the intersection of architecture and the machine has a history that stretches back to the Industrial Revolution, however the machine has recently begun to appear in new ways in speculative architectural drawing and modelling. This issue of AD considers the influence of the machine as an allegorical device for exploring alternative architectural practices, and includes a cross-section of viewpoints from emerging and established international practitioners and academics. Allegory, a technique native to literature, provides a critical method through which machine typologies can contribute to deeper architectural narratives, offering new lenses for challenging or reassembling conventional modes of thought. An allegorical architectural project can unveil a story that enhances our awareness of something important. This AD reveals how engagement with the machine as an allegorical device in architectural discourse provides an avenue for architecture to provoke new ideas in response to current environmental, political, economic, cultural and social issues. At the forefront of this discussion, it extends the criticality of the topic within the broader spectrum of history, theory, philosophy, allegory and new technologies.