Homepage | The Plan Journal

THE PLAN Journal (TPJ) is an open, inclusive, non-ideological and independent platform, founded on an ongoing praxis of criticality. The journal aims at disseminating and promoting innovative, thought-provoking and relevant research, studies and criticism in architecture, design and urbanism. In addition, the TPJ wants to enrich the dialog between research and the professional fields, in order to encourage both applicable new knowledge and intellectually driven and locally relevant modes of practice. With an overarching concern for recognizing quality research, the criteria for selecting contributions will be: innovation, clarity of purpose and method, and the potential transformational impact on disciplinary fields or the broader socio-cultural context.

Latest Articles

 Subscribers only
Article

Medialab Prado: Images, Discourses and the Silent Erosion of Citizen Participation

by: Juan José David , Haitam Daoudi VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 22 published: 2025-01-27

Medialab Prado, renamed “Espacio Cultural Serrería Belga” in 2022, originally emerged as a counter-narrative to Madrid’s cultural policies and the promotion of the “Paseo del Arte” for global tourism. It championed the production of art, science, and technology, advocating for the citizen’s right to shape the city, opposing the museumification of urban spaces. The 2022 transformation into an art gallery raises key questions about the motivations behind this change, why the building’s form was preserved but its principles discarded, and the broader implications for urban cultural policies. This research compares the building across its phases and examines narratives constructed by citizens, media and institutions. It argues that while the physical structure remains intact, the programmatic shift diminishes user engagement, moving from active participation to passive spectatorship. The findings reveal a shift from a determined physical community space to decentralized and virtual ones, reflecting broader trends in citizen engagement to a more transient and guerilla-like approach. The current situation is reminiscent of the original name proposed by Langarita-Navarro, “Street Fighter,” a call from the citizens for their right to decide.

 Open Access
Essay

Exploring Expressed Democratic Attempts in Space: Architecture and Landscape in Pier Paolo Pasolini

by: Riccardo Maria Balzarotti , Luca Maria Francesco Fabris VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 15 published: 2025-01-28

This article explores the works of Pier Paolo Pasolini, focusing on the interplay between his artistic output and spatial themes like architecture and landscape, particularly as they reflect democratic values. Pasolini viewed space as a physical entity and a site for political, social, and cultural interaction. By examining locations such as Friuli and Casarsa della Delizia, Pasolini’s youth environment, the paper delves into how these landscapes shaped his vision of democratic spaces. It also connects Pasolini’s perspective to contemporary public spaces, which, like his poetics, emphasize the role of dissent in democracy. The article further investigates how modern urban developments may limit this potential for democratic engagement by prioritizing aesthetic and commercial objectives over historical and social memory. Additionally, Pasolini’s involvement in education and local politics illustrates how spaces like schools and civic centers become arenas for resistance and public discourse. Ultimately, the essay argues that spaces become truly democratic when they foster active engagement and dissent, as reflected in Pasolini’s works and the symbolic power of place.

 Subscribers only
Article

Play for Democracy: Facilitating a Space for Children’s Involvement in Urban Development

by: Per-Johan Dahl , Pernilla Theselius VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 22 published: 2025-01-28

Drawing on the quest to improve inclusion and social sustainability in urban planning process, a holistic approach on citizen participation in urban development is becoming increasingly important. One sector of society whose democratic rights remain overlooked in participatory action is children. It is therefore imperative to develop methods for processing the children’s rights to express their opinions when government is vested in the general population. This article analyzes the transdisciplinary project Play for Democracy (PfD), which was established in 2020. Building upon the five-stage design thinking model of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, its primary objective is to develop a new method for children to exercise their democratic rights in urban development process. The article traces the purpose of PfD and its expected impact on the broader socio-cultural context of urban development; it reviews the different phases of the four-week workshop; and it deduces a new method in which children can exercise their democratic rights through design. The method is extrapolated through text and diagram to be applicable to similar initiatives.

 Subscribers only
Article

Facing the Backside of Garibaldi: Democracy, Socio-Spatial Justice and Regeneration in Brescia, Italy

by: Marco Alioni , Barbara Badiani VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 23 published: 2025-01-23

This paper examines planning logic and practices of a large-scale urban regeneration project targeting the artery Via Milano and surrounding district (Brescia, Northern Italy). The project aims to revitalize and gentrify historically industrial and working-class neighborhoods, now also home to a conspicuous migrant population. The paper argues that, while intended to improve the “urban quality” of the area, the municipality’s approach is leading to the stigmatization of the residents and disrupting the diverse community practices that have developed over time. Drawing on six years of ethnographic research and by discussing two significant examples, the paper questions whether these regenerative efforts are genuinely democratic and inclusive or if they are neglecting both residents’ needs, as well as undermining local community practices. The contribution also discusses how these interventions are affecting the neighborhood’s inherent vitality and whether they fulfill their goals of pursuing urban revitalization while promoting social integration.

 Subscribers only
Article

Democratic Light: Daylighting Design and the Tate Hall Building Restoration

by: Mary Guzowski , Abimbola Asojo , Anna Pravinata VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 23 published: 2025-01-23

A case study of a recent project at Tate Hall on the University of Minnesota campus illustrates how the architectural firm Alliiance employed the concept of “daylight democracy” as a primary design driver for renovations and an addition to the building that is located in the Northrop Mall Historic District. This article identifies strategies used in the project to foster more democratic, equitable, and accessible approaches to daylighting that support program tasks and activities, visual comfort, and health and well-being for all building occupants regardless of the types of space and program activities. The discussion includes: (1) an overview of daylight strategies at the site, building, and room scales, (2) whole building daylighting analyses using DIVA, ElumTools, and Licaso software to evaluate illuminance levels and visual comfort, and (3) a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) to document user satisfaction, comfort, and well-being. Daylighting design conclusions summarize the strategies that are most effective in supporting the design goal of “daylight democracy.”

 Subscribers only
Article

Digital Participatory Design as a Tool for Inclusive and Democratic Post-conflict Reconstruction in Damascus, Syria

by: Karam Alkatlabe VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 22 published: 2025-01-16

This research investigates the implementation of digital participatory design to include the engagement of externally displaced persons (EDPs) in envisioning the future of their neighborhoods in post-conflict cities. In a world where conflicts cause large-scale displacement, the conventional top-down framework for reconstruction cannot achieve democratic and sustainable recovery as it excludes EDPs. It has become critical to shift toward a digital, bottom-up participatory approach to steer the reconstruction of space. This study is the first to investigate how EDPs can remotely participate in rebuilding their destroyed cities. It offers insights into how architects and urban recovery practitioners can emphasize the critical role of architecture in enhancing democracy in post-conflict cities. The findings show that a participatory approach helps engage EDPs and leads to an inclusive democratic reconstruction process. Digital participatory practice can also increase drivers of democracy, including social cohesion and citizens’ sense of ownership, and legitimize reconstruction planning. Despite its challenges and limitations, this approach assists architects in forming a deeper understanding of the contextual challenges facing destroyed cities to facilitate creating spaces shaped by the input of EDPs. 

 Subscribers only
Essay

Tracing Democratic Space of a Public Square: The Case of Square Victoria in Montreal

by: Karim W. F. Youssef VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 18 published: 2025-01-16

The question of design for democratic space may be formulated through the lens of effect on subjectivity. Under that lens, the paper borrows Norberg-Schulz’s spatial notion of domain to denote the spatial openness of place for gathering things within it, revealing and making their presence tangible through its spatiality. Thus, it follows that good design of a democratic space is a synthesis of form and image in its embodiment of difference and multiplicity. A democratic space is an architectural image of the city as a whole, an image that reflects the psyche as a spatial mode of being. To advance our understanding of the socio-political dimension of space and to take an initial step toward the design of democratic space, the paper revisits the tracing of the morphological development of a public square in downtown Montreal, Square Victoria, as a leitmotif of urban change since its inception in 1810 as a hay market and subsequent effect on subjectivity that its successive redesign promoted.

 Subscribers only
Essay

At Scale: Democracy in the Balance

by: Edgar G. Adams VOLUME 9/2024 - Issue 2 [DEMOCRATIC SPACE], Pages: 1 - 23 published: 2025-01-30

Democracies are in decline. Some blame the erosion of the public realm and proliferation of digital media for a decline in the means of authentic discourse and our capacity for building meaningful consensus. American democracy was uniquely shaped by the struggle against the tyranny of the Crown, and tenaciously clings to individual liberty and land ownership. Most European democracies evolved more gradually alongside hereditary monarchies maintaining stronger communal values. Consequently, many of our prized urban models and most vibrant public spaces, were created under aristocratic regimes or in republican city states with powerful religious influences. What can these examples teach us about the current potential for “democratic space” and what can we learn from its present impediments? This essay surveys the evolution of urban settlements in response to a range of influences, culminating with an examination of a potential combination and transformation of two paradigms, one historic and one contemporary, to create an urban framework that is reflective of democratic principles at various scales for our reflection and debate.

Featured Articles

 Open Access
Position Paper

AI Time, Timing, and Timelessness

by: Phil Bernstein VOLUME 8/2023 - Issue 2 , Pages: 207 - 213 published: 2024-01-12
 Open Access
Position Paper

The Right to Housing: A Holistic Perspective. From Concept to Advocacy, Policy, and Practice

by: Ron Shiffman VOLUME 7/2022 - Issue 2 [The Right to Housing], Pages: 269 - 267 published: 2023-01-10
 Open Access
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Opinion

Baukultur in a Cybernetic Age: A Conversation

by: Michael A. Arbib , Meredith Banasiak , Bob Condia , Colin Ellard , Jonathan Enns , Melissa Farling , Robert Lamb Hart , Richard Hassell , Eduardo Macagno , Harry Mallgrave , Fred Marks , Juhani Pallasmaa , Sarah Robinson VOLUME 6/2021 - Issue 1 , Pages: 7 - 28 published: 2021-05-14

We received and we gladly publish this conversation among distinguished theorists and scholars on an important topic, also aligned with the cross-disciplinary mission of our journal. [MS]

 

ABSTRACT - The article offers a multi-author conversation charting the future of architecture in light of the apparent tension between Baukultur, which combines the culture of building and the building of this culture, and the rapid changes brought about by digital technology, embracing cybernetics and artificial intelligence. The article builds on a discussion of Baukultur to debate in what sense buildings are “machines for living in,” then examines neuromorphic architecture wherein cybernetic mechanisms help buildings sense the needs of their occupants. It closes with an example of a building complex, Kampung Admiralty, that combines cybernetic opportunities with a pioneering approach to building “community and biophilia” into our cities. This article interleaves an abridged version of Michael Arbib’s (2019) article “Baukultur in a Cybernetic Age,” 1 with extensive comments by the co-authors.

 Open Access
Position Paper

Gender Matters. The Grand Architectural Revolution

by: Dörte Kuhlmann, Guest-Editor VOLUME 4/2019 - Issue 2 [GENDER MATTERS], Pages: 273 - 279 published: 2020-02-07
 Subscribers only
CRITICISM
Essay

Japanese Architecture Returns to Nature: Sou Fujimoto in Context

by: Botond Bognar VOLUME 7/2022 - Issue 1 , Pages: 7 - 36 published: 2022-05-16

We received and we gladly publish a contribution by distinguished author Prof. Botond Bognar. [MS]

 

ABSTRACT - The essay introduces the development of Sou Fujimoto’s architecture as it has been influenced by various sources and experiences leading to his recently completed and highly recognized major project, the  House of Hungarian Music in Budapest. Among these influences the contemporary economic and political conditions in Japan and beyond, as well as the nature-inspired work of prominent Japanese designers are discussed. Touching upon the seminal work by Tadao Ando and Toyo Ito, the essay also highlights the contrasts and occasional similarities between the so-called “White School” and “Red School” in contemporary Japanese architecture, in referencing nature as the primary source of their designs. Today, these “schools” are best represented, respectively, by the activities of SANAA and Kengo Kuma. Although Fujimoto’s architecture is clearly derivative and part of the radically minimalist White School, the House of Hungarian Music reveals an intimacy and richness 

in articulating its relationship to the surrounding natural environment, which quality, if perhaps momentarily, points beyond the minimalism of the “Whites.”

Board