The second issue of this annual online and print journal addresses the idea of “radical” in three main areas: radical discourse, radical discipline, and radical development. Experimental and cutting-edge, FOLIO is peer-reviewed, showcasing the work of the GSA's innovative teaching environment, and attracting commentary, articles, and essays from global leaders in architectural criticism and design research. Each volume is led by a specific critical paradigm, including emerging knowledge, experimentation, social responsibility, and transformation, with guest editors and contributors carefully selected for their expertise and innovations in the specified field. The intention is to provide an alternative model of architectural research publication, one that is specific to architecture and urbanism in a rapidly transforming and changing environment. In particular, FOLIO is interested in attracting, sustaining, and developing a new generation of African talent across a wide range of built environment disciplines.

Lesley Lokko is an architect, academic, and the author of nine best-selling novels, as well as head of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She completed her architectural training at the Bartlett School of Architecture in 1994, and went on to complete her PhD from the University of London in 2007. She has taught at schools of architecture in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. She is the editor of White Papers, Black Marks: Race, Culture, Architecture (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) and has been an ongoing contributor to discourses around identity, race, African urbanism, and the speculative nature of African architectural space and practice for over twenty years. She is a regular juror at international competitions and symposia, and is a long-term contributor to BBC World and BBC Radio 3 arts programs in the UK. In 2004, she made the successful transition from academic to novelist with the publication of her first novel, Sundowners (Orion, 2004), a Guardian top forty best-seller, and has since followed with eight further volumes, which have been translated into 15 languages.

The University of Johannesburg is an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. Its mission is to inspire its community to transform and serve humanity through innovation and the collaborative pursuit of knowledge.