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KRVIA Review on Architecture & Urbanism is an annual journal, curated and published by the KRVIA, located within the larger sphere of architecture and urbanism, and focused primarily on the South-Asian context.
It is about the external – the physical, socio-cultural, ecological, economic, and digital environment around us, as well as about the internal – our psychophysiological engagement with, and relationship to, this external environment. Both of these are housed within a larger reality of built and natural conditions that surround us. The journal intends to curate and present original research that explores these conditions, free from disciplinary segregations and disciplinarian walls. Architecture, urban planning, urban design, sociology, ecology studies, urban studies, aesthetics and visuality, history and theory of architecture and cities, urban governance and policy, and non-human life within or close to urbanization, are just some of the broad areas that inform the scope of this journal. We are open to students, early-career researchers and professionals, as well as experienced academics, practitioners, researchers, and other contributors who wish to write about their original work or experience.
While the scope of the journal is broad, it will be thematically organized. Every issue will focus on a particular theme, which will be clearly articulated while inviting call for abstracts. Thus, the journal, while restricting itself to these themes and their various interpretations, allows participants to cut across disciplinary boundaries and silos. This way, while there is coherence in curation and presentation of every issue, it does not hold the participants back in terms of their disciplinary backgrounds. However, the journal is interested in scholarship about the South-Asian context, because it wants to contribute towards building scholarship on our region of location and operation.
The journal intentionally situates itself in ‘present-day’ situations and discussions about our natural and built environment, and our society. It does not seek to probe history for the sake of mere knowledge production, instead, it focuses on probing the present and its associations with the past, in order to produce new knowledge about the present. It emphasizes on deliberate engagement with the present because our realities are embedded in it, our futures are informed by it, and our proactive and reactive positions and actions, shape it. We shape the present and the future, thus, the journal is interested in presenting knowledges that are embedded in contemporary scenarios.
Essays
(3000-8000 words)
This section invites original essays not published elsewhere before. They will adhere to the given theme for that issue, but they can explore interdisciplinary space. They can be literature reviews, have field work component, or both, as long as they contribute in some way towards generating new knowledge about our present-day realities. They can be academic essays, part of ongoing doctoral research, recently completed dissertations, independent research work, or a part of larger professional projects.
Book and Film Reviews
(1500-2000 words)
This section covers critical reviews of books, films, exhibitions, art work, and other interdisciplinary work dealing with architecture, urbanism, and other disciplines engaged in the study of our built and natural environment. The purpose of this section is to provide a space for critical reflection of contemporary work, across disciplines, about our built and unbuilt environment.
Photo Essays
(5-10 images with accompanying text)
This section will include visual narratives, where the image (photograph, sketch, illustration, collage) drives the narrative, and is accompanied and further complimented by text. Again, the content has to be related to architecture, urbanism, and studies of our built and natural environment.
What does ‘home’ mean to different people in the Indian city? Is it a secured, gated community within which the family can live safely, away from the dangers and the contingencies of the city? Is it a room with a corrugated sheet roof and an external toilet, on the terrace of an independent house, shared by multiple migrant labourers? Is it a chawl building, inhabited by families, tied to the place and the people around since generations? Is it a wide sidewalk or some space below a flyover, chanced upon and appropriated by a family? Or, is it an abandoned building, where stray cats, dogs, birds, or perhaps even homeless people, reside? Perhaps ‘home’ means different things for different people or animals in the city. For some of us, it is just protection from potential predators around. For others, it can be a statement – an exhibition of class, status, and wealth. Some might see a rented space as convenience, a place to sleep in the night after a long day at the office, while others might see it as property – an investment, never meant to be inhabited, just meant to be sold later when prices shoot up. The idea of ‘home’ is plural, widely different to different stakeholders in the city.
Our debut issue calls for papers that explore different meanings of ‘home’, located within, or, on the periphery of the city. We are looking for entries across different disciplines, that investigate the idea of ‘home’ through different lenses such as materiality, space, design, aesthetics, inhabitation, social-cultural meanings, economic value, the idea of refuge, and so on, unrestricted by any disciplinary boundary. We also encourage participants to define and articulate their own idea of ‘home’, which might be different from our brief, however, the focus has to be on urban conditions of the present-day Indian city.
Your entries can fall within these two categories:
These will be longer explorations, written as original essays, formatted as per our submission guidelines. They will adhere to standard protocol of citations, references, and other guidelines shared by us.
This section will include visual narratives, where the image (photograph, sketch, illustration, collage) drives the narrative, and is accompanied and further complimented by text. These essays need to be formatted as per our guidelines.
KRVIA Review on Architecture & Urbanism rigorously follows double-blind policy, wherein the identity of the entrant and the reviewer is completely concealed. Before sending out manuscripts to peer reviewers, in-house editing team checks to ensure the entry meets thematic requirements and formatting requirements.
All contributing members are to be appropriately acknowledged as authors. This includes those who contributed to conceptualization, design, data collection, writing, and approval of articles. However, the final decision regarding authorship credits lies with the entrant/s.
Our editing team will, as a protocol, run submitted entries through an efficient plagiarism software. If copied material is found, the entry will be rejected on-the-spot. We thereby request our entrants to run their manuscripts through a plagiarism check before submitting, so that accidental plagiarism can also be corrected.
Font style – Times New Roman
Font size – 12 points (for body), 12-point BOLD (for sub-headings)
Line spacing – 1.5
Margins – 2.54 cm (all sides)
Header – Right aligned (title of your essay, 10 point, Times New Roman, Italics)
Footer – Right aligned (page number, 10 point, Times New Roman, Italics)
Citations and References to follow the APA style
Prepare separate cover page with the title of your essay, sub-title, author/s names and designations (if part of an institution).
After call for papers is broadcast, interested entrants will be required to submit a 300-word abstract along with key words.
Once abstracts are selected, those entrants will be notified. They will then have to submit their essays/articles within the stipulated time frame.
After copy-editing, plagiarism check, and peer-review stage, entrants will be notified if their draft has qualified for publishing or not. If qualified, they will be sent a publication agreement which they will have to sign and return. Upon receipt of the signed agreement, a reimbursement of INR 5,000 in total, will be paid to the selected entrant/s.
The editorial board will overview the functioning of the journal and will occasionally contribute editorials to published issues. They will also monitor overall quality of output of the journal and address major grievances.
Following are members of the editorial board:
Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture & Environmental Studies
Vidyanidhi Bhawan II,
Vidyanidhi Marg, J.V.P.D. Scheme
Mumbai, Maharashtra,
India. Pin – 400 049
Ph: +91 8369485581 / 8454812762
Email: admin@krvia.ac.in
