Ardeth #2: BOTTEGA: Ecology of Design Practice

This special issue of Ardeth invites contributions that will address the ecology of contemporary architectural practice. “Ecology of practice” (Stengers 2010) is a politically sensitive concept used to capture and understand contemporary design practice. We invite contributions that will:

• scrutinize architectural practice as complex ecology involving actors with variable ontology, scale and politics
• reflect theoretically and analytically on the concept of ‘practice’ and trace how practice has been tackled from different perspectives: from the ‘Story of Practice’ of Cuff and Blau’s ‘Architects and Firms’, to recent studies of architectural and engineering practices based on multi-sited ethnographies (OMA, Foster, FOA/AZPA, Kuma, Arup, etc.)
• explore empirically different formats of design (modeling, presenting, competing, exhibiting, etc.) reflecting meticulously on their specific epistemologies and their role for the ‘reflective practice’ of architectural design
• reflect on the importance of ethnography for understanding contemporary architectural practices; what is the nature, the epistemological underpinnings, the potential pitfalls, and the political dimensions and challenges of architectural ethnography?

Submission guidelines 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 two submission types: Peer Reviewed Manuscripts and Solicited Manuscripts. These manuscripts are primarily text based (length 3÷6,000 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. Images have an argumentative and not illustrative nature. Manuscripts should be sent to the Editorial Board specifying the call for papers the manuscript answers to.

Submission deadline 25 February 2017.

More information at the Ardeth website.