The new S.L.U.M. Lab magazine presents a cross-section of contemporary practice in the Asian region, with examples of specific modes of acting in multiple local contexts. The title ASIAN MODE refers to the modus operandi, moods, modes and modalities of researchers in different urban conditions, who are deliberately moving their focus away from the generic, tabula-rasa view of development that dominated publications about Asia in the past decade. Rural and urban, mobility and migration, density and sprawl, openness and exclusion, prosperity and disparity, water and waste, all reappear in different perspectives within this magazine. The idea of this edition is to move away from cliché views on Asia, producing an image of diversity and specificity of Asian everyday life.