Across critical and non-critical contexts, the majority of demolitions are often not written about—considered minor, almost indifferent, hidden events. Yet despite their apparent ordinariness, they reveal deeper societal consequences and challenges. These unexceptional acts of removal nuancedly expose the paradoxes within the hierarchies of societal values, becoming inscribed in the architectural identities of people and places.

This issue of gta papers seeks to give voice to contributions that focus on the everyday: marginalized spatial disappearances that reveal the social, political, and cultural dynamics shaping what is deemed worthy of preservation for future generations—and what is not. We invite critical interrogations into the why of considered ordinary demolitions: not only their material consequences, but their role in exposing shifting cultural hierarchies and the lived consequences for affected communities or peoples. We encourage analyses of how class, race, gender and marginalized identities, as well as processes of coloniality, extraction or oppression, intersect in the valuation and devaluation of the built environment, and how architectural design, and the industries of construction and destruction, participate in these dynamics.

More information: https://gta.arch.ethz.ch/en/gta-papers.html
Call for papers: Call for papers