Open call for publications: exhibition and public event

New Generations has pioneered a novel architecture festival format involving architects, designers, makers, thinkers, and citizens. Since 2012, 8 international festivals have been held in Rome, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Warsaw, and Madrid. The ongoing three-year edition of the New Generations Festival will take place at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome.

This open call for publications is part of New Urban Challenges,the three-year edition (2020 – 2021 – 2022) of the New Generations festival that takes place in Rome, Italy. These three editions of the festival aim to explore the relation between the urban environment and six intertwined themes, two every year. 

The 2021 edition of the festival is set to take place on June 31,July 1,July 2, 2021(dates are subject to changes regarding public health guidelines) at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, Italy.

To participate in this year's edition, send your editorial project using this submission form!

Anticipatory Editorial Practices
The three-year edition of the festival is based on the concept of Anticipatory Editorial Practices. Many emerging architects develop their discourses through the realisation of theoretical texts, articles, publications, anticipating future scenarios, trends, and innovative ideas, often during the early stages of their careers in an experimental fashion; embryonic productions that have the potential to be translated into concrete projects, guidelines and ideas, allowing a critical positioning that prepares them to face a multitude of urban challenges in the years to come. Through this open call for publications, the festival revolves around this concept with the intention of discovering early theoretical reflection by emerging architects that have great potential to influence the coming generations of architects.

Open call for publications: exhibition and public event
New Generations is looking for publications developed by emerging practices and architectural publishing projects. The call is open to books, magazines, zines, digital projects, papers, critical articles, and other forms of editorial production since 2016, related to one of these two year’s topics:(City and) Technology—(City and) Image. 

The open call aims to select editorial projects that will be featuredin either of the two following formats:

(A) Festival 2021
The 2021 festival will feature the participation of around 20 international guests in a hybrid format with both public and virtual activities over the course of three days. Selected participants will get involved in the various activities of the festival programme such as the Speakers Corner, Brainstorming Workshop and the Pecha Kucha Presentations. Those selected as participants in the festival will also be able to participate in the travelling exhibition.

(B) Exhibition 2021
Selected editorial projects from the call will be exhibited within a travelling installation. The installation is conceived as a mobile device divided into six pieces, where each piece represents a different theme. Over the three festival editions, the six pieces of the installation will collect new publications, proposing a sort of traveling library with a selection of relevant books related with each of the six themes proposed during the triennial edition of the Festival. The installation will be opened to the public at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome (May 2021) and consequently travel through a number of prestigious locations across Europe over the three years of the festival.

Selected submissions for both categories will be displayed on newgenerationsweb.com.

Themes

(City and) Technology
While technology has always been a central part of human innovation, only recently have automation and hi-tech devices become such an integral part of our day-to-day lives. As we bridge the gap between our bodies and these devices, technology begins to visibly mutate the way in which we inhabit our domestic spaces. The rapid development of technology also paves way for speculation about the different possible futures that we are building in our contemporary cities and our collective imaginaries. How will the future of technological innovation affect our cities and the way in which architecture is not only conceived, but also produced and executed.
Keywords: technology, artificial intelligence, automation, devices, bodies, domesticity, isolation, lonelines

(City and) Image
From Ledoux’s Architecture Parlante to Lynch’s Image of the City, urban theorists have always speculated on the city’s identity and the factors that influence the mental images we ascribe to our cities. However, in the heart of the information age where social media has become saturated with a panorama of methods to communicate architecture and urban space, how can we use research and experimental methods as a tool to reimagine the identity of our cities? Although social media spaces have fetishised the “architectural collage” and “pastel” aesthetic, perhaps its open and expansive nature can allow architecture to reconnect with a wider public. How can we rethink architectural representation in an increasingly virtual world where simulated environments are becoming more common everyday?
Keywords:communication, image, identity, representation, aesthetic, social media,

Key info
— Selected publications will be exhibited at the aforementioned installation.
— Shipment of publications to Rome shall be assumed by the selected applicant (the concerned author, publisher, etc.)
— 8-10 selected speakers will be invited to join the public event, which will take place between end of June and beginning of July 2021 (date to be confirmed).
—Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by New Generations.
—Event participants will commit to submitting a written article related to their intervention of 1500-2000 words. The article will be edited and reviewed after the Festival and will be compiled in a single publication at the culmination of the three years of the festival (2020-2022).
— Selected participants will be contacted by New Generations before April 30th.

Submit your project using this submission form!