Platform, a new website dedicated to hosting conversations, writings, and perspectives on the built environment, has taken off. 

The venture, billed as an "open digital venue for exchanging ideas about working with, researching, teaching, and writing about buildings, spaces, and landscapes," is being launched by a collection of scholars, architects, and researchers that includes University of California, Santa Barbara professor Swati Chattopadhyay, City College of New York professor Marta Gutman, Newcastle University lecturer Zeynep Kezer, and Hunter College faculty member Matthew Lasner.

Platform will publish "timely short-form essays and digital content that engage with contemporary culture and politics" online, according to a welcome announcement published by the group. 

The publication's initial explorations cover a variety of provocative topics, including an essay covering American efforts to intervene in Global South housing markets by Nancy Kwak, a collection of photographs documenting the public neglect of urban landscapes in St. Louis and West Virginia by Joseph Heathcott, and a review of the exhibition What Now? Thoughts on Exhibiting the History of Architectural Activism by Annmarie Adams. 

See the Platform website for the forum's full collection of architectural content.