The rural, remote, and wild territories we call "countryside", or the 98% of the earth's surface not occupied by cities , make up the front line where today's most powerful forces- climate and ecological devastation, migration, tech, demographic lurches -are playing out. Increasingly under a 'Cartesian' regime-gridded, mechanized, and optimized for maximal production-these sites are changing beyond recognition. In his latest publication, Rem Koolhaas explores the rapid and often hidden transformations underway across the Earth's vast non-urban areas. Countryside, A Report gathers travelogue essays exploring territories marked by global forces and experimentation at the edge of our consciousness : a test site near Fukushima , where the robots that will maintain Japan's infrastructure and agriculture are tested; a greenhouse city in the Netherlands that may be the origin for the cosmology of today's countryside; the rapidly thawing permafrost of Central Siberia , a region wrestling with the possibility of relocation; refugees populating dying villages in the German countryside and intersecting with climate change activists; habituated mountain gorillas confronting humans on 'their' territory in Uganda ; the American Midwest , where industrial-scale farming operations are coming to grips with regenerative agriculture; and Chinese villages transformed into all-in-one factory, e-commerce stores, and fulfillment centers. This book is the official companion to the Guggenheim Museum exhibition Countryside, The Future. The exhibition and book mark a new area of investigation for architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas , who launched his career with two city-centric entities: The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (1975) and Delirious New York (1978). It's designed by Irma Boom , who drew inspiration for the book's pocket-sized concept, as well as its innovative typography and layout, from her research in the Vatican library. The book brings together collaborative research by AMO , Koolhaas , and students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design ; the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing ; Wageningen University in the Netherlands ; and the University of Nairobi .

Contributors also include Samir Bantal, Janna Bystrykh, Troy Conrad Therrien, Lenora Ditzler, Clemens Driessen, Alexandra Kharitonova, Keigo Kobayashi, Niklas Maak, Etta Madete, Federico Martelli, Ingo Niermann, Dr. Linda Nkatha Gichuyia , Kayoko Ota, Stephan Petermann , and Anne M. Schneider .