ADATO

Architectures are increasingly being created that are no longer designed for human presence:

fully automated greenhouses, autonomous factories, logistics centers, server parks. These are infrastructures without social or urban function – hermetic, functional entities far removed from

urban life. These spaces produce, store, circulate – but they do not gather. They are neither marketplace nor public space, but operational systems optimized for machines.

 

In this issue, Luxembourg is examined as a paradoxical space of emptiness: while housing is scarce and expensive, apartments remain unused, office spaces under-occupied, and buildings are primarily held as capital investments. Architecture here appears not as social space, but as a store of value. In connection with internationally entangled ownership structures and letterbox companies – comparable to constellations in Hong Kong – a city emerges whose built presence does not necessarily correspond to use.

 

The focus asks: What does “emptiness” mean in an economically prosperous state? How does the city change when buildings exist without being inhabited or appropriated? Between housing crisis, speculative vacancy, and globally circulating capital, Luxembourg becomes a case study of decoupled urbanity – a built environment that functions, is invested in, and accounted for, but increasingly loses social density.

 

We welcome projects and research from a broad range of genres and disciplinary perspectives for publication in ADATO. ADATO invites architects, artists, designers, researchers, curators and critics — individuals or teams of any nationality and country of residence — to submit contributions for the upcoming issue „Architecture & EMPTINESS“.

 

Formats: Contributions can take different formats: a text essay presenting a theoretical, analytical, or critical argument; an image essay consisting of visual material such as photography, drawings, mappings, or artistic research accompanied by a short written text; or a project contribution introducing a realized, under-construction, or conceptual work, including architectural projects, design proposals, speculative work, or architectural research.

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Timeline — Architecture & Data​

7 September 2026

Submission of abstract (max. 400 words), CV & image material (max. 3 images)

 

19 October 2026

Submission of final contribution (max. 3 000 words) and image material (max. 15 images) including captions and written permission of the copyright holder)

 

16 November 2026

Final approval (“ready for print”)

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Accepted languages​

English, French, German, and Luxembourgish

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