How Walkable Is Your City?
What makes any place truly walkable? Is it wide sidewalks and pedestrian crossings? Or is it something more? Proximity, safety, accessibility, comfort, social life, and the everyday experience of moving through any place on foot. A space to walk is more than a spatial feature of any settlement. It is a product of form, policy and intention. Its presence or absence traces more than a design decision, a reflection of how the city views movement, connection and care.
We invite you to pause: look closely at the sidewalks in your surroundings, your everyday route, the crossings you hesitate at, and the paths you instinctively avoid, and tell us what walking and navigating by foot in your surroundings truly feels like. You could be anyone: a young adult discovering the freedom of navigating a familiar city on foot, a tourist reading the city through its streets, a parent pushing a stroller, an elderly pedestrian negotiating uneven surfaces, or a student of urbanism attentive to materials, edges, and thresholds.
Through this call, we invite anyone and everyone to share your varied perspectives, uncovering how walkability is lived, negotiated, and experienced in everyday life.
We encourage young writers (between the age of 15 and 35) from any profession to send in their entries, as essays or photo essays, documenting what works beautifully, advocating for what is needed, or simply reflecting on walkable areas, through images and narratives.
JURY
Bhawna Jaimini
Bhawna is an urban practitioner and writer. Her writings have appeared in many reputed publications like, The Quint, Tribune and MintLounge. Her first book, ‘Happiness City’ will be released later this year.
Durganand Balsavar
Durganand is an academician, critic, practitioner, researcher and a writer. His work has been published in a number of national and international publications, like The Hindu and Domus.
Prasad Vaidya
Prasad is the Director of Solar Decathlon India, and is Senior Advisor to IIHS and AEEE. His 30-year career has been focused on sustainability and energy-conscious design from passive and low-energy design to net-zero projects spanning India, USA, the Middle East and South Korea.
Shiny Varghese
Shiny is a Delhi based journalist with The Indian Express. She regularly writes on the issues surrounding architecture and urbanism.
Eligibility
Submission Format
Choose one of the two formats:
Option 1: Photo Essay
Option 2: Illustrated Article
Submission Guidelines
Send us your submissions here
Yes, but clearly attribute all quotes and references within your text or image captions (only for Illustrated article). Submissions made under Photo Essay must belong to the author.
Late submissions will be disqualified.
You can submit up to one entry per format.
Collaborative entries are not accepted.
Submissions can be in English or Hindi.
While the theme is broad, we encourage reflections on proximity, safety, accessibility, comfort, social life, and the experience of walking in your city.
In case of any such difficulty or queries, send an email to Reshma Esther (reshma@architecture.live), Geethu (geethu@architecture.live), or our ALive! admin (admin@architecture.live).
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