We are pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for Critics-in-Residence in Architecture and Landscape Architecture, a new project at Places supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

In launching this program, we seek 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. Insurgent demands for greater urban equity; the accumulating impacts of 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.

PROGRAM DETAILS

For this inaugural round, two critics will be selected, one in architecture and one in landscape architecture. 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 critical essays.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

Please submit two or three writing samples, ideally works of ambitious criticism; a brief description of no more than 500 words explicating themes and topics likely to be explored across a quartet of essays; and a current résumé. Applications should be submitted by email to editors@placesjournal.org. Please put “Critic-in-Residence in Architecture” or “Critic-in-Residence in Landscape Architecture” in the subject line. Writing samples that exceed the file size of Gmail (or other email) attachments should be submitted by a file sharing system referencing the same email address.

The application deadline is March 12, 2021.

 SELECTION PROCESS AND CRITERIA

Applications will be reviewed by Places editors and an external jury consisting of Brian Davis, Lesley Lokko, Elizabeth Mossop, and Adam Yarinsky.

The residencies are open to all. Particular consideration will be given to independent authors who are not already benefiting from institutional and organizational support. To get a sense of our editorial sensibility and production values, we strongly recommend that applicants browse the journal.

The critics-in-residence will be announced in mid April, and residencies will begin in May 2021.