Planning Practice & Research

This Special Issue will explore the implications of ‘embodied cognition’, cognitive architecture, biology, and evolution, as well as new research methods and techniques for using biometrics in urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture. The first Urban Experience and Design (Ux+Design/2019) conference attracted speakers from across the globe and papers were published in the 2021 book: Urban Experience and Design: Contemporary Perspectives on Improving the Public Realm (https://www.routledge.com/Urban-Experience-and-Design-Contemporary-Perspectives-on-Improving-the/Hollander-Sussman/p/book/9780367435554).  This Special Issue will include papers presented as part of Ux+Design/2023 to be held in April 2023 in Boston, USA, as well as papers submitted through this Call for Papers.

Today, the design professions and their academic counterparts find themselves in the midst of a historic transition, which in a first, provides a scientific foundation for their disciplines. Neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and psychology, coupled with powerful new biometric tools able to measure the human experience of place, provide new information and methods for understanding, creating and assessing architecture and urban spaces.

This Special Issue will bring together papers from creative thinkers from around the world who are advancing knowledge in these areas, helping to shape a new kind of design practice, one that embraces the unconscious responses we have to external stimuli and is evidence-based.

We welcome original research papers based on empirical research findings on planning practice. We also encourage contributions from practitioners in the form of insightful reviews and illustrations of practice or comments setting out a personal reflection on the topic. Original research papers should be no longer than 7,000 words, practice reviews 5,000 words, and comments 2,000 words. All word limits exclude references and figures.  Shorter contributions are welcome.

Please submit a 200-word max. abstract and explanation of the type of paper proposed by 1 February 2023 to the theme editor, Justin Hollander. The Editor-in-chief of PPR will respond to submitted abstracts by the end of April 2023 and invite the submission of full papers.

Draft papers should be submitted to the theme editors before 1 October 2023. Authors should not submit papers to the journal until they have been reviewed and initially agreed by the theme editors and the Editor-in-chief.

Authors should select ‘special issue article’ when submitting their paper, irrespective of the type of paper. Note that all original research paper submissions will be subject to the standard double-anonymous review process by independent reviewers. A personal invitation to submit a paper might be a possibility but it is not a guarantee that the paper will be published. Practice reviews and comments will be reviewed by the theme editors and editorial board with reference to other independent reviewers if needed.

Papers will be published online as soon as they have been accepted by the editorial team on the advice of reviewers, normally within three weeks. The special issue will be published when the final set of papers is complete. Authors will be allowed generous time for the revision of papers and submission of final drafts. If final papers are not submitted within a reasonable time, they may be omitted from the special issue with the option to publish at a later date.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article