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.