Call for Contributions (2026)
Guest Editor: Eleonora Lupo (Politecnico di Milano)
This special article section is a regular, open thematic call devoted to experimental publications that differ from traditional research articles. Grounded in a pluriverse vision of design research — open to plural debate, diverse perspectives, and propositions — this section promotes high-quality and rigorous publishing experiments that encourage innovative disciplinary writing while enhancing diversity and equity across different design cultures. It aims to publish otherwise, fostering counter-hegemonic narratives of design through both content and editorial processes, while also opening up new perspectives on the impact of publication and reuse.
The section welcomes critical, speculative, and practice-based explorations, hypotheses, perspectives, and discussions addressing significant contemporary design or design-related issues (not necessarily following the structure of traditional or dominant research articles). Contributions featuring strong visual content, intertextuality among topics or co-authors, multiple agencies, and experimental compositional strategies are also encouraged, resulting in flexible reading structures (linear and non-linear).
One special article per issue is published on a rolling basis through a regular open call.
All submitted special articles follow a dedicated review and publication pathway.
Their alignment with the aims of this special call is carefully assessed by the editors, and submissions are assigned to expert reviewers.
The review process encourages robust dialogue between authors and reviewers — potentially in a transparent format, should the author opt for it — in order to ensure a shared understanding of the article’s scope and to support its further development.
This new section, published for the first time in PAD, opens with a choral conversation held in 2023 at an international design conference, featuring the editor and design scholars in the field of design publishing.
Abstract submission by email to editors@padjournal.net
