Ortlos is German for „placeless.“ It is also the appropriate designation for a virtual architectural office and discussion forum dealing with experimental architecture, urban planning, media theory, art installations, and product and interface design. Architects, web designers, media theorists, media artists, and information-technology specialists from around the world work together off-site, independent of a specific workplace. The conceptual and design process goes on in collaboration in a trans-local environment, created out of a network of virtually combined workplaces.

The architects of ORTLOS characterize the „end of architecture“ in a way that is comparable to American graphic-design legend David Carson's radical description of the „end of the print medium.“ This unique publication, the result of an unusual creative collaboration between ORTLOS and Carson, presents a dozen projects, dating from 2000 to 2003.