EAR40 | Call for Papers | [Re]claiming Place
Architecture is often framed within dominant narratives of progress, permanence, and formalised practice. Yet, alternative forms of architectural production [whether emerging from necessity, tradition, or resistance] challenge these conventions and reveal different ways of shaping space. With open access tools increasingly available to design, document, and build, questions arise around how the public realm has been, is being, and could be reclaimed by those who use it — not just those who own it. These practices give rise to forms, typologies, and methodologies that challenge the status quo and expand the boundaries of architectural thinking.
EAR40 invites contributions that critically engage with the ways in which architecture is [re]claimed, [re]imagined, and [re]defined outside of mainstream frameworks. We are particularly interested in self-initiated, self-designed, and/or self-built projects [whether by individuals, communities, or political collectives] that respond to specific needs or lived experiences. These practices often celebrate cultural or material juxtapositions, preserve collective memory, and offer fertile ground for reflection and critique. How might such architectures express cultural identity, assert spatial autonomy, or challenge conventional narratives of development? What can they tell us about the role of temporality, materiality, and memory in shaping the spaces we inhabit on the edges of formal systems?.
We encourage inter/multi/transdisciplinary submissions — including essays, field reports, and creative explorations — that interrogate architecture’s role in shaping lived experience beyond conventional boundaries.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Vernacular practices: past, present, and speculative
- Postcolonial spatial reclamation and redefinition
- Memory, ritual, and resistance in architecture
- Informal, self-built, and self-organised projects
- Participatory and collective design
- Cultural hybridity and material contrast
- Outsider and marginalised architectures
- Forgotten narratives and spatial presence
- Temporality and impermanence in built form
- Architecture as policy critique
- Nonhuman and more-than-human collaborations
- Open-source and experimental methods
- Architecture beyond ownership and property
- Spatial autonomy and alternative development
We also welcome wider interpretations of the theme and topics above.
Abstract Submission Due: 05 June 2025.
About Edinburgh Architecture Research Journal
The Edinburgh Architecture Research Journal is a non-profit, peer-reviewed academic journal, published annually by the research students of the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, at the University of Edinburgh since 1978. The journal has recently undergone a complete re-brand from print to online, from closed to open issues, from only publishing traditionally formatted papers to incorporating more discursive modes of enquiry and presentation. With this in mind, we are inviting authors to submit abstracts on the theme of ‘[Re]claiming Place’ for contributions of up to 5000 words, in formats including articles, short essays, field reports (WIP) or book reviews. We are also hoping to make use of the online format and will be accepting abstracts in alternative forms including film, audio, and photo essays.
Abstract Submission
For your work to be considered for this issue, please submit an abstract of 300 words along with author name(s), institutional affiliations, and contact details by 05 June 2025. Please send abstracts and papers with the subject “EAR Call40 - Surname(s), Name(s)” to EAR.journal@ed.ac.uk .
Make sure to indicate in your proposal how your work responds to the theme of the call and the relevance of your work to the built environment/spatial practice/architecture.
Format of Papers
Papers should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words long including endnotes, headings, and a 300-word abstract, exclusive of references; and up to 2,000 for book reviews. The types of submission can include (but is not limited to) articles, short essays, photo essays and field reports. All papers should be referenced using the Chicago Author-Date referencing style. We encourage the use of images but would request a limit of six. Please note that authors are responsible for obtaining copyright for the use of images. Authors will also be required, upon acceptance, to sign a copyright agreement acknowledging the statement above, whilst retaining all copyright to the article itself. Books reviewed must have been published within the last two years.
Please visit Submission Guidelines on http://journals.ed.ac.uk/ear/about/submissions for further information on how to format and submit your work.
Selection Process
Abstracts will be reviewed by the editorial team. Full papers will undergo a double-blind peer review by one to two members of academic staff from the University of Edinburgh, mostly from within the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. The selection of submissions will be based on how well the work responds to the call, the level of its academic rigour and the clarity of its contribution to architectural studies as elaborated in the submission.
Key dates:
- Submission of Abstracts: 05 June 2025
- Notification of Acceptance: 19 June 2025
- Full Paper Submission Due: 24 July 2025
- Publication of the Issue: 18 December 2025
The dates are provisional and subject to change.
Editorial Team
- Adrian McNaught | PhD Candidate | Architecture by Design | University of Edinburgh
- Alfonso Valdés Maldonado | PhD Candidate | Architecture by Design | University of Edinburgh
Contact Details
For any queries regarding the above please contact EAR.journal@ed.ac.uk
Visit our latest issue [EAR39] here: Beyond the Visible
