Conversation Catalyst
PLAT is recognized for excellence in promoting architectural discourse.
After earning an honorable mention in 2019, Rice Architecture’s PLAT — a student-run, semiannual architecture journal that seeks to stimulate conversations on architectural design, production and theory — was named a recipient of the 2021 Douglas Haskell Award presented by the Center for Architecture.
“Commit,” the theme of the award-winning PLAT 9.0, explores commitment as an attitude in architectural practice, elaborating on the agency of both the architect in their intentions and the users in how they occupy a built environment. Graduate students Sebastián López Cardozo and Lauren Phillips, co-editors-in-chief, decided on this theme to explore what responsibilities architects have in teaching or practice. Submissions to this issue included essays, projects and interviews, with contributors from all over the world.
Whether it’s a conversation or an essay from a contributor sharing their projects, [this issue] shows the different ways architects think about what it means to commit to that particular design or attitude.
López Cardozo says that many ideas for each issue’s direction are generated from topics students discuss in their classes — for example, pragmatism and economy, architecture as a building or art, and authorship and intentionality. Every year, there is a new editorial team, which shifts the focus of the journal to exploring a fresh set of ideas.
“Whether it’s a conversation or an essay from a contributor sharing their projects, [this issue] shows the different ways architects think about what it means to commit to that particular design or attitude,” says graduate student Mai Okimoto, PLAT’s managing editor. “We have the liberty to select our own theme and figure out who we want our contributors to be. That makes it possible for us to have explorations and discourse that are not necessarily tied to what the school is working on.”
PLAT shared the top prize with Northeastern University’s Infra-Structures and was awarded $1,750 to support publications exploring architectural history, design and theory. At press time, PLAT 10.0 “Behold” was just released and is available at platjournal.com/shop.
— Mabel Tang ’23