Heritage Cities and Exclusion. Places, Spaces and Thresholds of the ‘Other’ I The Journal of Architectural Design and History | Issue n.4 (2025)

The fourth issue of The Journal of Architectural Design and History - Heritage Cities and Exclusion. Places, Spaces and Thresholds of the ‘Other’ - intends to explore the theme of exclusion in its various forms, investigating the relationship between the historical city and the architectures that, with their spaces and forms, define places of urban exclusion in different historical, geographical, political and social contexts.

Starting from the categories suggested by thinkers such as Erving Goffman, who in his famous book “Asylum: Essays on the Condition of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates” (1961) discusses for the first time about the so called ‘Total Institutions’, or Michel Foucault, who in “Des espaces autres” theorises about places ‘outside of all places’, or heterotopias, ADH Journal proposes to approach the theme of exclusion from different and multiple perspectives.

We invite the authors to investigate the subject of exclusion in its broadest sense: from the most traditional exclusionary categories (e.g. prisons, asylums, hospices, hospitals) to more lateral and less explored interpretations, which also investigate the theme of exclusion in terms of exclusivity, gender, ethnicity, census and lifestyle differences, or the absence of life (e.g. special schools, holiday villages and resorts, suburbs and banlieues, brothels, cemeteries). The common founding condition of these places is separation, which is declined with different shades of meaning-related character such as confinement, shelter or care, building different relationships between city and architecture. Being enclosure and boundary, the architectures of exclusion - of all uses and chronology - dialogue with each other, eventually establishing the ‘boundary’ places of the city, isolated and confined, filled with the various humanity that inhabits them.

For this reason, we welcome contributions that interrogate not only the recognizable architectural typologies of exclusion as spaces, or thresholds, but also their tangible and non-tangible effects in cities, as well as the theoretical, emotional, phenomenological implications that the perception of such spaces of exclusion and separation brings to people’s lives.

To contribute to this issue, we invite groundbreaking investigations and reflections about the themes revolving around (but not limited to) the following fields:

• Architectures used to confine the ‘other’, the ‘different’, whose functions often change in the course of time (e.g. from boarding school to asylum; from monastery to prison etc.)
• Construction, evolution and decline of ‘total institutions’ as traditionally defined (asylums, sanatoriums, orphanages, monasteries, jails, prison camps...)
• Architectural complexes subjected to the theme of exclusion in more recent times, where the theme of ‘subjected’ exclusion is evident and clearly related (e.g. ghettos, suburbs, banlieu)
• Places and spaces of ‘voluntary’ exclusive exclusion (e.g. gated communities, exclusive resorts, temporary settlements).

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
- The participation to the call is open to national and international structured and independent scholars (PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, research fellows, assistant professors, professors...).
- The issue will host essays and articles selected through a double-blind peer review process.
- To apply, please submit your abstract through the platform https://www.adh.journal.mantova.polimi.it/open-call/heritage-cities-and-exclusion no later than November 10th, 2024.
- The outcome of the selection and the judgments of the peer review will be communicated by e-mail to the author of the article.
- Proposals selected for publication must be developed into unpublished texts, complete with bibliography and images.

For inquiries, please contact: adh-journalpolimi.it

TIMETABLE
- Launch of the Call: September 30th, 2024
- Abstract submission deadline: November 10th, 2024
- Notification of acceptance: by November 22th, 2024
- Text delivery for peer review: March 7th, 2025
- Notification of full-text peer review outcome: March 31th, 2025
- Final text delivery: April 21th, 2025

The issue will host essays and articles selected through a double-blind peer review process.
Proposals selected for publication must be developed into unpublished texts, complete with bibliography and images.