Walkability
Essay
Writing
Photo
Essay
Walkability
Essay
Writing
Photo
Essay
Essay
Writing
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.
Essay
Writing
Shruti Hemani is an architect and urban designer with over two decades of professional experience across India and the UK. She has worked with NGOs and public – private sector clients on projects ranging from development frameworks, urban design guides and masterplans to regeneration initiatives and inclusive micro-planning for informal settlements. She holds a PhD in Design from IIT Guwahati and is the co-author of Climax City: Masterplanning and Complexity of Urban Growth (RIBA Publishing), winner of the 2020 Urban Design Book Award, UK.
Naresh Fernandes is the editor of Scroll.in, a digital news and culture publication. He is the author of City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay and Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay’s Jazz Age.
Aastha D is an independent writer, educator, and cultural critic trained in architecture (Pune University), with a master’s degree in its Critical Curatorial Conceptual Practices from Columbia University, New York. Alongside her writing practice, Aastha is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Proseterity, a literary arts publication. Through its education vertical, Critiqala, she curates reading circles, workshops, and public programmes that foreground close reading, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Shruti Hemani
Shruti Hemani is an architect and urban designer with over two decades of professional experience across India and the UK. She has worked with NGOs and public – private sector clients on projects ranging from development frameworks, urban design guides and masterplans to regeneration initiatives and inclusive micro-planning for informal settlements. She holds a PhD in Design from IIT Guwahati and is the co-author of Climax City: Masterplanning and Complexity of Urban Growth (RIBA Publishing), winner of the 2020 Urban Design Book Award, UK.
Naresh Fernandes
Naresh Fernandes is the editor of Scroll.in, a digital news and culture publication. He is the author of City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay and Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay’s Jazz Age.
Aastha D
Aastha D is an independent writer, educator, and cultural critic trained in architecture (Pune University), with a master’s degree in its Critical Curatorial Conceptual Practices from Columbia University, New York. Alongside her writing practice, Aastha is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Proseterity, a literary arts publication. Through its education vertical, Critiqala, she curates reading circles, workshops, and public programmes that foreground close reading, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Essay
Writing
Eligibility
Timeline
Call for submissions open: February 13, 2026
Call for submissions closed: March 15, 2026
Jury Process: March 17-31, 2026
Announcement of Winners: April 1, 2026
Submission Format
Choose one of the two formats:
Option 1: Photo Essay
Option 2: Illustrated Article
Submission Guidelines
Essay
Writing
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 must be in English.
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).
Photo
Essay
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.
Photo
Essay
Chirodeep’s three-decade-long career began in advertising, and he has since worn many hats—switching careers as a photojournalist and then as an Editor of Photography. He was, till recently, heading the Design and Photography departments of Timeout, the international arts and culture magazine’s three India editions. Chirodeep’s work documents the urban landscape, and he has often been referred to as “the chronicler of Bombay”. During his career, he has produced diverse documents of his home city in a range of projects like ‘Seeing Time: Public Clocks of Bombay’, ‘The One-Rupee Entrepreneur’, ‘The Commuters’ and ‘In the city, a library’ among others. He lives in Bombay and divides his time between his assignments, projects, and teaching commitments. He is presently working on projects about 2 city institutions – the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and the Asiatic Society Library.
Gopal M.S. is a documenter of cities and a publisher of digital photo books. Through his long-running project Mumbai Paused, he observes and records the everyday life of Mumbai’s streets using both phone and camera. His work grows from a simple daily habit: walking the city, using public transport, and photographing moments that quietly reveal the character of urban life. He also produces digital zines and self-published digital photo books that extend this ongoing archive of the city. Before moving to Mumbai, he documented the streets of Bangalore through the blog “Which Main? What Cross?”, an early exploration of neighbourhood memory and street geography. Professionally, he works in advertising as Creative Director at Underdog, a design shop in Mumbai.
Tejal Pandey is a photographer and art writer. She has previously been a photojournalist and a photo editor with the Times of India, Time Out Mumbai, Verve magazine and Tata Sons, and an independent documentarian for several social sector initiatives. Her images and writing have been featured in leading national and global publications like Art India, The Polis Project, National Geographic, India, The Hindu, Scroll and T Magazine New York/ Tokyo, amongst others. She currently heads programming and curation at the Dilip Piramal Art Gallery at the NCPA, Mumbai.
Chirodeep Chaudhuri
Chirodeep’s three-decade-long career began in advertising, and he has since worn many hats—switching careers as a photojournalist and then as an Editor of Photography. He was, till recently, heading the Design and Photography departments of Timeout, the international arts and culture magazine’s three India editions. Chirodeep’s work documents the urban landscape, and he has often been referred to as “the chronicler of Bombay”. During his career, he has produced diverse documents of his home city in a range of projects like ‘Seeing Time: Public Clocks of Bombay’, ‘The One-Rupee Entrepreneur’, ‘The Commuters’ and ‘In the city, a library’ among others. He lives in Bombay and divides his time between his assignments, projects, and teaching commitments. He is presently working on projects about 2 city institutions – the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and the Asiatic Society Library.
Gopal M.S.
Gopal M.S. is a documenter of cities and a publisher of digital photo books. Through his long-running project Mumbai Paused, he observes and records the everyday life of Mumbai’s streets using both phone and camera. His work grows from a simple daily habit: walking the city, using public transport, and photographing moments that quietly reveal the character of urban life. He also produces digital zines and self-published digital photo books that extend this ongoing archive of the city. Before moving to Mumbai, he documented the streets of Bangalore through the blog “Which Main? What Cross?”, an early exploration of neighbourhood memory and street geography. Professionally, he works in advertising as Creative Director at Underdog, a design shop in Mumbai.
Tejal Pandey
Tejal Pandey is a photographer and art writer. She has previously been a photojournalist and a photo editor with the Times of India, Time Out Mumbai, Verve magazine and Tata Sons, and an independent documentarian for several social sector initiatives. Her images and writing have been featured in leading national and global publications like Art India, The Polis Project, National Geographic, India, The Hindu, Scroll and T Magazine New York/ Tokyo, amongst others. She currently heads programming and curation at the Dilip Piramal Art Gallery at the NCPA, Mumbai.
Photo
Essay
Eligibility
Timeline
Call for submissions open: February 13, 2026
Call for submissions closed: March 15, 2026
Jury Process: March 17-31, 2026
Announcement of Winners: April 1, 2026
Submission Format
Choose one of the two formats:
Option 1: Photo Essay
Option 2: Illustrated Article
Submission Guidelines
Photo
Essay
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 must be in English.
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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