Substitune Part 2 Project 2004 Markus Miessen Architectural Association London | UK As a reaction to the ongoing redevelopment of King’s Cross, the introduction of a service-interface creates an economically independent health service, which operates autonomously from NHS funding. This new methadone substitute programme caters for those users who are unable to register with GPs and rely on services, which are accessible only to those registered with their local council. As a piece of urban infrastructure, a network of eight specific sites along Euston Road generates an alternative financing scheme (developed in partnership with Boots® and the GLA) that questions the notion of a purely physical change to the urban fabric. Markus Miessen’s work succeeds in expanding the role of the architect in several ways. His understanding of drugs as an urban phenomenon is acute, his reading of the area around Kings Cross and Euston Road is very precise and his collaboration with existing institutions is optimistic and realistically creative. The SUBSTITUNE project proposes an alternative health structure, it deals with both the individual and the institution, it puts forward an interactive mechanism for collaboration and it creates a fragmented service building with specific architectural projects located in key sites along the Euston Road.