The book Between Burials and Funerals deals with the city in Hollywood Western movies. The imaginary Wild West town serves as a productive case study to research the construction of and relationship between specific idylls within an underlying ideology as an architectural and urbanistic project. The focus on film is deliberate. Rather than revisiting existing places, this study speculates from fictional ones, tapping into the discipline's recent obsession with storytelling. It argues that Westerns reveal how narrative is embedded into architecture, and architecture into narrative. The book is intended for architects and urban designers; however, it also targets a broader audience interested in the intersection of architecture and the city with products of popular culture. And every fan of the Western genre will be delighted to immerse herself in the town of Lago or discover detailed plans of Larabee, the Alamo, and other important places of the American West.

Alex Lehnerer, an architect and urban designer, received his PhD from the ETH in Zürich and is currently based in Chicago, where he is assistant professor at the University of Illinois's School of Architecture. He is also partner of Kaisersrot in Zürich, CH, and ALSO Architekten. He recently published the book Grand Urban Rules with 010 Publishers. His architectural practice SALE explores urban and architectural conditions—their forms, ingredients, and rules–in both an academic and professional environment.