Description: Places seeks to build capacity in the ranks of design writers and to raise the cultural visibility and influence of the design disciplines. For more than a generation, the number of practicing design critics has been dwindling. Yet the need for informed and incisive criticism of architecture and landscape architecture remains pressing. Growing demands for greater urban equity and social justice; the accumulating impacts of the climate crisis; the rapid proliferation of new digital and material technologies; increasing calls for professional reform — all are posing challenges for the design disciplines and underscoring the importance of serious and sustained critical discussion. The Critics-in-Residence program will encourage authors to move beyond the limits of the traditional project review and produce wide-ranging essays that are conceptually rich and culturally ambitious, organized around some strong theme or set of ideas. For this inaugural round, two critics will be selected, one in architecture and one in landscape architecture. Residencies will begin in May 2021.
Award: Critics will be in (virtual) residence with the journal for a term of one year and receive a stipend of $7,500 to write four major critical essays.
Eligibility: The residencies are open to all. Particular consideration will be given to independent authors who are not already benefiting from institutional and organizational resources and support.
Deadline: March 12, 2021