“Defining the Architectural Space” Conference Proceedings is a periodic, thematic, scientific publication accompanying the annual Conference “Defining the Architectural Space”. It has been published yearly since 2001. It focuses on the problems of architecture theory and creation. It provides a forum for publication of original, most recent researches and critical reviews dealing with aspects of the architectural space creation.
The substantive scope of problems is each year established by professors from the Program Council. These are located in a vast area of searching for the essence of architecture. Current thematic scope in form of thesis can be found here.
Accepted topics
The publication welcomes the submission of research papers which report studies concerning topics such as:
- History of Architecture
- Architectural Theory
- Design Theory
- Architectural Styles
- Architectural Practice
- Architecture And Society
- Philosophies And Studies of Design
- Arts, Visual Culture and Design
- Education in Architecture
- Urbanism
Who can publish
The aim of the publication is to provide a platform for academicians and professionals with cross-disciplinary interests related to Architecture, Urbanism and Arts, to exchange ideas and interact with each other.
The “Defining the Architectural Space” has a scientific character. It is addressed to researchers, doctoral and graduate students, the architectural and urban design practitioners and the general intellectual audience from Poland and abroad. The basic conditions for the publishing of materials sent by the authors is their scientific character and the compatibility of the subject with the issue topic.
Peer review
All material submitted to the Conference Proceedings is subject to rigorous peer review using the ‘single-blind’ refereeing process. The reviewers are scientist from different countries. All texts are peer-reviewed by two external independent reviewers outside the university of the author and are published in English with abstract and keywords in Polish.
Open Access
The paper version of the Conference Proceedings “Defining the Architectural Space” with full texts is distributed to Conference Participants and to the libraries of Faculties of Architecture. The Conference Proceedings has also a digital edition (via Repository of the Cracow University of Technology, professionally prepared by IT specialists of The Cracow University of Technology Library, it is so called – Gold Open Access) which features the full texts of all authors published in each issue. The texts published are made widely available according to the rules of Free Open Access (CC BY-SA).
Publication Ethics and Malpractice
“Defining the Architectural Space ” implements ethical principles in the publishing process in the case of detecting abuse in the publication of scientific works. The ethical principles employed by the editorial staff are based on guidelines developed by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and The Code of Ethics for Research Workers prepared by the Science Ethics Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Writing about us
Italy
Il seminario Defining Architectural Space è da tempo un appuntamento annuale atteso da molti.
I temi affrontati sono ogni anno diversi e importanti, tutti centrati sulle questioni del progetto di architettura e di città, il confronto ampio perchè riporta le posizioni di studiosi di diversi paesi, la pubblicazione dei contributi ancora più ricca, poiché riporta anche altri scritti. Uno strumento ricco e utile a studiosi, dottorandi e architetti.

– Antonio Monestiroli
Politecnico di Milano
Germany
The City of Kraków is by itself a great school of Architecture, a place where generations contributed forms and ideas, respecting their inheritance.
Similarly, the Conferences “Defining the Architectural Space” organized yearly by the Faculty of Architecture at the Kraków Polytechnic, continues the school tradition and brings a real place in real time for a real involvement of the conference participants.
It creates on the background of Kraków, an intellectual platform for search of authentic expression of our time.

– Zvi Hecker
Architect, Berlin
Italy
I seminari organizzati dal Politecnico di Cracovia Defining Architectural Space rappresentano, da più di quindici anni, uno strumento critico di conoscenza dell’architettura contemporanea letta e interpretata attraverso la linea stratigrafica della storia dei luoghi, della città e del territorio. La compresenza di voci diverse e rappresentative a livello internazionale ha permesso in questi anni di configurare una ricerca articolata e condivisa sui fondamenti dell’architettura, sulle relazioni che intercorrono tra saperi della forma e saperi della costruzione.Centrale è il ruolo attribuito alla composizione architettonica, intesa come regole e procedure del comporre, come momento logico del progetto, a partire dal suo significato originario di combinazione di elementi in un insieme strutturato.
The international seminars organized by the Polytechnic of Krakow entitled “Defining Architectural Space” represent, for more than fifteen years, a critical tool of knowledge of contemporary architecture read and interpreted through the stratigraphic line of the history of places, the city and the territory. The coexistence of different and representative international voices has allowed in recent years to set up a joint and shared research on the foundations of architecture, on the relationships between knowledge of form and knowledge of construction. Central is the role attributed to architectural composition, understood as rules and procedures of the composition, as a logical moment of the project, starting from its original meaning of combination of elements in a structured whole.

– Armando Dal Fabbro
University IUAV of Venice
Poland
Dzięki wieloletniej tradycji i znakomitym uczestnikom, konferencja Definiowanie Przestrzeni Architektonicznej stała się znaczącym forum wymiany myśli w obszarze teorii architektury. Przez oddziaływanie na terenie Polski i Europy tworzy przyjazne środowisko dyskursu ekspertów oraz ważny kanał informacji na temat najnowszych odkryć. Doskonalone w kolejnych edycjach wydawnictwo konferencyjne uzyskało rozpoznawalną formę. Jest dziś ważnym źródłem wiedzy dla doświadczonych badaczy, młodych naukowców, doktorantów oraz dla grona praktykujących architektów zainteresowanych teoretycznymi podstawami sztuki kształtowania przestrzeni.

– Jan Słyk
Dean of Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology
Spain
En nuestro efímero ambiente universitario en el que todos los seminarios y publicaciones apenas superan las primeras ediciones, la Conferencia Científica Internacional anual de Cracovia, “Definición del Espacio Arquitectónico”, no solo permanece año tras año sino que también nos muestra cómo mejora su análisis crítico, conservando su contenido en una extensa e intensa publicación monográfica anual.
In our ephemeral university environment, in which all seminars and publications barely exceed the first editions, the Krakow’s annual International Scientific Conference: “Defining Architectural Space”, not only remains year after year, but also shows us how it improves its critical analysis, keeping its content in an extensive and intense annual monographic publication.

– Juan Luis Trillo de Leyva
Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla
USA
The Defining Architectural Space publication and conference at the Cracow University of Technology brings to discussion key fundamental issues of architecture design – addressed through scholarly research and from the perspective of practicing architects. As such it offers a rare and extremely valuable contribution to the discourse. The conference advances themes of both scientific and artistic value and debates these in a way that both expands architecture knowledge and aids in communicating ideas to the broader intellectual community.

– Rafi Segal
School of Architecture & Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Italy
Il Journal of Architecture è uno strumento essenziale per una ricerca emergente nell’ambito teoria dell’architettura. La centralità e il valore dei temi trattati, spesso in territori poco esplorati, contribuiscono al confronto disciplinare e accademico. Esso costituisce un ottimo strumento di ricerca e un organo utile e affidabile per il dibattito contemporaneo.

– Gino Malacarne
Department of Architecture, University of Bologna, Italia
Poland
Wydawnictwo Definiowanie Przestrzeni Architektonicznej, to znaczące wydarzenie o randze międzynarodowej. Zawiera interesujące wypowiedzi naukowców, badaczy, architektów praktyków, urbanistów, krytyków architektury. Jest to zapis wymiany poglądów z cyklicznej konferencji na Wydziale Architektury Politechniki Krakowskiej. Istotna jest stała wymiana wiedzy – bo bez wiedzy i badań nie można mówić o nowoczesnym podejściu do projektowania i do architektury – Research by Design and Design by Research.

– Klaudiusz Fross
Dean of Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology