The 13th issue of ArchiDOCT e-journal revolves around the notion of ‘forces’. ‘Forces’ have been revived, for their key role, in contemporary contemplations of architecture conceived as a complex and speculative process of dynamic interactions amongst agents involved in an ecology.

‘Forces’ are met in both deterministic, top-down processes of form generation and they can be generative in bottom-up, emergent form generating scenarios and narratives. Literally or metaphorically, consciously or unconsciously, the notion of ‘forces’ lies at the heart of decision-making, simulation, control and physical realization of urban, architectural, structural and material systems in the built environment. Most importantly, however, it is their ability to trigger changes of existing situations, to reformulate, to revive, to regenerate and to renew existing material or immaterial systems in a way that their optimization and renewal, in virtual and physical space, can be achieved. They drive, shape and influence design decisions on both theoretical and practical levels and at various scales.

‘Forces’ can become activation principles, as they may be determined by aesthetic, sociological, economic, ecological, geopolitical, constructional, media, networks, data or other influences. They may span from 'social forces' used to explore interactive relationships between humans and/or machines, to 'topology optimization' methods whereby the best distribution of material in a system based on force distribution can maximize structural performance. The importance of ‘forces’ can be found in exploring architectural and structural systems’ structural efficiency, buildability, virtual simulation, interactive attraction or repulsion and so on, always aiming to redefine and renew an existing state towards a new improved form of existence. This can be done by any means, analogue or digital, allowing users to activate such forces, through which the results can be interpreted, revisited and implemented.

The 13th issue of ArchiDOCT invites researchers, PhD students that explore the concept of 'forces' in theoretical and practical terms and highlight the breadth and scope of the results their implementation can bring about.

Guest editor: Editor: Dr Odysseas Kontovourkis Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Important dates:

  • Submission deadline (full papers): 15 March 2019
  • Review period: 16 March 2019 - 15 April 2019
  • Revision period: 16 April 2019 - 30 April 2019
  • Follow-up review: 01 May - 15 May 2019
  • Final revision: 16 May - 31 May 2019
  • Publication date: 01 July 2019

Submission policy: ArchiDOCT is published twice a year, in July and January. The official language of the journal is English. Submitted manuscripts for review should not exceed 4500 words, including abstracts, references and image captions. The referring system will be the Harvard System. Text should be saved in a Microsoft Word or RTF file, while the supporting visual material (images, diagrams, sketches, tables and so on) should be sent as TIFF files with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. All visual material should be clearly indicated and numbered in the text, along with the respective image captions and credits. Additionally, all manuscripts should be submitted in A4 “camera-ready” .pdf format that gives an idea of how a finalised version looks.

ArchiDOCT only accepts manuscripts from PhD students. In order for an article submission to be considered for publication, the student must be a registered and active member of the ENHSA Observatory (www.enhsa.net/main/observatory), a PhD research portal created to facilitate communication and meaningful information exchange between architecture doctoral students.

Reviewing policy: The peer reviewers are all confirmed educators of architecture coming from different educational backgrounds, with different specialisations and expertise that share the common interest of their doctoral students: to encourage them to publish their work while improving their thinking processes towards academic research writings. Each submitted article is reviewed by two members of the journal’s Scientific Committee anonymously.

Copyright policy: The ArchiDOCT journal is offered in a downloadable form for academic and research purposes only. All material published in each issue is, unless otherwise stated, the property of the authors of the respective articles. The reproduction of an article in whole is only allowed with the written consent of the author. Any reproduction of the material in parts, in any manner, should properly credit the copyright holder. A single copy of the materials available in each issue may be made for personal, non-commercial use.