Submission deadline:

September 15, 2022

Rewriting the Mediality of Architecture Under the Crisis Condition

Call for papers for a special issue of Design Ecologies (Journal) ISSN 2043068X
Editors: Katarina Andjelkovic & Marc Boumeester

Rewriting the Mediality of Architecture Under the Crisis Condition examines the complex sets of relationships and contexts that shape architecture’s mediality as a result of the rising instability in the constitution of the urban during ongoing turbulent environmental, societal and cultural transformations. Under the impetus of the long-lasting effects of the global crisis, such relationships between the built environment and her mediality are manifested in the condition of constant flux in the constitution of the urban. Alongside the reciprocal stimuli within this constellation, other sets of dynamisms are operational that question terms of locality, identity, fortitude and make-ability, which wane hard defined lines between physicality, mediality and states of being, laying emphasis on relationality rather than on distinctiveness. Therefore, it is imperative to ask ourselves: what is mediality? How media can be understood in architectural terms, whereby their interplay acts as a mediator, signifier, spatial interventionist, archivist and futurist. How does the crisis condition change these roles and how are interventions possible or needed?

Defining the crisis condition seems to be a quest only to be undertaken in the domains of the relative and the temporal (what now), rather than in the qualitative domain (if then), which makes it more subjectable to an order of scaling, rather than a matter of taxonomy. The global intertwining of economies, cultures and interdependencies has surfaced to the public eye as a result of recent global imminent crises, yet this is merely indicating the false juxtaposition of a history of linear progression and human prosperity, set against a narration of underdevelopment and primitivism as its alternative.

Further down the line of defining the crisis condition lies the question of intervention. The concept of mediality plays a crucial role in this ecology. Mediality can be seen as a ‘verb’ and a ‘noun’. This special Issue will examine ‘MEDIALITY as a verb’ in the area that is created between that what is the definition of the built environment and that what is defining it. ‘MEDIALITY as a noun’ is seen in redefining the elements that are contained in its definition.

Deadline: 15 September 2022

Contact email: Marc Boumeester info@marcboumeester.com

More information can be found here.

Share this post

News from the field

The Scott Opler Fellowship in Architectural History

The Scott Opler Fellowship in Architectural History for the period 2025-2027 Worcester College, Oxford is pleased to be able to offer a two-year residential Fellowship in the study of Renaissance or Baroque architectural history through the generosity of the Scott...

Professor (100%) in Prospective Architectural Theory

KU Leuven has a full-time vacancy for independent academic staff (ZAP) in the field of architectural theory. We are looking for internationally oriented candidates with an excellent research file and teaching competence in the area of theoretical reflection on...

International Conference on Adaptive Reuse

What stories do abandoned buildings still hold? Can they be transformed to serve new purposes without losing their essence? How can architects balance history and innovation? This conference delves into the art and challenge of adaptive reuse, where past and present...