The call for papers “The Urban Garden. Experimental Laboratory for New Imaginaries” invites researchers and PhD candidates to investigate the garden as a critical device for rethinking the contemporary city. Historically positioned between nature and artifice, the garden is reframed here as an active system—capable of structuring ecological, social, and spatial relationships rather than merely decorating them.
In the context of current climate, economic, and urban transformations, the urban garden emerges as a strategic figure to challenge established separations: between city and countryside, architecture and agriculture, human and non-human systems. It is proposed as a site of experimentation where new forms of coexistence, resilience, and production can be tested.
The call encourages interdisciplinary contributions across architecture, urban design, landscape studies, social sciences, and related fields. Key lines of inquiry include the garden as ecological infrastructure, as a space of care and collective life, as a productive urban system, and as a component of the city’s cultural and spatial imagination. Particular attention is given to the idea of the “green archipelago,” where gardens operate as interconnected voids that redefine urban form from within.
The initiative is part of the DESTeC PhD programme (University of Pisa) and is linked to the research project “Weird Science. Isolated Intelligence,” focusing on the intersection of architecture, technology, and collective life.
Abstracts (max. 300 words) must be submitted by 30 August 2026 to theurbangarden2026@gmail.com
Selected contributions will be presented at the conference in Pisa on 26 November 2026 and considered for publication in the proceedings.
Read the full call on Poli(t)tico