January 14–March 12, 2021
We are pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for Critics-in-Residence in Architecture and Landscape Architecture, a new program supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
In launching this program, Places is seeking to build capacity in the ranks of design writers and to raise the cultural visibility and influence of the design disciplines. For more than a generation, the number of practicing design critics has been dwindling. Yet the need for informed and incisive criticism of architecture and landscape architecture remains pressing. Growing demands for greater urban equity and social justice; the accumulating impacts of the climate crisis; the rapid proliferation of new digital and material technologies; increasing calls for professional reform—all are posing challenges for the design disciplines, and underscoring the importance of serious and sustained critical discussion.
The Critics-in-Residence program will encourage authors to move beyond the limits of the traditional project review and produce wide-ranging essays that are conceptually rich and culturally ambitious, organized around some strong theme or set of ideas.
Program Details
For this inaugural round, two critics will be selected, one in architecture and one in landscape architecture. Critics will be in (virtual) residence with the journal for a term of one year and receive a stipend of USD 7,500 to write four major critical essays.
Application Requirements
Please submit two or three writing samples, ideally works of ambitious criticism; a brief description of no more than 500 words explicating themes and topics to be explored across a planned quartet of essays; and a current résumé. Applications should be submitted by email to editors@placesjournal.org. Please put “Critic-in-Residence in Architecture” or “Critic-in-Residence in Landscape Architecture” in the subject line. Writing samples that exceed the file size of Gmail (or other email) attachments should be submitted by a file sharing system referencing the same email address.
The application deadline is March 12, 2021.
Selection Process
Applications will be reviewed by Places’ editors and an external jury consisting of Brian Davis, Lesley Lokko, Elizabeth Mossop, and Adam Yarinsky.
The residencies are open to all. Particular consideration will be given to independent authors who are not already benefiting from institutional and organizational resources and support. To get a sense of our editorial sensibility and production values, we strongly recommend that applicants browse the journal.
The critics-in-residence will be announced in mid April, and the residencies will begin in May 2021.
About Places Journal
Places Journal is an essential and trusted resource on the future of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. We harness the power of public scholarship to promote equitable cities and resilient landscapes.
In our pages you will find writers, designers, and artists who are responding to the profound challenges of our time: environmental health and social inequity, climate change, resource scarcity, human migration, rapid technological innovation, and the erosion of the public sphere. These challenges demand that we rethink how we plan, design, construct, and maintain the built environment. They also demand that ambitious design research and practice move from the margins to the center of cultural discussion.
Founded at MIT and Berkeley in 1983, Places has been online and free since 2009. We have deep associations with leading design faculties around the world. Bridging from the university to the profession to the public, our articles combine the scope and immediacy of serious journalism with the precision and depth of scholarship.
