Exhibitions occupy a distinctive position in the history of architectural education. Although they are generally regarded as instruments of communication, dissemination, or public presentation, they have often played a far more significant role in shaping pedagogical cultures and defining the intellectual identity of schools of architecture. By making educational activities visible, exhibitions have enabled schools to construct representations of themselves, to select the materials, methods, and outcomes deemed most significant, and to contribute to the formation of shared disciplinary imaginaries and the dissemination of particular architectural perspectives. Many exhibitions devoted to architecture have profoundly influenced the ways in which design is taught and learned. Some have introduced new representational tools; others have facilitated the international circulation of pedagogical models; still others have consolidated disciplinary approaches that have had a lasting impact on educational practices. In such cases, the exhibition is not merely a venue for display, but a site for the production and transmission of knowledge.

Alongside these landmark exhibitions, there exists a long tradition of exhibitions directly connected to the activities of schools of architecture, where drawings, models, design exercises, and research have been presented as materials capable of stimulating critical debate. In these contexts, the exhibition becomes a space for public discussion in which teaching extends beyond the boundaries of the design studio and engages with broader communities.

At the same time, exhibiting the outcomes of teaching remains a widespread practice within contemporary schools of architecture. Annual exhibitions, workshop presentations, thesis exhibitions, and temporary installations constitute recurring occasions through which institutions communicate their educational work while simultaneously questioning the meaning of architectural education itself. What does it mean to exhibit teaching? How are its contents selected, and through which curatorial and spatial devices are they presented? What effects do these exhibitions have on the production of disciplinary knowledge and on the redefinition of the architect’s role, expertise, and instruments?

This issue seeks to investigate the relationship between exhibitions and the teaching of architectural design by approaching the exhibition as a cultural, critical, and pedagogical device capable of shaping educational practices and influencing their public interpretation.

Within this framework, contributions are invited under three thematic sections.

Milestones: Exhibitions That Shaped Architectural Education
Numerous exhibitions have redefined the instruments, contents, and orientations of architectural education. How have particular exhibitions influenced the development of curricula, pedagogical methods, and design cultures? Which exhibitions have played a decisive role in disseminating educational models, representational languages, or specific conceptions of architecture? How have the relationships between exhibition culture and architectural education been established and transformed over time?

Adventures: When Schools Exhibit the World
Many exhibitions produced within schools of architecture, or devoted to their educational work, have generated debate, controversy, and theoretical repositioning. Under what circumstances does an educational exhibition transcend the simple presentation of student work to become a site of critical reflection? What discussions have emerged from exhibitions of design exercises or pedagogical research? How do exhibitions contribute to the construction of shared discourses on the teaching of architecture?

Exercises: The Exhibition as Method
Displaying the outcomes of teaching is a well-established practice, yet one that has rarely been examined in terms of its underlying assumptions and educational consequences. Exhibitions may be understood as genuine pedagogical instruments through which future architects learn and experiment with curatorial strategies that, in an era dominated by an overabundance of images and information, are essential for developing the ability to select, construct narratives, and represent trajectories of inquiry.

How do the design of an exhibition, the development of its conceptual and narrative framework, the selection and organization of its materials, and the spatial staging of ideas and methods contribute to the education of the architect today? What new instruments can this practice introduce into the broader disciplinary repertoire required of the contemporary architect?

--

We are interested in contributions that specifically engage with:

→ recognizing common traits in contemporary international pedagogical experiences;

→ exemplifying, through their conceptualization, specific didactic experiences, through reports, dialogues and interviews with internationally renowned professors, capable of becoming synthetic and effective expressions of a teaching know-how;

→ tracing a limit that can be shared by the scientific community, within which to critically “position” ideas and (didactic) projects.

Abstracts in English or Italian (max. 1500 characters, with one keyword before the title), three images and a biography of 350 characters for each author should be submitted (in .doc file) to: redazionestoajournal.com

Deadline: 04/09/2026

Accepted abstracts will be announced by 14/09/2026.

Abstracts will not be accepted from authors whose contributions have already been published in stoà 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

The call is open to PhD students, researchers, professors and all scholars academically involved in teaching architecture.

Contributions accepted for publication in the printed journal are expected by 26/10/2026 in the form of a scientific essay, accompanied by notes, bibliography and images, for a maximum of 20,000 characters (spaces, notes and bibliography included) and 7 images/pictures (of which you own the copyright of if they are free for use).

The proposed article must be original in its content. It should have not been published in another print or digital journal or book.

Accepted essays in their final version will undergo a process of Double-Blind Peer Review.

stoà is a Class A scientific journal for the sectors 08/D1 Architectural Design and 08/E2 Restoration and History of Architecture (Resolution No. 49 by the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes - ANVUR, 20 02 2025) and a scientific journal for non-bibliometric areas 08 - “Civil Engineering and Architecture” (Resolution No. 184 by the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes - ANVUR, 27 07 2023).