Contemporary Spanish architect Alejandro Zaera-Polo presents a lecture entitled Envelopes. The former Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University describes the work done by his practice at the time, Foreign Office Architects (FOA). He describes projects focusing on the structure of their outer envelopes,beginning with the La Rioja Technology Transfer Center in Logrono, Spain and the Umraniye Retail Complex and Multiplex in Istanbul, Turkey. Zaera-Polo follows with a social housing project in Madrid, the Bamboo Building. He then presents two projects in the UK: the Trinity EC3 office complex in London and a John Lewis department store in Leicester. He concludes with the ultimate vertical envelope: tall buildings in Asia.