Materia Arquitectura N°29

The role of architecture in shaping the civic realm has never been more relevant. As cities undergo political, social, and environmental upheaval, architecture’s capacity to express public values and collective identity is being re-evaluated. The upcoming issue of Materia Arquitectura, titled CIVICNESS – Architecture and the Politics of the Public Realm, calls on architects, scholars, and designers to engage with this moment of reflection and critique. With a submission deadline of August 30, 2025, and a publication date set for December 2025, this open call offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a globally respected architectural platform under the editorial guidance of Anna Livia Friel and Agustina Labarca Gatica.

Civic architecture—be it built, unbuilt, symbolic, or functional—has always had the power to embody the identity and values of the societies that shape it. This call is not only about what civic buildings look like but what they mean today: how they hold public memory, how they respond to political pressures, and how they might shape new democratic futures. The question at the heart of this issue is both urgent and timeless: Can architecture still aspire to public meaning without civic ambition?

Exploring Civic Architecture Through Critical Lenses

The Historical Layers of Civic Expression

From the rational symbolism of 17th-century architecture to the emotional narratives of Romanticism, the meaning of “character” in architecture has evolved significantly. Civic buildings, in particular, stand out as spatial embodiments of power, consensus, and national identity. Whether it’s the neoclassicism of Washington D.C. or the modernist utopias of Brasília and Chandigarh, these projects display architectural languages that are both deeply rooted and politically charged.

Architecture as Political Representation

The attacks on the U.S. Capitol (2021) and Brazil’s Congress (2023) emphasized how civic buildings are perceived as more than just functional spaces. They symbolize national values and vulnerabilities. This issue invites contributions that confront how built form communicates power, democracy, protest, and participation. What architectural strategies reinforce civic belonging? What forms challenge or reimagine it?

Contemporary Relevance and Crisis Contexts

As liberal democratic values face decline in various parts of the world, civic architecture finds itself at a crossroads. While the Green New Deal or the New European Bauhaus stirred theoretical debate, they fell short of producing architectural transformations. On the other hand, regions like Latin America, still grappling with infrastructural inequality and institutional change, present dynamic contexts to question what civicness means now.

The Call for New Architectural Methodologies

MATERIA ARQUITECTURA N°29 seeks submissions that use innovative research methods—from archival work to speculative design—to interrogate how civic architecture is evolving. Projects rooted in real-world crisis or political transformation are especially welcome, as are those that challenge the boundaries between symbolic design and spatial agency.

Entry Fees

Important Dates

Prizes and Recognition

Architectural Analysis: Civic Language Across Borders

This open call emphasizes not a single style or ideology but a spectrum of expressions. In historical terms, civic buildings served to stabilize identity through form—porticos, columns, monuments. Today, civic identity may emerge through transparency, openness, community access, or resilience.

The reuse of civic character—whether in contested sites or emergent democracies—asks architects to design beyond aesthetics. Contributors are invited to analyze how local materials, spatial hierarchy, monumentality, or porosity influence political legibility. How does architecture respond when it is no longer tied to a clear national narrative but rather a fragmented or emerging public?

Material choices—from concrete to wood—carry symbolic weight. The editorial team encourages examination of architectural language that bridges cultural memory with forward-looking intent. How do thresholds, public plazas, or symbolic axes contribute to civic meaning? In short, how does architecture behave politically without becoming propaganda?

Project Importance: Reclaiming the Civic Imagination

This issue of Materia Arquitectura matters because it raises timely questions about the visibility, representation, and values of the built environment. Civic architecture, as both artifact and aspiration, reflects the ideological systems that sustain it. Its study reveals how public space is shaped not only by design but by governance, protest, and social cohesion.

By inviting global perspectives, the call creates a framework for comparative studies that address inequality, colonial legacies, and systemic transformation. It challenges architects to explore what happens when civic ambition fails—or flourishes—in physical form. It also suggests that the political imagination can be rebuilt through spatial interventions, architectural storytelling, and critical design thinking.

Ultimately, the issue asks: What does civic architecture look like in times of institutional uncertainty? And more importantly, how can architecture help us imagine alternative civic futures?

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

This call for contributions by Materia Arquitectura thoughtfully addresses the evolving meaning of civicness in architecture. Visually, it references classical and modernist legacies while opening space for reinterpretation in contemporary contexts. The invitation to examine symbolic, material, and spatial dimensions broadens the discussion beyond aesthetics.

Critically, one might question whether the issue risks centering traditional frameworks of civic identity without sufficiently amplifying non-Western or grassroots models. While the editorial tone is inclusive, deeper clarification on power dynamics in informal or emerging civic spaces would strengthen its scope.

Nevertheless, the open call offers timely and necessary ground for reflection on the role of architecture in shaping public life. It invites designers to challenge conventional civic forms and speculate on architecture’s future role in democratic expression.

Conclusion

In a time when the political meaning of public space is constantly shifting, Materia Arquitectura N°29 offers a critical platform to question, explore, and redefine civic architecture. This is more than a journal issue—it’s a call to action for designers and thinkers to examine how architecture can continue to serve as a space of inclusion, representation, and democratic aspiration.

Whether through revisiting history, confronting current crises, or envisioning future civic possibilities, contributors are encouraged to reflect deeply on architecture’s responsibility in public life. As governments change and public trust falters, architecture remains a powerful medium through which collective identity can be imagined and communicated. The urgency of civicness is not just architectural—it’s societal, political, and fundamentally human.

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