Walkability
Walkability
Brief
What makes a place truly walkable? Is it wide sidewalks and zebra crossings—or something deeper?
Walking is the oldest technology that has been used to know a place, and like most resources, distributed unequally. The same street is a different street depending on who you are, what time it is, what your body requires, and what is at stake. A footpath tells you who the city was designed for, as does a signal, a ramp, and the distance between streetlights (if there are any). A walkable place is not accidental. It is shaped by design, policy, economics, and everyday culture. Our streets and roads determine who moves freely and who rushes, waits, loiters, reroutes, calculates—and who simply stays home.
ArchitectureLive! invites essays/photo-essays that think hard and watch closely: what it means to move, or be moved, stop or be stopped, be invited or be rushed through a place on foot, that hold a specific moment, place, or body in sustained attention and follow it somewhere—formally, critically, speculatively.
Your entry point might be a crossing, a route, a person, a shop, a tree, a street lamp, or a map your body made—and the question of when, how, and for whom. Let it go further than that observation; let it become an argument, a fantasy, an elegy, or a provocation.
Timeline
| Call for submissions opens | April 15, 2026 |
| Deadline | May 31, 2026 |
| Announcement of results | June 30, 2026 |
| Publications of winning entries | July 1, 2026 onwards |
Prizes
Winner
One winner will be selected per category and shall receive the following:
Runners-Up
Two runners-up will be selected per category. Each will receive:
Shortlisted Participants
Five entries will be shortlisted per category. Each shortlisted participant will receive:
JURY FOR 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 Criteria
Submission Format
Submission Guidelines
Photo Essay
Each participant is permitted to submit only one entry per category.
Participants retain full copyright over all materials submitted to the competition. As a condition of participation, however, participants grant the organisers non-exclusive rights to display, promote, and exhibit submissions for publication purposes. Participants remain free to use their work elsewhere without restriction.
Collaborative submissions are not accepted. All entries must be the sole work of the individual submitting.
Withdrawal requests must be submitted via email before May 31, 2026. Requests received after this date will not be entertained.
All written components accompanying the submission can be in any Indian language.
There is no entry fee required for participation in the competition.
Submissions that are wholly or partly generated using AI tools will be disqualified. This includes the use of AI-based generative fill or any artificially generated imagery.
There is no restriction on the camera-enabled device used for photography, including but not limited to smartphones, DSLRs, and point-and-shoot cameras.
Photographs that have been recognised or awarded in any prior competitions are not eligible for submission to this competition.
In the event of technical difficulties or submission-related queries, participants may write to Reshma Esther Thomas at reshma@architecture.live, Geethu Gangadhar at geethu@architecture.live, or the ArchitectureLive! administration at admin@architecture.live.
Rights and Reservations: ArchitectureLive! reserves all rights pertaining to the competition, including the right to withdraw, modify, or make final decisions on any aspect of the competition, at its sole and absolute discretion.
Jury: The decision of the jury will be final and binding. No communication will be entertained in this regard.
Participants are requested to refrain from publishing, sharing, or circulating their submitted entry on any platform, medium, or channel until the official announcement of results.
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