scopio Magazine: Architecture, Art and Image is an international, open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU), Research Group Architecture, Art and Image (AAI), at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), Portugal. It is produced in collaboration with ID+ and CETAPS and published by U.Porto Press and scopio Editions.

The journal is supported by an interdisciplinary Editorial and Scientific Committee and functions as a dynamic platform for the dissemination of research in Architecture, Art and Image (AAI), approached through a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective that integrates multiple research centres.

Published in both physical and digital formats, scopio Magazine offers critical, exploratory, and informative contributions aimed at an interdisciplinary audience. It promotes debate and critical reflection on contemporary Architecture, Art and Image.

 

Aims and scope

Founded in 2010 with a focus on documentary and artistic photography related to Architecture, City, and Territory, scopio Magazine has since evolved into a journal dedicated to Art, Architecture, and Image. This evolution reflects a renewed interdisciplinary Editorial and Scientific Committee and an expanded research scope.

As an open-access, annual, research-oriented publication, scopio Magazine maintains its original graphic identity while offering critical, exploratory, and informative content that encourages discussion and interdisciplinary exchange on contemporary issues in Architecture, Art and Image.

The journal fosters engagement across academic, cultural, and social sectors, emphasizing innovative concepts and practices related to the city and territory, particularly those that employ photography as a critical analytical tool.

The name scopio derives from a Greek root meaning an instrument to look through, referencing observation and the capture of light through the camera. Inspired by John Berger’s concept of “looking” as a conscious and selective act, scopio Magazine positions itself as a critical instrument for observation and inquiry. Its aim is to promote innovative questioning and speculative knowledge at the intersection of architecture, art, and image.

We publish work from all fields and disciplines coming from the Architecture, Art and Image universe, in which artistic research within architecture may be considered relevant. 

 

Published formats

While adhering to standard academic publishing procedures, scopio Magazine is not limited to traditional text-based articles. It also welcomes visual essays resulting from practice-based research, in which discourse is developed predominantly through images, allowing for greater experimental and expressive freedom.

The Visual Essay format allows authors to combine text and image, either still or moving, on its web platform, creating space for practice research and in this way challenging the dominance of writing in academic research. We encourage the submission of work exploring visual strategies which are able to integrate technical and artistic aspects by using imagery, namely photography, as a mental device that leads to a new perception of architecture, space and their experiences. 

scopio Magazine publishes original articles, visual essays, reviews, book reviews and other texts of interest. 

Introduction and Editorial 
Introduction to the issue by Editor-in-chief. 
Editorials by the editors. 

Full and Short Papers (submitted manuscripts for blind peer review) 
Articles submitted in response to the call for papers, presenting unpublished research work. 

Visual Essays (submitted for review by Editors) 
Visual essays submitted in response to the call for papers, comprising images and text (see Author Guidelines). 

Featured Texts, Research papers or Projects (commissioned or invited authors) 
Research papers, position papers, analytical or critical essays, interviews, articles, perusal or projects commissioned by one of the Section Editors or Editorial Committee: presenting unpublished research work, critique or scientific activities in the fields of architecture, art and image. The section Editors will open the section with a brief editor's note or introduction dealing with the subject of the work being published in the section.

Collection (submitted manuscripts) 
Papers submitted the content of which does not fit in the specific subject of the issue; visual essays and/or papers considered of interest, which do not fit in one of the thematic sections of our journal.

Artist Portfolios
Artists portfolios submissions should conceptually relate with the specific subject of the issue.

Exhibitions / Reviews (commissioned) 
Critical reviews of publications, exhibitions and conferences in the field of architecture and image, written by a third person.