Announcements

  • CALL UOU#11

    02.12.2025

    Dear UOU participants,

    It is a great pleasure for us to announce that our UOUsj has just been classified as Classe A by ANVUR, the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes.

    And what better way to celebrate this achievement than by announcing the Call for Papers for our next issue, UOUsj #11!

    UOU scientific journal Issue #11 / UNSCRIPTED GROUNDS

    June 2026

    Guest Editor: Hocine Aliouane-Shaw / ENSAP Bordeaux (France).

     

    15 December 2025 – 5pm CET

    Call opens.

    WEBEX LINK:

    https://ua2.webex.com/ua2/j.php?MTID=mde168ca7bab1a0068c63bcb4880122ba

    Meeting number: 2742 838 4503

    Password: qHDeh9mn9B4

     

    15 February 2026

    Full paper submission.

     

    15 March 2026

    Outcome of double-blind peer review process.

     

    15 April 2026

    Final submission of completed papers.

     

    UNSCRIPTED GROUNDS

    (Situations, Practices and Shared Stewardship at the Margins of City-Making)

     

    This issue explores unscripted grounds: environments left open, undefined or held in suspension that often occupy blind spots in conventional architectural practice and spatial planning. These are spaces of various scales that have slipped out of formal and institutional control. Rather than disappearing altogether, they remain hidden in plain sight; and as former functions wane, informal and unforeseen ones begin to emerge. Drawing on Ignasi de Solà-Morales’s notion of the “terrain vague” and related debates on liminality, in-between conditions and vacancy, unscripted grounds also refer to places where scripts of ownership, use and value are loosened and not yet stabilised.

    Far from empty in terms of ecological life or informal uses, these grounds often concentrate, among other things, the layered histories of obsolete industrial or transport infrastructures, redundant buildings and compounds, residual spaces at the edges of housing developments, or peri-urban belts caught between former farmland and urban sprawl. What may read from the outside as voids in the urban fabric can, when seen from within, host dense entanglements of material traces of former uses, ecological processes, everyday tactics of inhabitation and, at times, informal economies. In this sense, unscripted grounds may be approached as situations rather than merely as sites: knots of material, social and symbolic relations that become legible through attentive, often collective forms of engagement with place.

    Beyond treating these environments as the unaddressed underside of spatial planning, this issue asks how such grounds can be approached as situations where new ways of acting and living together may be rehearsed – and learned from – in order to inform more transversal and bottom-up approaches to architectural practice and urban planning. It seeks to explore how these environments can become grounds for experiments in situated care and shared learning, with varying degrees of commoning, whilst remaining attentive to how such actions intersect with and resist longer-term dynamics of “normalization” and, in some cases, gentrification. The issue is thus also concerned with how unscripted grounds shift over time – whether they remain at the margins or are reintegrated into mainstream planning, and to what extent lessons from on-the-ground experimentation persist or are erased in the process.

    We invite contributions that draw on grounded engagement with uncertain contexts and combine empirical knowledge with critical reflection, in an attempt to reimagine architectural and urban practices from the ground up. We are particularly interested in contributions that treat these engagements as forms of inquiry – whether research, pedagogy or practice – and that reflect explicitly on their methods, positionalities and, where relevant, the ethical questions raised by participatory, collaborative and co-produced approaches.

    Read more about CALL UOU#11

  • EURAU 26 LATITUDES

    01.12.2025

    Dear colleagues, 

    We are glad to announce some GREAT NEWS about the next EURAU26 Symposium LATITUDES 

    • the UOU Journal, that will be the venue for the publication for the conference papers selected, has been recognized as Scientific Journal in Classe A (highest rank in Italy by the national agency ANVUR)
    • ENSA Paris Malaquais has joined the Scientific Committee (website will be updated soon)!
    • our EURAU LATITUDES symposium at UMA is achieving a great interest from participants from the Nordics and non-EU
      To  celebrate… we have decided to postpone the deadline to receive the extended abstracts until the 9th of January !   You can register as author and reviewer. It is highly important as we will use this platform for the review of the articles! So please do it before the 9th of January.    Let circulate the news among your networks!    Read here about the CALL:  https://www.umu.se/en/umea-school-of-architecture/eurau26-symposium/

    https://revistes.ua.es/uou/announcement/view/597

    You are all welcome to join us at Umeå School of Architecture

    For any information: eurau26@umu.se 

    UOU Scientific Journal Editorial board

    Read more about EURAU 26 LATITUDES

  • CALL UOU#11 / UNSCRIPTED GROUNDS

    29.11.2025

    Dear UOU participants,

    It is a great pleasure for us to announce that our UOUsj has just been classified as Classe A by ANVUR, the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes.

    And what better way to celebrate this achievement than by announcing the Call for Papers for our next issue, UOUsj #11!

    UOU scientific journal Issue #11 / UNSCRIPTED GROUNDS

    June 2026

    Guest Editor: Hocine Aliouane-Shaw / ENSAP Bordeaux (France).

     

    15 December 2025 – 5pm CET

    Call opens.

    WEBEX LINK:

    https://ua2.webex.com/ua2/j.php?MTID=mde168ca7bab1a0068c63bcb4880122ba

    Meeting number: 2742 838 4503

    Password: qHDeh9mn9B4

     

    15 February 2026

    Full paper submission.

     

    15 March 2026

    Outcome of double-blind peer review process.

     

    15 April

    Final submission of completed papers.

     

    UNSCRIPTED GROUNDS

    (Situations, Practices and Shared Stewardship at the Margins of City-Making)

     

    This issue explores unscripted grounds: environments left open, undefined or held in suspension that often occupy blind spots in conventional architectural practice and spatial planning. These are spaces of various scales that have slipped out of formal and institutional control. Rather than disappearing altogether, they remain hidden in plain sight; and as former functions wane, informal and unforeseen ones begin to emerge. Drawing on Ignasi de Solà-Morales’s notion of the “terrain vague” and related debates on liminality, in-between conditions and vacancy, unscripted grounds also refer to places where scripts of ownership, use and value are loosened and not yet stabilised.

    Far from empty in terms of ecological life or informal uses, these grounds often concentrate, among other things, the layered histories of obsolete industrial or transport infrastructures, redundant buildings and compounds, residual spaces at the edges of housing developments, or peri-urban belts caught between former farmland and urban sprawl. What may read from the outside as voids in the urban fabric can, when seen from within, host dense entanglements of material traces of former uses, ecological processes, everyday tactics of inhabitation and, at times, informal economies. In this sense, unscripted grounds may be approached as situations rather than merely as sites: knots of material, social and symbolic relations that become legible through attentive, often collective forms of engagement with place.

    Beyond treating these environments as the unaddressed underside of spatial planning, this issue asks how such grounds can be approached as situations where new ways of acting and living together may be rehearsed – and learned from – in order to inform more transversal and bottom-up approaches to architectural practice and urban planning. It seeks to explore how these environments can become grounds for experiments in situated care and shared learning, with varying degrees of commoning, whilst remaining attentive to how such actions intersect with and resist longer-term dynamics of “normalization” and, in some cases, gentrification. The issue is thus also concerned with how unscripted grounds shift over time – whether they remain at the margins or are reintegrated into mainstream planning, and to what extent lessons from on-the-ground experimentation persist or are erased in the process.

    We invite contributions that draw on grounded engagement with uncertain contexts and combine empirical knowledge with critical reflection, in an attempt to reimagine architectural and urban practices from the ground up. We are particularly interested in contributions that treat these engagements as forms of inquiry – whether research, pedagogy or practice – and that reflect explicitly on their methods, positionalities and, where relevant, the ethical questions raised by participatory, collaborative and co-produced approaches.

    Read more about CALL UOU#11 / UNSCRIPTED GROUNDS

  • CALL UOU#13 / LATITUDES

    05.11.2025

    Dear UOU contributors, 

    we invite you all to the presentation of the call for our 

    Issue #13 / LATITUDES

    June 2027

    Guest Editors: Maria Luna Nobile, Carla Collevecchio, Umeå School of Architecture, Umeå University, Sweden.

    RECORDING:
    https://vertice.cpd.ua.es/311279

    Presentation of the call: 17 November 16.30 (CET / Madrid - Stockholm time)

    WEBEX LINK: https://umu.zoom.us/my/m.lunanobile 

    When thinking about ourselves as researchers situated in a specific location and bridging in many cases traditions of studies and previous experiences related to a specific context, it is evident that there is a gap in the way we could learn from other latitudes, context/s and situations.

    Concepts should not arise from the perspective of a single individual, but from the many viewpoints that emerge from multiple people, cultures, and even nations. What truly matters is that knowledge is born from plurality. Only then will we know how far we wish to go. This idea, defined by the notion of “cosmic diplomacy” (Latour, 2012), seeks to understand the ways in which we are part of an emerging world, in order to outline a shared path for acting within the cosmos—through an ecological vision capable of holding together all living beings and the natural environment to which they belong (Kohn, 2013). 

    The concept of situation is no longer tied simply to the idea of ground. It is not to be understood as in the traditional definition of “regional” in relation to local practices (Frampton, 1965), but as in the metaphor of ground or forest, also mentioned by Kohn: a living environment composed of bio-species, yet at the same time polluted, modified, occupied, shaped by climate change and political and regulated logics. Ground thus emerges as a highly dynamic condition—both real and virtual—continuously transformed by drifting cultures and by a sense of openness and freedom (Otero Verzier, 2019).

    This reflection also applies to cities - artificial environments par excellence. A city is not just architecture plus dwellers; it is perhaps the longest continuous process that humans have created. What future would make the past worth it? Taking this new existential condition seriously demands a radically different sort of philosophy (Bratton, 24). It is in these distinctions among cultures, political frameworks, current emergent conditions, and in the ability of understanding the many layers cities are composed of, that we invite the authors to participate to the debate. 

    This issue is conceived to host a selection of the proposals for the international symposium EURAU26 LATITUDES aims at investigating the field of architecture as a research discipline across cultures, territories and places. 

    LATITUDES wants to challenge the notion of architecture as a situated practice, looking beyond the traditional understanding of context as territory and embracing an open vision towards the future possibilities where the notion of context is not static anymore but dynamic, open, real and virtual, but still enrooted in the specificity of a precise, measured intervention. It is in relation to this intercultural and interdisciplinary plurality that EURAU26 LATITUDES positions itself as a platform for exchange, understanding, dialogue, and the advancement of knowledge within the field. What tools, methods, instruments, frameworks, can other realities, including close disciplines and knowledges offer to architecture?

    Emphasizing the importance of understanding architectural research as a practice situated across multiple contexts, disciplines, and cultural viewpoints and by acknowledging these relational frameworks, EURAU26 LATITUDES encourage a research approach that is rigorous in measurement yet attentive to the diversity of perspectives that shape the world we inhabit.

    The journal will accept proposal in two phases. 

    Read more in the announcement!

    UOU Editors

    Read more about CALL UOU#13 / LATITUDES

  • PRESENTACION UOUsj#09 / IN PRESENCE

    13.06.2025
    Dear UOU team, we have a new UOUsj issue!!!   

    We would like to invite you to the celebration and presentation of the UOUsj#09 IN PRESENCE together with the Guest Editors and Contributors.

    UOUsj#09 IN PRESENCE Guest Editors: Marco Bovati + Anna Moro + Daniele Villa / Politecnico di Milano, Italy

     

    The event will be on Tuesday 24th JUNE 2025, 18:00 (CET) via Webex.

    https://ua2.webex.com/ua2/j.php?MTID=me1d5e3d785076d468df150c13d35045e     Please, spread the information! Thank you Read more about PRESENTACION UOUsj#09 / IN PRESENCE

  • CALL UOUsj#10 / IN DETAIL

    08.06.2025
    Dear UOU Enthusiasts,

     

    As we put the finishing touches on the upcoming publication of UOU scientific journal issue #09, we are thrilled to announce the Call for Papers for issue #10!

    Yes—ten issues already of this exciting and inspiring project! None of this would have been possible without your continued support, creativity, and collaboration.

    Thank you all for being part of the journey!
    cover UOUsj#10

    UOU scientific journal

    Issue #10 / IN DETAIL

    December 2025

    Guest Editor: Angela Kyriacou Petrou / University of Nicosia, Cyprus.

     

     

    12 June 2025 – 5pm CET

    Call opens.

    WEBEX LINK:

    https://ua2.webex.com/ua2/j.php?MTID=m5ce61ac55cdff7e579da6c1b6af87ee8

    Meeting number: 2740 848 6669

    Password: MNcKxjTx394

     

    07 September 2025

    Full paper submission.

     

    01 October 2025

    Outcome of double-blind peer review process.

     

    01 November 2025

    Final submission of completed papers.

     

    This issue explores the complex con-junctions between people, materials and meanings through the micro-scales of architecture.  The detail is the point at which things meet –an entanglement between materiality and everyday life. From technical detailing to the materiality of living, the issue seeks to identify the potential opportunities held in junctions, processes and moments of material convergence. Whether matter or data, material moments are not seen as purely static but instead are understood as instances which bring potential interactions into being.

    The call gives emphasis to the drawing, interrogating the objective material certainty that it assumes.

    Seen as part of a bigger story, the drawing stands as an instruction for relationality; for the material presence of a future space or detailed examination of the corporeality of life, either way, it is a visual testimony to life lived. To make these observations, we need to examine material details as moments of a larger series of interactions and multiple temporalities, represented through a slice of space. We may witness and draw our environment- like detectives - in slow motion, attempting to reveal micro details, opportunities, invisible stories and non-human entities.  Drawing on what moves within space, authors are invited to explore or question the drawing as a tool of interrogation from (the) detail to the whole.

     

    Bibliography

    Bordeleau, A., & Bresler, L. (2010). Drawing Theory

    Born, M., Furján, H., & Jencks, L. (Eds.). (2012). Dirt. MIT Press.

    Frampton, K. (1985). Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture . MIT Press.

    Frascari, M. (1981). The Tell-the-Tale Detail. In J. Deely & M. Lenhart (Eds.), Semiotics 1981 (pp. 325–336).

    Frichot, H. (2020). On the Irrational Section Cut. In H. Frichot, G. Sandin, & B. Schwalm (Eds.), Architecture in Effect(Vol. 2).

    Foscari, A., & Tafuri, M. (1983). L’armonia e i conflitti: la Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna nella Venezia del ’500. G. Einaudi.

    Kaijima, M., Stalder, L., & Iseki, Y. (Eds.). (2018). Architectural Ethnography. TOTO Publishing.

    Katherine Shonfield. (2000). Why does your flat leak? In Walls Have Feelings Architecture, Film and the City (pp. 32–52).

    Massey, D. (2005). For Space. SAGE Publications Ltd.

    Raoul Bunschoten. (2010). Urban Flotsam: Stirring the city . 010.

    Robin Evans. (2000). The Projective Cast  Architecture and Its Three Geometries. The MIT Press.

    Stender, M., Bech-Danielson, C., & Landsverk Hagen, A. (Eds.). (2023). Architectural Anthropology Exploring Lived Space.

     

    https://vertice.cpd.ua.es/305279

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#10 / IN DETAIL

  • CALL UOUsj#09 / IN PRESENCE

    18.11.2024

    https://vertice.cpd.ua.es/298699

    • 25th Nov 2024: OPEN CALL, 6pm at WEBEX:

    https://ua2.webex.com/ua2/j.php?MTID=md8ea9aaea10755b4b48756d1eda61b5b

    • 15th January 2025: FULL PAPER Submission DEADLINE 
    • 21st February 2025: notification of PEER REVIEW Evaluation 
    • 15th March: Final Submission DEADLINE 

     

    IN-PRESENCE

    The Body and The Space: The Role of Corporeity in the Era of Virtualization 

     

    In an era in which many aspects of our society, lives, and disciplines are shifting ─ sometimes subtly, other times forcibly forcefully ─ from the physical to the immaterial, from the corporeal to the virtual, we need to reflect on the current and future role of corporeality. This reflection entails examining what has changed and is changing, what remains irreducible from the material to the virtual intangible dimension and what is gained or lost in this shift in terms of values and experiences.

     

    This Call is directed at researchers and professionals in the fields of spatial studies, from architecture to urban and environmental design, planning and policies, as well as artistic disciplines and experimental practices. It invites them to reflect on the conditions, practices, and tools that require the presence of a body ─ or multiple bodies ─ in a space, whether small or large, indoor or outdoor, to be authentically lived, experienced and realised. It further asks how the embodied practices differ from, and why they may be crucial compared to, technologically mediated, non-corporal, immaterial, or even non-human experiences.

     

    Considering diverse viewpoints, corporeality appears intimately connected to architecture and urbanism in many ways and across various approaches developed over time. This vital link is evident when we consider the various perspectives from which space can be understood: from its uses and interpretations through ‘practices’ and culturally-mediated perceptions to its role as a source of sensory and environmental stimuli, to the production of space through design, or even its social usability as a container for practices and events.

     

    Following this perspective, architectural, urban and environmental spaces can be inhabited thanks to, by and through the body and its physical extension. The body mediates the relationship between design and space, practices and society. Placing bodies at the core of our disciplinary discourses means engaging with their material, organic and affective narrative, embracing their uncertainties and contingencies, and addressing the consequences. Bodies are traces of a creative multiplicity woven into the possibility of an open, continuous dialogue with the world.

    This multifaceted relationship unfolds in two principal ways: as ‘acting bodies’ ─ bodies that touch, act, and serve as agents of practices and actions, and as tools for transformative reflection on space ─ and as ‘acted bodies’ ─ bodies as filters, affected by the physical, spatial, and environmental conditions of space. This dialectic, which sees the body as both an active medium and passively exposed, draws on Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Spinoza, which holds that “the body is the world, is made of the world, is at one with the world.”

     

    Intending to investigate the relationship between space and the body, as well as its modifications and resistances, the fundamental questions this Call for Papers seeks to explore are as follows.

    Is this condition still actual? How much has it changed, and how might it continue to change in the coming years?

    What aspects of this relationship are effectively irreducible from the material to the virtual?

    How has the body-space relationship evolved with the advent of new technologies?

    What can only a body do, and what still requires the presence of a body?

    What is the added value of a body-centered approach in our disciplines?

     

    This topic invites a bold re-examination of recent or well-known assumptions from various fields, all united by a central theme: the co-presence and relationship of bodies in space. Furthermore, in our current global conditions − full of innovation but marked with multiple crises that must be overcome through collaboration and research-driven pathways towards a different future − researchers and professionals are increasingly urged to reconsider the fundamental traits of our disciplines. Indeed, what the recent crisis, starting with COVID-19, has underscored is the centrality of individual bodies and bodies interacting in space.

    Amid the many current international initiatives – such as the European Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which emphasize sustainability, justice, equality, freedom, hospitality, health, a new and fairer economy, care for the most fragile people and territories, memory, beauty and socio-spatial transition – this Call for Papers also highlight and seeks to integrate the theme of ‘togetherness’: a concept encompassing being together, sharing practices and values, and forming bonds  – physical and non-physical – within shared spaces.

     

    The Call seeks contributions that explore the body-space-architecture relationship, delving into the tapestry of this relationship within five thematic areas:

     

    / CONCEIVED / INTER-ACTIVE / AFFECTED / VULNERABLE / AUGMENTED.

    As descriptors of the body and space, these five themes served as facets of a unique narrative that was brought into focus by exploring each area. Cross-reading these themes provides a comprehensive lens through which to investigate the dynamic interplay and the complex layers of the body-space relationship.

     

    Specifically, /CONCEIVED anchors the exploration in the realm of reflective, theoretical, and experiential elaboration and its foundations. Moving beyond body-space relations grounded in proportions, measurements and geometry, this theme opens towards new forms of action, inter-action and reflection.

     

    As per the second theme, contributions are invited to examine   /INTER-ACTIVE adjective, which refers to the dynamics of active interaction within the body-space relationship, highlighting how movement, gestures, and sensory engagement contribute to weaving together the materiality of space with embodied experience.

     

    The third theme, /AFFECTED, explores the influences of the environment on the body, encompassing not only artificial urban territories but also natural and climatic domains. This theme underscores the significant impact of external factors on bodily experience.

     

    The theme /VULNERABLE focuses on bodily experience and the effects of climatic and natural forces on space, suggesting the potential role of a design approach that examines the relationship between fragile bodies and space. This theme is dedicated to the manifold layers of vulnerabilities in bodies within space and their role as a critical contribution to refocusing our disciplines.

     

    The thematic area, /AUGMENTED, explores and informs the design and reflection of inclusivity, focused on modified and enhanced bodies and the interaction between the physical body and virtual space or artificial intelligence. It examines the evolving landscape of technologically mediated interactions and contemporary art interventions.

     

    Authors are invited to submit papers for Issue #09, In-Presence / The Body and The Space, in the UOUsj published by the University of Alicante (Spain). UOUsj #09 represents the culmination of a research journey that originated with the EURAU Milan 2024 congress, held in June at Politecnico di Milano (https://www.euraumilano.polimi.it). This congress provides the framework for the discussions and reflections we sought to foster through the Journal.

    UOUsj is the scientific peer-reviewed journal of UNIVERSITY of Universities and investigates the sharing of intercultural interests explored in international architecture schools in close connection with the arts. Every issue underlines a specific topic addressed by one of the universities involved in the Research Project.

     

    Therefore, we encourage contributions related to the result of pedagogical experiences and contributions that have emerged from research that engages with the topic of the body-space-architecture relationshipin the disciplines of both conceptual and applied architecture, urbanism and environmental studies, art, and associated areas of study.

     

    The Editorial team includes professionals based in different institutions and countries:

     

    Guest Editor Issue #09

    • Marco Bovati, Associate professor, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
    • Anna Moro, Assistant professor, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
    • Daniele Villa, Associate professor, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)

    Associate Editors:

    • Joaquín Alvado Bañón, Alicante University (Spain)
    • Michael Devereux, University of the West of England Bristol (UK)
    • Angela Kyriacou Petrou, University of Nicosia (Cyprus)
    • Miguel Luengo Angulo, Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain)

    Editorial Director

    • Maria Luna Nobile, Umeå University (Sweden)

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Javier Sánchez Merina, Alicante University (Spain)

     

    SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

    https://revistes.ua.es/uou/author-guidelines

     

    PEER REVIEW PROCESS:

    https://revistes.ua.es/uou/peer-review-process

     

    INDEXINGS

    Multidisciplinary databases

    Specialized databases

    Evaluation resources

    Other quality indicators

    For any information, you can contact the Guest Editors, Marco Bovati, Anna Moro, Daniele Villa, at:

    marco.bovati@polimi.it

    anna.moro@polimi.it

    daniele.villa@polimi.it

     

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    • Amin, A., & Thrift, N. (2002). Cities: Reimagining the Urban. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
    • Bianchetti, C. (2020). Between Space and Design. Berlin: Jovis.
    • de Certeau, M. (1980). The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
    • Gallagher, S. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • Hall, E. T. (1961). The Hidden Dimension. New York: Anchor Books.
    • Pallasmaa, J. (1996). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. London: Academy Editions.
    • Pasqui, G. (2018). La Città, i saperi, le pratiche. Roma: Donzelli.
    • Rendell, J. (2007). Art and Architecture: A Place Between. London-New York: I.B. Tauris
    • Tschumi, B. (1994). Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    Read more about CALL UOUsj#09 / IN PRESENCE

  • PRESENTATION UOUsj#07 / LIMINALITIES

    07.06.2024
    Dear UOU team,     We have a new UOUsj issue!!!   

     

    We would like to invite you to the celebration and presentation of the UOUsj#7 LIMINALITIES together with the Guest Editors and Contributors.

          UOUsj#07 LIMINALITIES Guest Editors: Sarah Stevens + Charlotte Erckrath

     

     

    The event will be on Wednesday 12th JUNE 2024, 17:00 (CET) via Webex.

    https://ua1.webex.com/ua1/j.php?MTID=m7fe5be783269251e2c747155f934d7e4     Please, spread the information!   Read more about PRESENTATION UOUsj#07 / LIMINALITIES

  • CALL UOUsj#8 / RADICAL FUTURES

    20.05.2024

    Call for contributions

    Guest Editor Issue #08: Miguel Luengo Angulo, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain) / miguel.luengo@universidadeuropea.es

    • May 23: OPEN CALL
      • WEBEX meeting (Thursday 23rd May, 17:00 CET):

    https://ua1.webex.com/ua1/j.php?MTID=ma5a05fe132d7cae216b7471e5f338de7

    Password: pkPyjpFS822

    • September 15: FULL PAPER Submission DEADLINE
    • October 01: notification of PEER REVIEW Evaluation
    • November 01: Final Submission DEADLINE

     

    RADICAL FUTURES

    The shape of a city changes faster, alas! than the heart of a mortal (Baudelaire, 1991)

     

    Radical Architecture is, according to Maigayrou, a “current of research less concerned with the practice of the architectural profession than with reflecting on the bases, the foundations of architecture”[1] and we can identify it (in the current dizzying world of instant consumption of images) with projects such as the Pneumacosmos (Haus Rucker Co, 1967), the Continuous Monument (Superstudio, 1969) or the No Stop City (Archizoom, 1970).

    This represents a fleeting but energetic period that was essentially deployed in Europe between the years 1960 and 1975 with the purpose of thinking about the architectural discipline from its origin (hence its essential, fundamental nature), displacing the understanding of the craft from the architect's routine as a builder towards the expanded territory of reflection on the world and the architect's competence to interpret it and act in it.

    To this heterogeneous movement belongs a generation distanced from modernity and without direct involvement in the Second World War but located in the complex morass of a post-industrial world identifiable with production and communication on a planetary scale; a scenario of change and suspicion that legitimizes the end of all idealistic vision, the fall of the optimistic and teleological modern project for the advent of the real with its contradictions and defects.

    Radical projects manifest this confusion in practices that are rarely “constructive” but transgressive, critical, and committed. Sometimes legible from the nearby world of the second artistic avant-garde (Pop Art, Minimalism, Land Art, Performance Art...), political-social criticism, the mediation of the body or environmental concern and activism.

    All of this is intended to confront the world they’ve received by making its paradoxes visible and revealing the absurdity of a discipline that continues to insist on defining itself from formal and stylistic aspects to deviate towards a factual, operational architecture that acts on the real... even if it does not build anything (especially not building anything).

    Radical Futures aims to achieve a contemporary understanding of this critical mindset, extend the limits of radical architecture and urbanism, and embrace the emergence of new practices supported by unconventional approaches from design, urbanism and technology.

    This Call for Papers invites authors to re-connect architecture and criticism, understanding their theoretical borders from within the discipline. Nonetheless, interdisciplinary expressions and research through the proposed but not limited “radicalism” and keywords listed below:

    1. Radical definitions
    • The relationship between architecture and critical thinking
    • What is the purpose of architecture?
    • Non-buildable architectures (for our own good)
    • Indiscipline as a radical strategy

     

    1. Radical urbanism
    • City, symbolism, and representation
    • Non-buildable cities (for our own good)
    • Contemporary radical cities or: Is radical urbanism possible today?
    • Contemporary Supersuperficies

     

    1. Radical scales
    • S, M, L y XL cities
    • Appliance architecture
    • Radical furniture design
    • Utopian and dystopian architecture

     

    1. Airborne, multisensorial, and psychological architecture
    • Inflatables and playful devices
    • Contemporary Mind expanders
    • Temporary radical structures
    • Performative architecture

     

    1. Architecture, urban planning, and art
    • Radical urban art
    • Radical collages
    • Contemporary Restless spheres
    • Playful devices

     

    1. Radical Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence, VR / MR / AR / XR / Metaverse / NFT / Web 3.0 for radical technology
    • New software applications to radical concepts

     

    1. Radical pedagogies and education
    • Student radical approaches to architecture and urban planning
    • New conceptual pedagogies for a radical education

     

    References:

    • Baudelaire, Charles. Las flores del mal. Madrid: Alianza Editorial; 1991.
    • Jarauta, Francisco. Arquitectura Radical. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: La Imprenta editorial; 2002.

     

    Authors are invited to submit papers for Issue #08 on Radical Futures in the UOUsj published by the University of Alicante (Spain).

    UOUsj is the scientific peer-reviewed journal of UNIVERSITY of Universities and investigates the sharing of intercultural interests explored in international schools of architecture in close connection with the arts. Every issue underlines a specific topic addressed by one of the universities involved in the Research Project.

    Therefore, we encourage contributions related to the result of pedagogical experiences and contributions that have emerged from other research in and around the topic of Radical Futures in the disciplines of architecture, urbanism, radicalism, conceptual architecture, art, and associated areas of study.

     

    [1] Jarauta, Francisco. Arquitectura Radical. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: La Imprenta editorial; 2002

     

     

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    -Archizoom. No-Stop-City. Milán: Domus; 1971

    -Branzi, A. Una generazione esagerata. Dai radical italiani alla crisi della globalizzazione. Milán: Baldini&Castoldi; 2014

    -Colomina, B y Buckley, C. Climp Stamp Fold. The radical architecture of Little magazines 196x to 197x. Barcelona: Actar; 2010

    -Cook, P. Experimental architecture. Nueva York: Universe books; 1970

    -Gargiani, R y Lampariello, B. Superstudio. Bari: Laterza; 2010

    -Gargiani, R. Dall’onda pop alla superficie neutra. Archizoom associati 1966- 1974. Milano: Mondadori Electa; 2007

    -Haus Rucker Co. Haus Rucker Co. Londres: Architectural Design; 1971b

    -Jarauta, F. Arquitectura Radical. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: La Imprenta; 2002.

    -Koolhaas, R y Mau, B. SMLXL. Italia: Evergreen; 1995

    -Luengo Angulo, Miguel. La Arquitectura Radical. Cinco puntos para una redescripción teórica. Buenos Aires: Diseño; 2020

    -Navone, P y Orlandoni, B. Architettura “radicale”. Segrate: Documenti di Casabella; 1974

    -Pettena, G. Radicals. Architettura e design 1960/75. Firenze: Il Ventilabro; 1996

    -Superstudio. The 12 ideal cities. Tokio: Toshi Jutaku Urban Housing; 1971b

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#8 / RADICAL FUTURES

  • CALL UOUsj#7 / LIMINALITIES

    12.10.2023

    Call for contributions

    Guest Editors: Charlotte Erckrath + Sarah Stevens

     

    05 October 2023 Call opens

    01February 2024 Full paper submission

    01 March 2024 Outcome of double-blind peer review process

    01 April 2024 Final submission of completed papers

     

    Issue #7 / Liminalities

    This call for edition 7 of the UoU Journal invites contributions that explore liminalities in architectural and spatial design. This call serves to introduce the theme, but contributors are encourages to submit material that critically questions, explores and experiments with the subject area within its widest sense through all forms and scales.

    Our cognition expands out within a dynamically interwoven process of understanding and acting, whilst the world constantly acts upon us. It extends into the tools we use, as our mind begins to perceive through them, reaching out into the environment. The spaces we inhabit become frameworks to support our understanding of ourselves; hooks on which to hang the memories on which our identities are built. In this way our mind co-opts our surroundings as a cognitive and mnemonic support system. As a species we evolved through our engagement with tools as Don Ihde (i dee) & Lambros Malafouris have discussed (Ihde, Malafouris, 2019). With spaces unfolding as extensions of ourselves, our inhabited desks become elements in a supportive cognitive ecosystem, and our drawings and models emerge as tools through which we think.

    Liminalities aims to discuss this fluid and transitional character of our engagement with the world, and how this reflects into our designerlypractice, our understanding of space and the process of designing.

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#7 / LIMINALITIES

  • CALL UOUsj#6 / TEMPORALITY

    08.06.2023

    Issue #6  2/2023

    TEMPORALITY

    https://revistes.ua.es/uou/libraryFiles/downloadPublic/61

    Guest Editors: Mauricio Morales-Beltran and Jerzy Latka 

    • Call opens 13 June 2023
    • Full paper submission 15 September 2023
    • Outcome of double-blind peer review process 01 October 2023
    • Final submission of completed papers 01 November 2023

    > download the complete CALL

    TEMPORALITY  is defined as the condition of being temporary, i.e. lasting for short period of time. Hence, in architecture, temporality encompass all those works that are designed for not lasting, conceived as to be ephemeral. The Issue #6 of UOU Scientific Journal "TEMPORALITY" aims to explore the nuances, interpretations, meanings, influences, and limitations of its notion in architectural design, education, and research. Authors are encouraged to submit studies, essays, and works through the proposed but not limited topics included in the call for articles. 

    Contributions for critical essay and articles will follow the process of double-blind peer review. All the selected contributions will be published in open access on the Journal Platform. Submission guidelines can be found at UOU Journal site. We remind you that the journal, due to its experimental nature, includes a section open to Students Projects.

    The recorded presentation:

    https://vertice.cpd.ua.es/283693

    Manuscripts should be submitted online in Microsoft Word Format (.docx) following the TEMPLATE.

    Click here for your submission

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#6 / TEMPORALITY

  • CALL UOUsj#05 / BORDERS

    06.11.2022

    Issue n.5 1/202

    BORDERS, Frontiers and Thresholds in Architecture and Urbanism

    Guest Editor: Mike Devereux 

    • Call opens 01 November 2022
    • Full paper submission 01 March 2023
    • Outcome of double-blind peer review process 01 April 2023 
    • Final submission of completed papers 01 May 2023 

    click here for download the complete CALL

    BORDERS AND FRONTIERS invites contributions that explore the themes surrounding borders, frontiers and thresholds in architecture and urbanism – in their widest meanings and through many media. This call serves to introduce the theme, but contributors are encouraged to submit material that purposefully questions, discovers, explores and experiments with the subject in its widest sense at any and all of its scales. 

    Contributions for critical essay and articles will follow the process of double-blind peer review. All the selected contributions will be published in open access on the Journal Platform. Submission guidelines can be found at UOU Journal site. We remind you that the journal, due to its experimental nature, includes a section open to Students Projects and artistic contributions.

    Manuscripts should be submitted online in Microsoft Word Format (.docx) following the TEMPLATE.

    Click here for your submission

     

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#05 / BORDERS

  • CELEBRATION #03 / REPRESENTATION + CALL UOUsj#05 / BORDERS

    21.10.2022
     

    Wednesday, November the 2nd
    presentation of the
    printed Journal UOUsj#3 at
    MEF UNIVERSITY FADA HANGAR ISTANBUL
    17:30 TR

    Join Zoom Meeting
    https://mef-edu-tr.zoom.us/j/93702167350?pwd=anRsbldtRlY2QjVrVm42eUQ5cXdVUT09

    Meeting ID: 937 0216 7350
    Passcode: 372364


    And we wil finish the celebration with the CALL of issue #5:


    "BORDERS, Frontiers and Thresholds in Architecture and Urbanism" edited by Mike Devereux 

    Read more about CELEBRATION #03 / REPRESENTATION + CALL UOUsj#05 / BORDERS

  • CALL UOUsj#04 / GASTROTECTURE

    03.07.2022


     2022

    July 7: OPEN CALL

    September 15: FULL PAPER Submission DEADLINE

    October 01: notification of PEER REVIEW Evaluation

    November 01: Final Submission DEADLINE

    editor in chief: José Antonio Carrillo Andrada

    click here for download the complete CALL


    GASTROTECTURE will gather interdisciplinary expressions of Gastronomy in the field of research in Architecture and Urbanism in an international framework. Gastrotecture aims to achieve a broader understanding of the intertwined relationships between architecture and gastronomy, expand the limits of both disciplines and register the emergence of new practices supported by innovative and unconventional approaches from design and technology.

    Click here for your submission

    You are invited to join to the launch of issue #4 with the Editorial team on 7th of July, 2022 at 15:00 (CET) at the link:

    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88915887975

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#04 / GASTROTECTURE

  • PRESENTATION UOUsj#3 / REPRESENTATION

    25.06.2022

     Dear friends, colleagues, The UOU Scientific Journal's 3rd Issue is ready!  We would like to have an overview of the issue under the theme of representation together with the authors of the articles and essays and celebrate it together on 28th of June, 2022 on Tuesday at 18:00 (CET) via Zoom. Please join us! Here is the Zoom invitation: Join Zoom Meeting
    https://mef-edu-tr.zoom.us/j/93299334584?pwd=SVpFN3F6TEs5R2pPZ2VpWHM2TDNqdz09

    Meeting ID: 932 9933 4584
    Passcode: 781435 Hope to meet you next Tuesday!All the best,Ozan Read more about PRESENTATION UOUsj#3 / REPRESENTATION

  • CALL UOUsj#03 / REPRESENTATION

    11.01.2022

     

     2022January 18th: OPEN CALL at 18:00 (CET) at the ZOOM link: https://mef-edu-tr.zoom.us/j/95916352632?pwd=SUwxbXZYaVRMZ1hFeHVqYzk5ZkJDdz09
    March 01st: FULL PAPER Submission DEADLINE
    April 01st: notification of PEER REVIEW Evaluation May 01st: Final Submission DEADLINE
     

    editor in chief: ozan avci

     

    REPRESENTATION is a wide umbrella that covers different disciplines such as design, arts, architecture, cinema, literature, politics, economics, semiotics, etc... We may even say that representation is in every act of human beings whenever they think about something. This fundamental role of representation makes it very critical in the design process, thus the whole design process is based on the dialogue between the inner and outer representations. In this third issue of UOU Scientific Journal we would like to focus on the nature of representation, its own ontological aspects, materiality, immateriality and its crucial role in the design process rather than its metaphorical side related with politics and semiotics.

    click here for download the complete CALL

    Authors are invited to submit papers for Issue #3 on REPRESENTATION in the UOU scientific journal published by the University of Alicante (Spain). UOU sj is the scientific peer-reviewed journal of UNIVERSITY of Universities and investigates the sharing of intercultural interests explored in international schools of architecture in close connection with the arts. Every issue underlines a specific topic addressed by one of the universities involved in the Research Project. Therefore, we encourage contributions related to the result of pedagogical experiences and also contributions that have emerged from other research in and around the topic of Representation in the disciplines of architecture, art, urbanism and associated areas of study.

     

    You are invited to join to the launch of issue #3 with the Editorial team on 18th of January, 2022 at 18:00 (CET) at the ZOOM link:

    https://mef-edu-tr.zoom.us/j/95916352632?pwd=SUwxbXZYaVRMZ1hFeHVqYzk5ZkJDdz09

    Click here for your submission

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#03 / REPRESENTATION

  • PRESENTATION UOUsj#02 / FOLLIES

    08.12.2021

    After celebrating in Umeå the printed UOU #1, now it is the time for the online UOU n#2!

    We'll meet and have a drink this Friday 10th of December at 17:00h CET, to toast and celebrate the digital Issue of UOU scientific journal #02. 

    As Editor in Chief, we would like to invite you to briefly explain your work and why no one should miss reading it.

    Zoom: UOU #2 CELEBRATION - 10th Dec. 2021 17:00 p.m. CET

    Personal Meeting Room: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/4633901803 [Meeting ID: 463 390 1803]

    Read more about PRESENTATION UOUsj#02 / FOLLIES

  • NEXT ISSUES UOUsj!!!

    16.08.2021

    issue #03: Representation(s) / editor-in-chief: Ozan Avci (MEF Istanbul) / voluntary abstracts for scientific-research papers 01.10.21 / final submission for all papers 01.04.22 / publication June 2022.

     

    issue #04: Gastrotecture / editor-in-chief: José Antonio Carrillo Andrada (American University in Dubai) / launch call#4 07.07.22 / submission for  papers 15.09.23 / publication December 2022.

     

    issue #05: Borders and frontiers / editor-in-chief: M Devereux (UWE Bristol) / voluntary abstracts for scientific-research papers 01.02.22 / final submission for all papers 01.04.23 / publication June 2023.

    Read more about NEXT ISSUES UOUsj!!!

  • CALL UOUsj#02 FOLLIES

    21.06.2021
     

    June 21: OPEN CALL
    July 15: Abstract Submission DEADLINE (voluntary for feedback)
    August 15: Submission DEADLINE September 1: notification of PEER-REVIEW Evaluation
    September 30: Final Submission DEADLINE

    editor in chief: sofia aleixo

    This call for articles aims at exploring the notion of FOLLIES in the field of research in architecture and urbanism in an international framework.

    click here for download the complete CALL

    The French word folie stands for delight and pleasure, and therefore fun and happiness. First built in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Follies were buildings constructed purely for aesthetic pleasure, with a notion of nonsense, i.e., with a lack of good sense or foresight, resulting in often extravagant pieces of architecture with no particular function. Towers, temples, castles, pyramids, or fake ruins of classical buildings were symbolic statements of ununderstood constructions, sometimes with some practical value as landmarks, as viewpoints or as amusement places, often offering a sensorial experience. 

    However, in the late 19th century the architect Louis Sullivan maxim “form follows function” dismissed ornament from industrialised modern architecture and changed how architecture was thought. Since then, as by definition Follies did not have a specific use function, it could not be established a form, and these perennial constructions seem to have lost their purpose. 

    COVID challenges Sullivan’s maxim: as the purpose is to build not to respond to a functional need but rather to be attractive and recover a sense of fun and pleasure that has been taken away for more than a year, how can spaces reengage people with each other, and with cities? How to attract people to give the spaces meanings and transform previous sad and empty spaces into lively and safe places? Are functional spaces needed or are socio-cultural public places needed more? Will buildings creation need to be rethink with no specific purpose or intention in mind? Will urban and architecture policies attain to these needs?

    This issue focus on Follies and aims at publishing work that explores the impacts of COVID19 in peoples’ daily lives and the role of the architect and the artist in providing meaningful places for socio-cultural exchanges in new and imaginative ways. We are particularly interested in research that questions and provides a comprehensive review on the pedagogical results of the work conducted in the last academic year, cross disciplinaries, as well as the current state-of-the-art on issues related to challenges posed by the pandemic to socio-cultural placemaking.

    Click here for your submission

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#02 FOLLIES

  • CALL UOUsj#01 / COMMONS

    25.02.2021
     

    February 26: OPEN CALLMarch 31: PREVIEW Submission DEADLINE
    April 14: notification of PEER REVIEW Evaluation
    May 5: Final Submission DEADLINE

    editor in chief: maria luna nobile

    This call for articles aims at exploring the notion of Commons in the field of research in architecture and urbanism in an international framework.

    click here for download the complete CALL

    In 1982 the English/Swedish architect Ralph Erskine, opened his lecture reflecting on the definition of Architecture as the Art of Building Communities. His point of view, that led to a more radical way of considering the role of the architect in the society, can be considered as heritage of the main intention shared within the Team 10 during the CIAM in 1959 in Otterlo with Aldo van Eyck, Giancarlo De Carlo, José Antonio Coderch - above the others - while introducing the notion of Democratic Architecture and Architecture of Participation.

    Nowadays with the escalation of the climate crisis, social inequities and political divergence, the general concern about the access to natural and common resources, including spaces, is leading the architects and planners to reconsider the notion of values in claiming their collective role towards the definition of a new Right to the City. The pandemic has opened a new scenario, in which the notion of commoning and sharing is assuming a new value and defining new spaces for interaction and debate.

    Where is the limit of the architecture as a discipline in facing the human condition scale and nature? What is the role of the architects in response to social and spatial inequalities? What impact can the notion of Commons have on the transformation of cities? And what agency do designers have in contributing to such a transition in the current condition of Urgency?

    In this framework Commons, the first Issue of the UOU scientific Journal, aims to redefine this notion of value in relation to material and innovative practices from an unprejudiced aspect.

    Read more about CALL UOUsj#01 / COMMONS