A Compactification of Open Varieties

In this paper we show a general method to compactify certain open varieties by adding normal crossing divisors. This is done by proving that {\it blowing up along an arrangement of subvarieties} can be carried out. Important examples such as Ulyanov's configuration spaces, spaces of holomorphic maps, etc., are covered. Intersection ring and (non-recursive) Hodge polynomails are computed. Further general structures arising from the blowup process are described and studied.