Peter Defesche will once again fulfill the role of Architect in Residence for the Amsterdam Architecture Center in 2018. Where 2017 for Arcam was all about accelerating and slowing down - both necessary strategies to provide a framework for the large compaction assignment in Amsterdam - in 2018 the emphasis will shift. This year the emphasis is on backgrounds and substantiations of the enormous compaction and transformation task that the city faces. The high-rise debates will get their follow-up anyway, Arcam sheds light on the upcoming municipal elections and on the ambitions concerning architecture and urbanism expressed in the party programs. Design research on location, which produced six studios and a beautiful compact exhibition in December, will once again take shape in 2018; new places come into the picture, new strategies are projected freely, discussions with stakeholders and interested parties will also in 2018 result in interesting Arcam evenings. The city is extremely busy, the city does and thinks, and Arcam sets the spotlight on what is essential in the coming year.