective life, reducing environmental impact, and rethinking urban–rural divides.
The central theme of the book is the idea of the "EXTERIORLESS." This phrase refers to a broad variety of buildings that are the outcome of modern capitalist development, such as logistics parks, warehouses, data centres, and container terminals. These structures are frequently seen as "mediocre and dull" and do not adhere to conventional architectural norms. Conventional norms in architecture have historically emphasized aesthetic and historic qualities, integration with the traditional city and public realm, legibility and symbolic expression, human-centred design, a clear definition between interior and exterior, and the architect’s role as a visionary shaping societal dynamics. Traditional architecture is valued for beauty, artistry, and historical significance, engages with urban fabric, expresses identity through facades, centres on human comfort, maintains a clear inside–outside relationship, and is guided by architects as public intellectuals.
EXTERIORLESS architectures depart radically from these principles. Aesthetically, they are “formless,” “generic,” and “uniform,” prioritizing efficiency over visual or historical significance. Their relevance lies not in design merit but in the capitalist systems and values they embody, functioning as instrumental components of finance capitalism. Spatially, they are disconnected from traditional urban contexts, often located in isolated rural or suburban sites that resist external input, existing as infrastructural nodes for global production, distribution, and consumption. Symbolically, they lack legibility: their hermetic exteriors serve as neutral envelopes that conceal internal functions, turning facades into mediums of interiority. They also abandon human-centeredness, replacing people with automated systems, robotics, and machine-oriented design logic. The clear separation of inside and outside dissolves into fluid exchanges or entirely independent treatments, reflecting the “disappearance of the outside” and the interiorization of capital. Finally, the architect’s traditional authority is diminished. In many cases, designers are absent from conception, reduced to documenting rather than shaping reality. Under neoliberal pressures, the architect becomes a replaceable service provider, with technology-driven efficiency and private-sector demands overriding public-oriented vision. In sum, EXTERIORLESS architectures are spatial byproducts of capitalism—optimized for profit, control, and automation—eschewing the cultural, civic, and humanistic values that have historically defined architecture.
The ideals they stand for, the power dynamics they expose, the labour problems they cause, and the profound impact they have on people's identities, however, are what make them significant, rather than their appearance. The book attempts to make sense of the complex interrelationships among architecture, capitalist production, and individual identity. It looks more closely at the changing relationships between capitalism and the term "liberalism," paying particular attention to how globalization and neoliberalism provide the context for comprehending the EXTERIORLESS condition. This condition describes a trend in contemporary architecture linked to today’s capitalist development. It includes buildings like data centres, warehouses, container terminals, and logistics parks. The term means the “outside” has disappeared—both physically and psychologically—so that inside and outside either blend into a continuous flow or exist as entirely separate entities.
Corbo situates the geographical dimensions of contemporary capitalism within broader discussions of the Capitalocene, Post-Anthropocene, and Anthropocene. Although the name "Anthropocene" is frequently used, the book backs up criticisms from writers like Jason W. Moore and Elmar Altvater, who propose using the term "Capitalocene" to highlight the fact that capital, not just human activity, is the primary driver of today's environmental changes. This point of view emphasizes how capitalism's extractive, exploitative tactics, which have their roots in past colonial activities, affect nature.
The book is divided into three main sections, each highlighting a key feature of "EXTERIORLESS" architecture.
According to the interface section, EXTERIORLESS platforms, referring to infrastructural spaces that function as neutral, ideologically charged mediums designed to facilitate communication and transmission within contemporary capitalist development prioritize horizontal organization above vertical expressiveness. These platforms frequently look generic. They support neoliberal goals and have ideological weight despite their apparent neutrality. The origins of the EXTERIORLESS as an interface go back to the experimental architecture of the 1960s. Corbo examines the impact of visionary proposals from groups like Archigram, Archizoom, and Superstudio, along with designers such as Cedric Price and Constant. Concepts like Archigram's "Plug-in City" and Archizoom's "No-Stop City" are seen as early examples of today's logistical spaces. These ideas dealt with notions of fluidity, reproducibility, and automation, either accepting or critically questioning the rising capitalist methods of production. The book points out how the 1960s' belief in "architecture without architects" reflected a lack of interest in formal issues and an emphasis on user-driven design. This attitude anticipated the absence of authorship in today's generic logistical structures. Another significant event takes place in the late 1980s when Rem Koolhaas introduced the concept of "Bigness." This idea signalled a change in the way architecture was isolated from the city, creating a space between the inside and the outside. According to the book, "Bigness" foreshadowed the EXTERIORLESS by substituting big, independent buildings for the city, turning the outside into a "expanded medium of interiority." Alejandro Zaera-Polo's "politics of the envelope," which explores the façade as a stand-alone project that separates from inner functions and serves as a political tool, expands on this concept.
The Expanded section explores the unclear nature of the EXTERIORLESS being both local and global, isolated and connected, compressed and expanded. It looks at two main factors: logistics and information technology (datafication). Logistics, rooted deeply in military history, stands out as the key example of this expanded domain. The book outlines the development of logistics through global trade, highlighting the transformative impact of the shipping container since it became an ISO standard in 1964. It considers port areas like Rotterdam's Maasvlakte 2, known for its extensive automation, and Dubai, which has turned into a logistics powerhouse. Warehouses, especially the "International-standard Class A warehouse," are examined as crucial parts of the supply chain. They are noted for their generic design, quick construction, and focus on efficiency over appearance. The "Cloud" is portrayed as a physical space, with data centres serving as large, hardly perceptible infrastructures that generate a lot of heat and consume a lot of electricity. The One Wilshire tower in Los Angeles, Walmart's secret data centre in Missouri, and underground infrastructure like Pionen White Mountain in Stockholm and Swiss Fort Knox are a few examples. These illustrations highlight their security, inaccessibility, and the paradox that abstract data requires robust physical structures. These places, which frequently have no human occupants, represent a post-human world in which architecture is dictated by technology.
The final section talks about Forms of Urbanity and looks at how the EXTERIORLESS can reshape urban environments, creating new forms of urban life in the absence of the traditional city. It introduces ideas like "planetary urbanisation" (Neil Brenner) and the "global city" (Saskia Sassen) to show how urban development is now driven by capital accumulation and goes beyond national borders. The book examines (extra)state spaces such as free-trade zones (FTZs) and special economic zones (SEZs) (e.g., Shenzhen, Dubai Logistics City) as historical examples and ongoing effects of unique legal, financial, and territorial conditions that support global trade. The rise of "Steel Cities" in Central and Eastern Europe is presented as a result of multinational companies taking advantage of low costs and cheap labour, often through public-private partnerships and flexible laws. These logistics parks, mainly made up of Class A warehouses, illustrate ongoing economic inequalities. The idea of the "privatised city" is vividly shown through the aggressive tactics of private companies like Amazon and Walmart. Amazon's role in Seattle, including its political moves against a proposed tax, and its "acupunctural invasion" of New York City with hidden facilities (warehouses, lockers, AWS data centres) are detailed. Walmart's "erosion" strategy in Vermont and its transformation of Bentonville into a "Walmart theme park" highlight how these companies influence urban areas and ways of living. The once a small town, now has been transformed by Walmart into a corporate hub and the center of its global operations. The company has reshaped the city with executive housing, green spaces, and recreational facilities, creating what some call a “Walmart theme park,” where the brand defines the city’s identity. Functioning as an EXTERIORLESS city, Bentonville operates as a privatized space shaped by Walmart’s logistics rather than traditional urban planning. Its boundaries now extend into a larger metropolitan area, attracting investment, tourism, and a growing population drawn by lifestyle opportunities and proximity to Walmart’s headquarters. The city’s urbanity is logistics-driven, promoting mercantilism as both an economic and cultural ethos. Many commercial and office buildings adopt the appearance of low-cost housing, blending into residential areas and reflecting the transient, adaptable nature of their use. Overall, Bentonville exemplifies a corporate-controlled urban model where economic functionality and global supply-chain efficiency take precedence over civic or aesthetic values.
Corbo looks at evolving identities, shifting work environments, and the intricate relationships between people and non-humans in these settings. He critically assesses automation as a tool of capitalism that puts more strain on workers and develops new kinds of surveillance, in addition to being a technological advancement. This brings up the topic of biopolitics, which uses the works of philosophers such as Foucault, Negri, Agamben, and Esposito to explain how power governs life in these environments. Corbo seeks the EXTERIORLESS's "potential for change," envisioning alternate futures through group efforts, constructive biopolitics, and a renewed role for architecture as a vital form, even as he acknowledges the "dark and hopeless scenario" of violence, oppression, and environmental damage associated with the production of architecture.
"EXTERIORLESS Architecture" is a comprehensive and perceptive research-based work that does more than only describe modern structures. In order to elucidate the intricate relationships among space, capitalism, and identity, it offers a multi-layered approach that integrates architectural theory, economic history, urban studies, and philosophy. For academics and professionals who want to comprehend the invisible factors influencing our built environment and the difficulties these forces provide for design, labour, and urban life in the neoliberal era, Corbo's work is especially crucial. The thorough study in the book, supported by numerous instances and theoretical allusions, significantly aids in understanding the profound consequences of the EXTERIORLESS paradigm.
The Design of the Ordinary course translated the book’s critique of EXTERIORLESS architecture into actionable design strategies that challenge the isolation, opacity, and utilitarianism of logistics-driven spaces. Students reimagined warehouses, greenhouses, and distribution centres as public interfaces—open, engaging, and integrated into their urban and rural contexts—thereby turning typically inaccessible “boxes” into collective spaces that foster community interaction. Their proposals addressed environmental and social impacts by scaling down facilities’ ecological footprints, optimizing energy use, promoting circular economies, and designing for human–machine coexistence. In doing so, they made industrial processes visible, fostering public understanding and transparency.
The projects also questioned rigid urban–rural separations, reframing these architectures as active nodes within supply chains that contribute to civic life rather than stand apart from it. In redefining these spaces, students actively reimagined the architect’s role—from passive observer to agent of transformation—pursuing inclusive, participatory, and socially responsible urbanity. The work demonstrates how design can directly intervene in the physical and ideological frameworks of capitalist spatial byproducts, creating alternative futures that balance efficiency with public value.
Prabhav Singh is an IIT Roorkee master's student studying design. He is interested in the cultural aspects of digital products, inter-action design, and spatial experience. He investigates the effects of technology and architecture on human attention and behavior. He recently conducted research on the impact of color on virtual reality experiences. Prabhav interned at Flip-kart as a UX design-er. He strives to develop systems that uphold dignity and trust while working on projects that blend Indian aesthetics with functionality. Outside of design, he maintains a consistent exercise regimen and values a modest, non-luxurious lifestyle.