In This Issue [1/2023]

As it is inevitable, our journal typically hosts contributions that deal with topics and questions already explored in past issues, especially in themed issues.It is a sort of nurturing threads of inquiry through a set of themes that are relevant today in our design fields.This is certainly the case of our first two contributions by our own Taraneh Meshkani, TPJ Senior Editor, with a "Cross-Examination of Water Bodies and Urban Informality," and by Nadia Shah on how "the mass housing model can accommodate human agency."The question of "the right to housing" was just explored in our Fall 2022 themed issue (TPJ 7, no. 2) and here both Meshkani and Shah advance the reflection on the theme with, respectively, particular views to informality and the historical framework of the research and efforts (some successes and many failures) put forth by the modern movement vis-à-vis the greatly changed conditions of our time.The need for a participatory approach to planning and design, which includes the housing question but certainly not only, is reflected on a broader discussion and self-assessment, conducted by Sonia Curnier, Per-Johan Dahl, Lisa Diedrich, and Andrea Kahn, of the planning experience of the Urban Forum, a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural initiative led by the University of Lund in Sweden in recent years

Architecture and Computational Design · Collaborative and Sustainable Housing Initiatives · Environmental Science · Urban Planning and Landscape Design