Article and Digital Platform REPORT ON ASIAN CITIES: Urban Environmental Crisis.

As part of the international conference Urban Environmental Crisis in Asia: Contemporary Design Strategies and Policies for Fragile Territories hosted by DAStU and CRAFT of Politecnico di Milano, we are launching the international Call for Contributions “Report on Asian Cities: Urban Environmental Crisis”, focusing on contemporary environmental challenges and transformations across Asian cities. Abstracts will become part of a collective Report on Asian Cities, while the accompanying video contributions will form an Asian Cities digital research platform.

The international conference Urban Environmental Crisis in Asia: Contemporary Design Strategies and Policies for Fragile Territories will take place on-site at the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, on 8–9 March 2027. However, the Call for Contributions is international, and submissions are entirely online. Contributors are invited to submit an abstract and a short video presentation, which will contribute to the Report on Asian Cities and its accompanying digital research platform. A selection of contributors will subsequently be invited to participate in the conference in Milan.

Although the conference adopts an interdisciplinary approach, architectural history, urban history and the historical study of the built environment are central to its intellectual framework.
The Call is particularly relevant to architectural and urban historians interested in examining how Asian cities and their built environments have evolved in response to environmental, social, political, and economic transformations.
We particularly welcome multidisciplinary contributions addressing the historical evolution of Asian cities, the relationship between architecture and environmental change, the transformation of urban landscapes and infrastructures, and the historical development of architectural and planning responses to environmental challenges.
From this perspective, the environmental crisis is understood not only as a contemporary condition but also as the outcome of long-term historical processes that have shaped architecture, urban form, and spatial inequalities.

THEMES
Contributions may address a specific Asian city or develop a comparative perspective and may engage with one or more of the following themes:
- environmental pressures and the urban environmental exposome;
- climate change, vulnerability and adaptation;
- air, water, noise and heat-related environmental risks;
- urban health and wellbeing;
- environmental and socio-spatial inequalities;
- political and economic drivers of urban transformation;
- architecture and design responses to environmental crisis;
- urban planning, policies and governance;
- AI, urban sensing and environmental monitoring;
- innovative approaches to ecological transition.
The geographical scope encompasses cities across East, Southeast, South and Central Asia, with particular interest in rapidly transforming metropolitan regions and in perspectives capable of connecting local conditions with broader processes of environmental change

SUBMISSION
Applicants are invited to submit:
- Title of the contribution
- Abstract: 350 words
- 4–6 keywords
- Short biographical note: max. 100 words
- 3-minute video presentation introducing the case study, research question and main argument or findings. The video should be recorded in landscape format (horizontal orientation), against a white or plain-coloured background, with the speaker framed approximately from the shoulders upwards.

SELECTION AND PUBLICATION
Submissions will be reviewed by the conference curators on the basis of scientific quality, originality, relevance to the conference themes and their contribution to a comparative understanding of the urban environmental crisis in Asia. Abstract contributions will become part of the conference Report on Asian Cities: Urban Environmental Crisis and the video presentations will contribute to its Asian Cities. Urban Environmental Crisis Digital Research Platform hosted on Craft – DAStU, Politecnico di Milano. A select number of authors will be chosen and invited to participate in the conference. A selection of particularly relevant contributions will subsequently be invited to develop a full paper for consideration in a peer reviewed Special Issue of Asia Maior dedicated to the Urban Environmental Crisis in Asia.

DEADLINES
Submission deadline: 30 November 2026
Notification of acceptance and comments: 15 December 2026
International Conference: 8-9 March 2027

SUBMISSION
Contributions can be submitted directly to:
pilar.guerrierigmail.com

CURATORS
Pilar Maria Guerrieri
Agim Kercuku
Giulia Setti