CLARA and the guest editors Lorenzo Ciccarelli (University of Florence) and Vanessa Grossman (University of Pennsylvania) are launching a new call for papers entitled "Questioning the Profession: Architect and Planner Cooperatives" for the 12th issue of the journal, to be published in 2026.
In opposition to the glorification of the singular figure of the architect - the “starchitect” - the twentieth century saw the emergence of numerous initiatives seeking to invent new, more collective and interdisciplinary forms of practice. Cooperative associations from the global North and South sought to overcome individual authorship by linking design activities with political militancy and social engagement. By studying cases of architect and planner cooperatives from different countries and cultural contexts, this issue of Clara invites contributions which critically reflect on the political, social and disciplinary issues that favored the creation of these organizations, and how they were managed. Although CLARA#12 will particularly focus on the cooperative design firms that emerged primarily in the thirty years following the end of World War II, a time when the association of architects and urban planners with the political and social left ideals of communism and socialism was more intense, case studies from more recent times will also be considered.
MODALITIES
Proposals for contributions should be submitted to clara.archi@ulb.be by the 15th of December 2024 and must include an anonymized PDF file with:
In the e-mail only:
Proposals for contributions may be submitted in English or in French.
Full Call for Papers can be found on our website.
