Editorial Guidelines

ArchUp’s editorial guidelines define how architectural knowledge is verified, edited, classified, published, corrected, and preserved. They apply to ArchUp editors, external writers, researchers, project teams, institutions, event organisers, and content owners.

ArchUp is an independent bilingual publication covering architecture, design, urbanism and cities, construction, building materials, research, events, competitions, and the wider built environment. It serves professionals, institutions, students, researchers, the public, search engines, and emerging knowledge systems in both English and Arabic.

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1. Editorial Purpose and Independence

ArchUp’s purpose is to make the built environment legible, searchable, and durable. A building may physically remain for decades; accurate documentation allows its ideas, systems, decisions, and consequences to remain accessible far longer. Every publication should therefore be treated as part of a continuing public record, not as a disposable social-media update.

News releases, competition briefs, event announcements, and project submissions may originate outside ArchUp. ArchUp does not claim ownership of the underlying projects or announcements. Its responsibility is to verify, reorganise, rewrite, contextualise, credit, and publish the material according to an independent editorial standard. Publication is not an endorsement.

• Editorial independence: Commercial relationships, professional status, academic rank, audience size, and personal familiarity do not determine coverage or conclusions.
• Neutrality: Editors describe and examine work without adopting the language of a developer, brand, office, organiser, or public-relations release.
• Public value: Material is selected for its architectural, technical, cultural, urban, educational, or documentary value, not merely for visibility.
• Website first: ArchUp’s website is the primary publication and reference environment. Social platforms support distribution but do not define the editorial record.
• No paid influence: Sponsored material follows a separate, clearly labelled process and cannot determine independent editorial coverage.
• Reciprocal documentation: Offices and institutions whose work is documented are encouraged to cite and link to the published ArchUp page from their official websites.

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2. Standards for ArchUp Editors

Every item must have a responsible editor. Material received from a feed, press office, contributor, organiser, or automated monitoring system must not be treated as publication-ready. Editorial responsibility begins where the source material ends.

The editorial test

1. Verify: Confirm the official project or event name, people and organisations, location, dates, status, authorship, image rights, and essential technical facts.
2. Classify: Select the correct language, content stream, primary category, supporting categories, and relevant series or event type. Do not use unrelated categories merely to widen distribution.
3. Rewrite: Remove slogans, inflated claims, copied passages, calls to purchase, and promotional framing. Preserve facts while giving the article an independent structure and voice.
4. Contextualise: Explain what is being built, proposed, studied, exhibited, or debated; where it sits within its architectural, urban, technical, or cultural context; and why the record matters.
5. Document: Include useful images, concise captions, accurate credits, ALT text, project data, dates, and internal links.
6. Review: Read the full page on desktop and mobile. Check headings, links, captions, image order, language direction, dates, author, category, and translation relationship.
7. Publish and maintain: Correct verified errors promptly and preserve a transparent, stable record rather than silently reshaping published history.

Language and editorial depth

Language must match the purpose of the content. News and practical announcements require direct, accessible prose. Projects require spatial and technical clarity. Research requires evidence and precise terminology. Signed criticism and ✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight may use a deeper analytical register. Dense academic language must not be imposed on simple news, and complex research must not be reduced to a promotional summary.

Bilingual publishing

English and Arabic pages must be connected through the site’s language system whenever both versions exist. A translation is not a mechanical copy: names, dates, terminology, punctuation, direction, internal links, captions, and search intent must be reviewed in the target language. If the second language is delayed, it remains part of the editorial workflow rather than being forgotten.

Internal links and classification

Internal links should clarify relationships, not decorate the text. Editors should connect an article to the most relevant sections, including Architecture, Projects, Buildings, Cities, Design, Building Materials, Construction, and Architectural Research, only where the relationship is substantive.

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3. Content Streams and Required Tone

Stream	Editorial purpose	Required tone
News	Verified developments in architecture, projects, cities, construction, design, materials, technology, and culture affecting the built environment.	Clear, timely, neutral, and accessible to a general audience.
Projects	Documented built, proposed, or ongoing work with spatial, visual, and technical information.	Professional and descriptive, with measured analysis and no office publicity language.
Architecture and Buildings	Architecture as practice, history, knowledge, and specific built works.	Informative and precise; technical where necessary but readable.
Cities and Urbanism	Planning, infrastructure, mobility, public space, urban change, and spatial policy.	Analytical, attentive to social, economic, environmental, and spatial consequences.
Design	Interior, product, furniture, visual, and spatial design in relation to use and culture.	Concept-led and visually literate without decorative exaggeration.
Building Materials and Construction	Material properties, applications, systems, site progress, performance, and implementation.	Technical, factual, data-conscious, and timeline-oriented.
Research	Academic, field-based, theoretical, and applied research concerning the built environment.	Evidence-led, referenced, methodologically clear, and open about limitations.
Competitions	Open calls, briefs, deadlines, eligibility, results, and critical examination of competition systems.	Structured, exact, neutral, and explicit about dates and organiser information.
Events	Exhibitions, conferences, lectures, workshops, festivals, fairs, and related cultural programmes.	Concise, current, practical, and free of promotional claims.
Jobs	Relevant professional and academic opportunities.	Direct, factual, and explicit about location, role, deadline, and application route.
Pintercture	Image-led records, visual references, and photographic or graphic essays.	Minimal, accurately captioned, and visually driven.
Guest Voices	Original contributions from professionals, academics, researchers, students, critics, and journalists.	Independent, knowledge-led, attributable, and open to rigorous editing.
✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight	Independent critical reading that examines the forces, decisions, and consequences beneath architecture.	Structural, evidence-conscious, critical, and separate from the source article’s claims.
Sponsored Content / AD	Paid promotional material processed separately from editorial coverage.	Clearly labelled, contractually defined, and never presented as independent reporting.

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4. Editor Code of Conduct

• Confidentiality: Internal data, unpublished material, website settings, access details, correspondence, and publication workflows must not be disclosed to unauthorised parties.
• Official communication: Editors may not represent ArchUp in private agreements. Communication with offices, brands, institutions, organisers, and contributors must use approved channels.
• No circumvention: An editorial role must not be used for personal gain, preferential treatment, gifts, commissions, private access, or submissions that bypass the documented process.
• Conflict of interest: Editors must disclose direct professional, personal, academic, or commercial interests and transfer the item to another editor where independence may reasonably be questioned.
• Data ethics: Articles must not contain hidden tracking, affiliate codes, unauthorised scripts, cloaked links, or promotional backlinks. Technical tracking requires formal approval and implementation by the technical team.
• Accuracy and accountability: Each editor is responsible for the integrity of the page they publish. Verified errors must be corrected promptly.
• Respectful criticism: Criticism must remain evidence-based and directed toward work, systems, decisions, and consequences, not personal attack.

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5. Corrections, Updates, and the Published Record

ArchUp treats publication as a living public record. Accuracy can require revision, but editorial independence requires that documented coverage is not rewritten simply to satisfy a later preference.

• Mandatory corrections: Verified errors in names, locations, dates, authorship, clients, credits, technical data, event status, or ownership must be corrected promptly.
• Editorial requests: Requests to add praise, alter a conclusion, remove relevant names, increase prominence, or change an article’s independent angle remain subject to editorial judgment.
• Additional material: New images, captions, drawings, data, or verified project updates may be added when they materially improve the record.
• Official route: Readers and contributors should submit correction requests through the comment section beneath the relevant article. Supporting official references, technical sheets, or dated documentation should be provided.
• Transparency: Significant corrections should be identifiable where necessary. Updates must not conceal the original chronology or mislead readers.
• Attribution: Organisations referencing ArchUp’s original reporting or analysis are expected to credit and link to the relevant ArchUp page.

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6. Publication Guidelines for Contributors and Content Owners

ArchUp welcomes considered submissions from architects, designers, engineers, contractors, developers, researchers, academics, students, independent critics, architectural journalists, photographers, cultural institutions, publishers, competition bodies, and event organisers. The determining question is not who submits the work, but whether the material contributes meaningful and verifiable knowledge.

Submission does not guarantee publication. ArchUp may accept, decline, defer, combine, independently review, or substantially edit any submission. Professional standing, payment history, awards, institutional affiliation, or previous publication does not create an entitlement to coverage.

What we consider

• Architectural projects, from interiors and small buildings to landscapes, infrastructure, and urban interventions, with sufficient conceptual, spatial, technical, or public value.
• Original research, technical papers, field observations, essays, and documented arguments concerning architecture, design, materials, construction, planning, cities, or the built environment.
• Independent journalism, criticism, interviews, and informed first-person accounts that produce knowledge beyond personal promotion.
• Competition calls and results with a verifiable organiser, complete dates, clear eligibility, and an accessible brief.
• Exhibitions, conferences, lectures, workshops, festivals, fairs, and cultural programmes with a genuine relationship to architecture, design, art, construction, urbanism, or material culture.

Brand catalogues, SEO placements, generic company profiles, copied articles, undisclosed advertising, link-insertion requests, and submissions designed primarily to obtain visibility may be declined or redirected to the separately labelled Sponsored Content process.

Universal submission requirements

• One file: Submit a single Word (.docx) or Pages (.pages) document containing the complete text, data, captions, credits, and images embedded in their intended order.
• No external transfer folders: Do not send Drive folders, WeTransfer packages, separate image folders, or PDFs as the primary submission. Editors are not required to open or reconstruct material from external locations.
• Images: Use clear, reasonably sized, web-ready images. Every image must be relevant to the submission and embedded in the document.
• Captions and credits: Each image requires a concise factual caption and a specific credit identifying the architect, designer, photographer, office, artist, institution, or rights holder as applicable.
• Rights: State copyright restrictions, licensing conditions, and any embargo clearly within the same document.
• Contact: Provide the responsible person’s full name, role, and official email address associated with the submitting office or institution.
• Language: Primary submissions should be in English unless ArchUp has agreed otherwise.

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7. Submission Checklists by Content Type

Competition submission

• Official competition title, organiser, and direct official URL
• Brief summary, objective, site or subject, and expected outputs
• Eligibility, geographic restrictions, team rules, and language requirements
• Registration deadline, submission deadline, question deadline, and result date
• Entry fee and currency, including free-entry conditions
• Prize structure, jury names where confirmed, and judging criteria
• Rules concerning authorship, copyright, publication, and use of submitted work
• Official poster or image with caption and credit

Incomplete submissions may be delayed or declined when editors cannot verify or accurately document the work, event, research, or opportunity.

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8. Rights, Credits, and Editorial Authority

By submitting material, the contributor confirms that they are authorised to provide it and that the supplied names, credits, permissions, and factual statements are accurate to the best of their knowledge.

• Contributors retain ownership of their original work while granting ArchUp permission to review, edit, translate, publish, display, and maintain it as part of the platform’s digital record.
• ArchUp may revise titles, introductions, structure, language, captions, metadata, categories, internal links, and image order to meet editorial and technical standards.
• Publication in the submitted form is not guaranteed. Material may be shortened, expanded through independent research, contextualised, or accompanied by editorial analysis.
• Credits are published according to the verified information received. Contributors must notify ArchUp of documented errors through the correction route.
• Where serious questions arise about ownership, rights, accuracy, or consent, ArchUp may temporarily restrict, revise, or remove material while the matter is reviewed.
• ArchUp does not accept responsibility for rights information that a submitting party knowingly or negligently misrepresents.

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9. Guest Contributions and Sponsored Content

Requests primarily seeking brand exposure should be directed through the official contact page rather than submitted as independent editorial work.

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10. Role of the Editorial Board

• Set, interpret, and periodically review ArchUp’s editorial standards.
• Assess submissions for relevance, accuracy, originality, public value, rights, and conflicts of interest.
• Maintain consistency in authorship, category selection, bilingual relationships, formatting, credits, and internal linking.
• Request missing evidence or clarification and decline material that cannot be responsibly verified.
• Coordinate with technical teams where publishing requirements affect accessibility, performance, structured data, security, or user experience.
• Review corrections, disputes, rights claims, and significant changes to published pages.
• Protect the separation between independent editorial work, guest contributions, feeds, and sponsored material.
• Monitor the platform for material that conflicts with ArchUp’s principles and determine whether it should be corrected, reclassified, restricted, or removed.

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A Standard of Trust

These guidelines are both a working standard and a public commitment. They protect readers, contributors, editors, rights holders, and the integrity of the architectural record. ArchUp’s role is not to make publication appear effortless or universally available; it is to ensure that material admitted into the platform has been examined, structured, credited, and made useful.

Through accuracy, editorial independence, bilingual access, critical inquiry, and careful documentation, ArchUp seeks to preserve not only what the built environment looks like, but what it means, how it came into being, and what it changes.