Atlantis Magazine

Atlantis is an explorative magazine for urbanism and landscape architecture curated by students at BK TU Delft. A crucial part of the work of the student association POLIS, Atlantis strives to bring forward critical questions around the state of the built environment. For the academic year 2025-26, we focus on the questions of one’s ‘agency’ over space and society.

Issue#36.1 AGENCY, SPACE, SOCIETY

AGENCY   

// the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power : operation

// a person or thing through which power is exerted, or an end is achieved : instrumentality

( Merriam-Webster. n.d.)

What are we even doing here?

The question of agency stems from our rapidly evolving surroundings. Climate change, geopolitical tensions, and social transformation are shaping our environments in ways that often feel far beyond our control. Yet the built environment is never neutral, it affects development, governance, and everyday life. Urbanism, as a practice, grew out of this complexity, bringing together a multidisciplinary lens, filling the gaps between architecture, politics, economics, and ecology. But with that diversity also comes uncertainty. We are still exploring questions such as “What is urbanism?” and “Who is an urbanist in the 21st century?”  At the same time, the role of users and communities in shaping cities is becoming more visible. So we return to a simple but urgent question: how do you or we(collectively) use our agency when factors shaping our surroundings are beyond our control?

What is your agency?

Agency is how someone perceives their presence or even existence within a spatial or social environment and how they are engaged in it. Does it reflect  a passive presence or a hyperactive stance with dynamic or even collective involvement?  As citizens, professionals, activists, and students, we are constantly navigating ways to make an impact or to respond to the impacts produced by a range of actions within our own contexts. How, then, can we better understand and strengthen our agency in shaping the environments we inhabit?

Agency is also about the power one holds - individually or collectively - to make a change, the purpose of making a change and what would be affected by that. And just as important, whose power has already shaped the environment, and who has been left carrying those impacts?

Agency is not always fixed; it is a process of becoming, a state of transition, confusion, but also potential. It is about locating your role in society, sometimes with optimism, sometimes in isolation or uncertainty. It is political, diplomatic, yet deeply personal.

Agency is multi-scalar. It can be over a personal space or a global region. The affected group could be a person, neighbourhood, city, or non-human species. The narratives of agency can be told from a large variety of perspectives, by different actors/stakeholders from various points of view orienting the same story.

In this issue, we invite you to share your perspectives, stories, and practices of agency, personal, collective, or disciplinary. This is a call to claim your agency. Tell us how you act, adapt, resist, or persist. Your voice belongs in this conversation!

Submission Guidelines

For the upcoming issues of Atlantis this academic year, we aim to reach out to a diverse set of authors, visual storytellers, journalists, photographers, poets, artists, activists in addition to students, academicians and practitioners from the built environment studies or any other field. Interdisciplinary approaches are highly welcome.

Written Content:

• Articles, essays, research papers, opinion pieces, theoretical explorations, case studies, interviews, poems.....

• Abstract Length: 250-300 words

• Full Article Length (if accepted): 1500-2000 words, including at least 3 visuals

• Format: Google Docs or PDF

• Language: English (other languages welcome, translation support where possible)

• Please submit your abstract (250 words) outlining your proposed contribution, along with a brief author biography, to atlantismagazinetudelft@gmail.com with the subject title “#36.1 Atlantis Magazine Abstract Submission - Agency, Space, Society”.

Visual Content:

• Artwork, photography, digital media, visual storytelling, collages, sketches, renders, graphic novels, visual essays, games,…

• Description: max. 100 words

• Format: JPEG, PNG, PDF

• Resolution: Minimum 300 DPI for artwork and photography

• Size: Minimum 800 x 600 pixels

• Language of Caption: English

• Details: Please submit your abstract (100 words) outlining your proposed contribution, along with first sketches/visuals and a brief author biography, to atlantismagazinetudelft@gmail.com with the subject title. “#36.1 Atlantis Magazine Visual Submission - Agency, Space, Society”.

Submission Deadlines

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 10.09.2025

• Full Paper Submission Deadline for first round of review (if accepted): 24.09.2025

• Final Submission (visual and Written Content):  15.10.2025

• Launch: 26.11.2025, Orange hall, Bouwkunde Faculty TU Delft

Contact Information

For any queries, please contact us at atlantismagazinetudelft@gmail.com. We are looking forward to connecting with you!