Under Construction

under construction is a series that collects the "work in progress" of the doctorate in Architecture and City Construction - Sapienza University of Rome. It is an active framework and binder for architectural research and architectural thinking.

It is dedicated to research work that is always ongoing and never concluded, vital, projective and open.

The set of publications expresses the plurality of voices of the Doctorate in Architecture and City Construction, within the precise and defined plan of the construction.

The series includes two publications per year.

00. new togetherness

Nencini D., D'Urzo A. (eds)

Edizioni Nuova Cultura
Roma 2024

ISBN 9788833655567
Pag 90
Format A4

The first issue of under construction is dedicated to the theme new togethernes and collects the contributions of PhD students and scholars starting from this important word in a new way, after the forced separation imposed by the lockdown due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Architecture and new forms of proximity are the object of our attention in the now defined post-pandemic era. There are many and varied considerations that see the city, the collective and the domestic space, taking on a new importance. The essays of the PhD students, doctors and teachers focus on some interpretative threads that can be glimpsed in filigree and which overall describe the multiple reflections of the use of this term for architecture and the city. What changes and what remains in architecture and in the city, with the revolution that the two lockdowns and the two years of pandemic have produced in people's lives?

What effects did the suspension of community life have on space and living?

01. manifest architecture

Nencini D., D'Urzo A. (eds)

Edizioni Nuova Cultura
Roma 2025

ISBN 9788833657677
Pag 116
Format A4

The second issue of under construction is dedicated to architecture as a manifesto: theoretical, iconographic, symbolic. Manifest Architecture will collect the possible declinations of this open and inclusive definition, presented in the form of an essay or drawing. Drawing inspiration from Charles Baudelaire's statement: «On the vaporization and condensation of the Self. Everything is here», in which poiesis finds two opposite forms of expression, the contributions can be an affirmation of poetics or, on the contrary, express heteronomous contents with respect to architecture. Two macro areas are determined: one in which essays and representations fall, which are themselves manifestos, in which the language is autonomous and strongly assertive, or in which the reflection on the formal essence of architecture and the city is made explicit, or in which architecture is analyzed for its iconic characteristics. Another in which architecture is contaminated with new forms of communication up to the expressions of artificial intelligence, becoming a vehicle for heteronomous and varied contents with respect to the media dimension rather than to its own material and constructive essence. The manifestos will therefore be able to express the most diverse positions, stretched between heteronomy and autonomy, giving space to different and multiple approaches and interpretations.

02. foundations
Nencini D., D'Urzo A. (eds)

Edizioni Nuova Cultura
Roma 2025

ISBN 9788833658414
Pag 108
Format A4

Foundations, in addition to meaning "foundations," can also be interpreted as "foundamentals: that is, what constitutes the foundation of reality and/or refers to the search for the principles or "ultimate things" of architectural knowledge. In a contemporary world dominated by the tendency to submit to a hypothetical primacy of technology – a mere tool of production rather than disciplinary knowledge, and celebrated for its ability to generate profit – raising the question of foundations is absolutely out of place. But since research must fulfill its social mission of being ahead of its time, rather than conforming to its dominant trends, dedicating this issue of under construction to this term, beyond representing a work of disciplinary investigation, also takes on an eminently political significance.

03. unsustainability
Nencini D., Margagliotta L.S. (a cura di)

Edizioni Nuova Cultura
Roma 2026

ISBN 9788833658414
Pag 140
Format A4

In an era where sustainability has become one of the central themes for research and the development of future-oriented models, shifting the focus to the notion of unsustainability does not simply mean questioning conditions of imbalance – whether environmental, energetic, technological, constructive, or cultural – that require rebalancing. Rather, it calls for a deeper reflection on the present, on the notion of limits, and on practices and approaches – including the most recent ones – that at times have revealed their contradictions.

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Call for contributions

04. alphabets
Nencini D., D'Urzo A. (eds.)

Edizioni Nuova Cultura
Roma [2026]

Timeline
- April 28, 2026 - call for contributions
- June 28, 2026 - contributions' submission POSTPONED
- July 31, 2026 - contributions' transmission
- September 2026 - book publication

The fourth issue of Under Construction is titled Alphabets. Few words carry such a density of meanings for architecture and for humanity, both through their ties to creativity and to communication. The call proposes to take this term in relation to architecture as a complex theme, useful for investigating questions of language by distinguishing two domains: on one hand, that which is internal to architectural thought; on the other, that which is linked to the practice of building. This distinction can also be read through the double inflection of the term. In the singular, alphabet, reflection concentrates on constitutive procedures and genealogies. In the plural, alphabets, attention shifts toward taxonomies and heteronomies of meaning.

Click here to download the call