Call for Papers: Race. ARDETH #09
Theme Editor: Felipe Hernàndez
Architecture is an inward looking discipline. Its history conveys the norms of the discipline to an audience composed mostly of architects, who are familiar with the work of their predecessors –from whom they learnt, or for whom they worked. As such, architecture singularises the multiple processes through which space is produced, excluding difference in the pursuit of coherent narratives to sustain its authority, and does so mainly through the figure of the architect. For a long time now, critics like Beatriz Colomina, Diana Agrest, Mary McLeod, Jane Rendell (to mention only a few) have shown how that figure is principally male. However, little has been said about the fact that the figure of the architect is also white; a racial classification that refers not only to epidermal characteristics, but to their national origin, education, and in most cases their class affiliation.
This issue of Ardeth intends to expand discussions about race in architecture, intersecting a broad range of ethno-racial groups, while simultaneously displacing the debate to include regions where it needs more and urgent attention, like in Europe and Latin America, as well as in countries like China and Japan. Thus, for this issue, Ardeth seeks articles that explore diversity in the profession as well as in education. Ardeth also invites papers that embrace multiple methodological agendas to study the contribution of ethnic minority architects around the world, and articulate the potential inherent in the notion of non-white architectures in an attempt to decolonise the discipline. Authors can use race as a lens to explore a broad range of issues including, but not limited to:
- Expand the narrow margins of current debates about race in architecture.
- Explore the intersections between race, ethnicity, class and gender in contemporary architectural practice.
- Explore the impact of these intersections in the materialization of cities and architectures around the world.
- Explore the contemporary geography of the profession, engaging academic and first-hand experiences by professionals.
- Revisit the history of the profession in specific regions of the world, providing architectural grounds for a more inclusive debate.
- Investigate the extent to which architectural education perpetuates colonial principles therefore reinforcing ethno-racial boundaries in the so-called non-West.
- Examine critically the construction of inherent ‘classes’, from technologies to forms, related to instrumental use of the locale, as well as national and indigenous styles of work and construction.
- Investigate the possibilities for the existence of non-white architectures through the study of specific buildings.
Articles should be written in standard English or Italian. Only original work will be considered for publication, i.e. outcomes of research conducted by the author/s which have not yet been published anywhere else and are not currently under review by any other journal. Ardeth accepts manuscripts in different submission types. Submitted Manuscripts and Solicited Manuscripts are primarily text based (length 3,500÷4,500 words including notes, captions, and references). Essays should be grounded in
relevant discourse, offer an original and critical contribution of a theoretical or a more empirical nature, and be supported by appropriate visual apparatus. Visual Essays are primarily image/ scheme/diagram based and Images have an argumentative and not illustrative nature. Submitted Manuscripts, Solicited Manuscripts and Visual Essays undergo a process of double-blind peer review prior to acceptance for publication.
Submitted Manuscripts, Solicited Manuscripts and Visual Essays undergo a process of double-blind peer review prior to acceptance for publication.
All contributions should be sent by 15 April 2021 to the Editorial Board specifying the call for papers the manuscript answers to (i.e. Ardeth #9_Race) to the email address redazione@ardeth.eu
Detailed guidelines for authors and the call for papers are available on the magazine website.
The call for papers can also be downloaded here.