Dialectic X. Decarbonizing Design / Mobilizing Agency

It is indisputable that the current practice of architecture is inextricably linked to the climate crisis that we as a society face. Our academy recognizes this. Our profession recognizes this. Yet, architecture as it is organized today—a service-oriented, productivity-obsessed, growth-dependent profession—hasn’t proven itself able to support the transformative work that is increasingly necessary for the wellbeing of our shared planet. From positions of privilege, architects and scholars of architecture tend to speak of climate change with a detached perspective of comfort, resulting in a conversation that is often insular and constrained. If real solutions require radical systemic change, what and where are the catalysts for such change? 

The editors of Dialectic X welcome proposals for personal essays, academic articles, interviews, film, audio, or mixed media submissions that consider how contemporary architects and scholars of architecture are using their tools and training to pursue climate equity and environmental justice. Particularly welcome are submissions that reflect on the trials and tribulations of unconventional, radical, and revolutionary architecture-making. 

As Dialectic looks towards its next decade in a digital-first format, it is editors’ mission to increase the breadth of engagement: 1) to highlight the expanding range of research architects and scholars now use to explore contemporary issues and 2) to incorporate the contributions of those working to dissolve disciplinary boundaries to spur systemic change. 

The full call for papers can be found here.

Please send proposals of 350 words and two-page CVs to issue editors Michael Abrahamson (abrahamson@arch.utah.edu) and Dwight Yee (dwight.yee@gmail.com) by 1 September 2021. Accepted authors will be notified by October 1. Full submissions will be due January 15, 2022 (including visual material, endnotes, and permissions for illustrations). This issue of Dialectic is expected to be published in digital-first format by late summer 2022. 

For more information about Dialectic, see the journal’s website.

 

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