Bracket is a new book series that highlights emerging critical issues at the juncture of architecture, environment, and digital culture. Bracket is an annual book developed by Archinect, an online collection of editors, and InfraNet Lab, a research collective studying new forms of urbanism emerging from the networked ecologies of food, water, energy, and waste, among others. Seeking new voices and design talent, Bracket is structured around an open call for entries. Conceived as an almanac, the series looks at emerging thematics in our global age that are shaping the built environment in significant, yet often unexpected, ways. Bracket 2: Goes Soft revolves around the theme of soft systems, as they pertain to built and virtual infrastructures, ecologies, landscapes, environments, and networks. Examining responsive, adaptable, and immaterial systems, Soft Systems seeks to critically define the scope and role of "softness" through a survey of new design projects and critical essays.

Paul Petrunia, publisher, is the founder and publisher of Archinect.com (1997); the president and creative director at Extra Medium, Inc., a Los Angeles-based web design/development studio; and a consultant for the design and production of web sites, specializing in those related to architecture and design. Petrunia studied arts and sciences at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. He then moved on to study architecture at the University of Oregon and the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

Mason White, managing editor/ project lead, is cofounder of Lateral Architecture, a firm committed to the productive overlap of architecture, landscape, infrastructure, and urbanism. White was the Lefevre Fellow at Ohio State University 2003–04. White is senior editor at Archinect, where he has been contributing since 1999. He is the founder of Lateral Office and of InfraNet Lab, a research laboratory dedicated to probing the spatial byproducts of contemporary resource logistics. Lateral Office and InfraNet Lab participated in Pamphlet Architecture, Volume 30, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2011. Currently, White is director of the Masters in Architecture Program at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

Lola Sheppard, coeditor, is cofounder of Lateral Office, a firm dedicated to the productive overlap of architecture, landscape, infrastructure, and urbanism. Sheppard is also codirector of InfraNet Lab, a research laboratory dedicated to probing the spatial byproducts of contemporary resource logistics. Lateral Office and InfraNet Lab participated in Pamphlet Architecture, Volume 30, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2011. Lateral was also awarded the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York in 2011; the Canadian Prix de Rome in 2010; and the Young Architects Forum Award in 2005. Sheppard is assistant professor at University of Waterloo's School of Architecture in Canada.

Neeraj Bhatia, coeditor, received his Masters of Architecture and Urban Design from MIT. He has worked for Eisenman Architects, Coop Himmelblau, Bruce Mau Design, OMA, ORG, and Lateral Office. He has taught at the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto, and is currently the Visiting Wortham Teaching Fellow at Rice University. His research has been published in Volume/Archis, Thresholds, Footprint, Onsite Review, brkt, and Yale Perspecta. He is coeditor (with Jürgen Mayer H.) of Arium: Weather + Architecture (Hatje Cantz Publishing, 2009), which examines the relationship between buildings and weather. Bhatia is also  coauthor of Pamphlet Architecture 30: Coupling (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), and codirector of InfraNet Lab, a non-profit research collective probing the spatial byproducts of contemporary resource logistics.

Benjamin H. Bratton is a sociological, media, and design theorist. He is associate professor of visual arts at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the Design Policy Program at the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology. Bratton is the former director of the Advanced Strategies Group at Yahoo!, and has taught at UCLA and SCI.Arc for many years. His work sits at the intersections of contemporary social and political theory, computational media and infrastructure, and architectural and urban design problems and methodologies. Among his most recent writings are The Logistics of Habitable Circulation (Semiotext(e)/MIT Press); Suspicious Images/ Latent Images (coauthored with Natalie Jeremijenko); and iPhone City (in the Digital Urbanism issue of AD: Architectural Design). Bratton has published widely, and has been a visiting lecturer and critic at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, Yale University, and the Architectural Association of London, among many others.

Julia Czerniak is a registered landscape architect, and founder and principal (with Mark Linder), of CLEAR, a transdisciplinary collaborative between architects and others that aspires to both strengthen its disciplinary identity and to expand its range of operations. She is an associate professor at Syracuse University's School of Architecture, where she  teachesarchitectural studios, as well as seminars on landscape theory and criticism. Czerniak is also director of UPSTATE. Educated as an architect (Princeton University, MArch 1992) and landscape architect (Pennsylvania State University, BA 1984), Czerniak focuses on the intersection of research and practice.. She is the editor of two books Large Parks (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) and Case: Downsview Park Toronto (Prestel and Harvard Design School, 2001), which focus on contemporary design approaches to public parks.

Jeffrey Inaba is the director of C-Lab, an architecture, policy, and communications think tank at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He is also the features editor of Volume. Previously, he codirected (with Rem Koolhaus) the Harvard Project on the City, a research program investigating contemporary urbanism and planning worldwide, and before starting INABA, he was a principal of AMO, the research consultancy founded by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. In addition to serving as  faculty member at Columbia, Inaba has taught at UCLA, Harvard, and SCI-Arc. He serves on the Mayor's Design Advisory Panel in Los Angeles and as an advisor to several private institutions. Inaba received his MArch with distinction and master's in design studies degree from Harvard University. He has been published in the Financial Times, FRAME, Mark Magazine, Urban China, Domus, Art Review, Artforum, the New York Times, Archinect, and BLDGBLOG.

Geoff Manaugh is the author of BLDGBLOG and The BLDGBLOG Book (Chronicle Books, 2009). He describes both as spaces for his own blend of architectural conjecture, urban speculation, and landscape futures. From the history of derelict utopias, cities in science-fiction films, and 3D-models of plate tectonics to the novels of J. G. Ballard, sustainable urban design, and the psychological implications of climate change, the book and blog aim to expand what we consider architectural writing today. Manaugh is also a contributing editor at Wired UK and former senior editor of Dwell magazine. In addition to publishing widely on questions of space, culture, and design, he lectures regularly at universities and museums worldwide.

Philippe Rahm studied at the Federal Polytechnic Schools of Lausanne and Zurich. In 2002, he was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 8th Architecture Biennale in Venice and is one 20 architects selected for Aaron Betsky's 2008 Architectural Venice Biennale. In 2009, he was a e nominee for the Ordos Prize in China, and in 2008, ranked in the top ten for the International Chernikov prize in Moscow. He has participated in a number of exhibitions worldwide, including Archilab, 2000; SF-MoMA, 2001; Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg, 2003–06 and 2007; the Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2007; and Manifesta 7, 2008. Rahm was headmaster of Diploma Unit 13 at the AA School in London in 2005–06; visiting professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in Switzerland in 2004 and 2005; guest professor  at the ETH Lausanne in 2006 and 2007; and is currently guest professor at the Royal School of Architecture in Copenhagen. He is working on several private and public projects in France, Poland, England, Italy, and Germany.

Charles Renfro is a practicing architect and partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). As a collaborator with Diller+Scofidio, he served as project lead on Eyebeam; the BAM Cultural District master plan (with Rem Koolhaas/OMA); Blur; the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art; the redesign and expansion of the Juilliard School; and Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, among other projects. Renfro's work with DS+R has been exhibited worldwide at many museums and institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum; the Netherlands Architecture Institute; the Canadian Centre for Architecture; and the Centre Pompidou. Prior to joining DS+R, Renfro was an associate at Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects and Ralph Appelbaum Associates. His writing has been published in BOMB and A+U magazines. Renfro is a graduate of Rice University and holds a master's degree from Columbia University's GSAPP. He has been on the faculty of Columbia since 2000, and was the Cullinan Visiting Professor at Rice University in 2006.

Launched in 1997, Archinect is an online forum centered on the dissemination of progressive ideas in design and the internet. Archinect's mission is to make architecture more connected in real time. Archinect is committed to an open-source structure wherein editors, members, and even anonymous visitors can observe or participate in the generation of content and discussions on issues central to contemporary architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Archinect has become the leading online community for architecture. It is an essential online destination for architects, designers, educators, and students. The site's robust editorial content, coupled with its community-driven participation, make it essential reading for over 2.5 million monthly visitors. Archinect and InfraNet Lab teamed up in 2008 to launch Bracket, a print forum for emerging design talent and critical new voices on issues that foreground architecture, environment, and digital culture. Bracket is published annually by Actar.