We are very proud to celebrate our third year in the World Architecture Community's Country Editors/Reporters Program. As long as our program grows around the world, new Reporters and Country Editors consistently join our editorial team from across the world to witness and experience the professional practice in digital journalism. 

WAC launched the World Architecture Community's Country Editors/Reporters Program in 2017 as a unique voluntary Community Journalism initiative and one-of-a-kind intellectual act. 

While stepping into 2020, we see that WAC's Country Editors/Reporters Program continues to attract great interest from all over the world, including experienced journalists, architects, architecture students, academicians and new journalist candidates. 

WAC's latest Reporters statistics already prove our fact and initiative, showing that how it has become so successful and how it has turned into a self learning mechanism in real practice so far. What we see in the statistics within this period is WAC's top country India is more active in applications while we receive more applications from new countries, including Qatar, Taiwan, Thailand, South Africa and more (details can be seen below).

Before introducing our new Reporters and Country Editors, we will repeat the same fact tirelessly; the WAC's Country Editors/Reporters Program is entirely a self-fulfilling prophecy that sets its well-grounded base by volunteer efforts, it is a new form of encouragement and it is a new form of learning that drives itself for professional journalism. 

If you are passionate about writing or if you have already journalistic experience, you can still be one of WAC's Country Editors/Reporters and be part of this program. You can read all details on WAC's announcement to send your applications. 

WAC's new appointed Reporters 

WAC's new 17 Reporters added to the World Architecture Community's Country Editors/Reporters Program. Image © WAC

WAC's previous 29 Reporters in the World Architecture Community's Country Editors/Reporters Program. Image © WAC

WAC has a network of 26 different countries with 46 Reporters:

• Australia: Liz Foo,
• Albania: Eneida Berisha,
• Bangladesh: Arefin Chisty and Hamidah Ashrafi Fateha,
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Emina Camdzic,
• Canada: Anju George and Reza Pourvaziry,
• Czechia: Elis Mutlu, 
• Egypt: Asmaa Kamaly, 
• France: Angela Lee Ka Ki,
• Italy: Francesca Cuoghi and Antonello Magliozzi,
• India: Pappal Suneja, Sarbjit Bahga, Tanya Khanna, Varun Kumar, Tarun Bhasin, Medha Sobti, Shubhayan Modak, Himani Ahuja, Bineeta Ghoshal, Rupsha Chakraborty, Rashi Jain and Aarushi Mathur, 
• Iran: Farzam Kharvari, Javad Eiraji, Ali Khiabanian and Sahar Keshmiri,
• Japan: Mariko Sugita,
• Kenya: Momoh Kakulatombo, 
• Lebanon: Irene Suzdaltseva,
• Mexico: Nora Vasconcelos, 
• Oman: Ashish Batra,
• Pakistan: Rabia Haneef Meo and Maria Aslam,
• Portugal: Lennie Araujo, 
• Qatar: Megha Taneja,
• Spain: Jeancyn Alforque, 
• South Africa: Bogosi Makhene, 
• Sudan: Zainab Gaafar,
• Taiwan: Chaolee Kuo, 
• Thailand: Witiya Pittungnapoo,
• United Kingdom: Hatice Ozhisar, 
• United States: Elif Merve Unsal, Saakshi Terway, Mert Kansu,

We still repeat our call: Where is Russia? Where are Argentina, Brasil or Peru? Where are Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan? Where are Finland, Norway or Sweden? Where are Senegal or Nigeria? Others? The community wants to hear your news...

As we repeat our call and emphasize every year, WAC's Country Editors/Reporters Program is an ongoing initiative and WAC wants to hear more voices from different parts of the World.

Now, a year after our last announcement, we are proud and delighted to present our new 17 Country Reporters contributing to architecture and design from their local countries as a collective effort.

When we look at our current statistics, 5 new Countries are added to our previous 21 different countries and these new countries: Egypt, Qatar, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand which expand our geographical reach on the globe. WAC has a network of 26 different countries with 46 Reporters on the world map in total. 

See the list of WAC's new 17 Reporters with their Countries below:

• Bangladesh: Arefin Chisty,
• Canada: Anju George,
• Egypt: Asmaa Kamaly,
• India: Shubhayan Modak, Himani Ahuja, Bineeta Ghoshal, Rupsha Chakraborty, Rashi Jain, Aarushi Mathur,
• Pakistan: Maria Aslam and Rabia Haneef Meo,
• Portugal: Lennie Araujo,
• Qatar: Megha Taneja,
• South Africa: Bogosi Makhene,
• Taiwan: Chaolee Kuo,
• Thailand: Witiya Pittungnapoo,
• United States: Mert Kansu,

Important Upgrade on Our Previous Reporters

Within this period, WAC has also announced one of our previous Reporters as Country Editor of WAC, giving him more responsibilities on managerial interface of their own country pages. Farzam Kharvari from Iran has been named as WAC's Country Editor. 

If our readers want to send a project or news content from their own countries, they will be able to contact with WAC's Country Editors to be evaluated for possible publication. 

Farzam Kharvari - Iran / Country Editor on WAC

Farzam received his Bachelor's Degree from the Islamic Azad University of Hamadan and he is a Master's student at the University of Kurdistan. His research articles "Definition And Recognition Of Required Factors For Smartening Cities In Developing Countries" and "A Study Of The Urban Heat Island Mitigation Strategies: The Case Of Two Studies" published in the International Journal of Urban Management And Sustainability as a co-author and corresponding author. Farzam is an architect who has been writing on different topics in architecture. Read more. 

Farzam Kharvari, Country Editor of Iran on WAC, said: "WAC in recent years has created an opportunity like no other for local voices in all countries around the globe. Other platforms and media have been focusing on avant-garde architecture while WAC gives locals an international opportunity for sharing their local news and architecture. Volunteering, as the foundation of this international program, has encouraged many locals to join WAC and be the voice of their local settlements. A small garden, an astonishing landmark or a new architectural project can be all the subject of new on WAC through this program." 

"Although this program has been successful worldwide, various factors may be limiting its progress in some countries. For instance, being able to write news articles or having a good understanding of English are some of the barriers in many areas. Furthermore, volunteering may raise questions about rewards for the dedicated time and knowledge among so many who wants to join WAC’s volunteering program. This issue can be easily addressed through a partnership with local architecture schools for encouraging students to write about their vernacular architecture and news in their community."

"In conclusion, WAC’s volunteering program is a wonderful opportunity for students in architecture since they can share their opinions, news, and local projects with the world easily but it needs to expand its presence in local schools of architecture."

WAC's previous Country Editors have also shared their thoughts and experiences about their managerial positions in the program. 

Elif Merve Unsal, Country Editor of USA on WAC, said: "As being the Country Editor, curating the content flow from the reporters formed by also a team of professional architects and designers themselves and making decisions to publish the best selection for the readers gives you a great responsibility at this platform. You seek out the recent key issues or the right story to contribute to the ever-growing database over the country that you are responsible for. While evolving your editorial and managing skills, you are not only the voice of your country, but WAC also supports you in being the face of WAC in your country. Being involved in important events to follow the news and opportunity to spread the story that you found significant to professionals from around the world also encourages you in this medium."

Francesca Cuoghi, Country Editor of Italy on WAC, said: "When the WAC Editor wrote me a few years ago, confirming I was part of the crew, I was very excited to start a new writing experience for an international architecture community.  Since then I have the chance to collect interesting materials about Italian architectural projects. This means, I never stop learning things. Becoming the Italian Country Editor for the World Architecture Community has given me the chance to embrace new professional skills and improve my writing, experiencing also the proofreading more deeply as I have to check the articles of the other Italian reporters, before publishing them online. I feel satisfied when I can see that an article has been viewed hundreds of times just in few hours. This is challenging!"

Varun Kumar, Reporter of India and Deputy Chief Editor on WAC, said: "I have been a part of WAC’s Country Editors Program for three years now. The program gives writers a platform to represent their home countries by publishing architecture news from their surroundings. We’re offered equal time and space as writers to explore, learn and grow. As a reporter from India, I started by setting my own writing targets and received inputs from the admin to level up to WAC’s publication standards. I have enjoyed the process of nurturing my own writing in this program, which has helped me reach an editorial position. For over a year as Deputy Chief Editor now, I have had the opportunity to publish content from various Architecture and Design events, this included the headlining and other original design projects from offices across different countries. While continuing to publish content from India, I collaborate with my senior for publication during WAC’s travel to events and interviews. I enjoy contributing to WAC’s catalogue of global-but-local architecture news."

Sarbjit Bahga, Country Editor of India on WAC, said: "I joined WAC as Country Reporter (India) in January 2017 and subsequently promoted to the position of Country Editor (India) in December 2018. On both the positions I have enjoyed working with WAC as it gave me an opportunity and platform to showcase India's best architecture, architects and professional activities to the architectural fraternity the world over. At present India has 10 Country Reporters stationed at different locations. Keeping in view the length and breadth of this subcontinent, this strength may even go up to 100." 

"While working with all Country Reporters, I have found, that at times, the contents, some of them are submitting are not of the desired merit or level of excellence to be published on WAC. A mechanism needs to be evolved to train them to choose the contents which have international appeal/acceptance. From some contents, it is found that very little efforts have been made and the material is prepared with 'cut-and-paste' techniques. Another observation is that many Reporters submit very fewer articles which show their lack of interest, motivation or incentive. WAC should attend to this issue. However, the WAC's initiative to expand this program is laudable."

In the meantime, if you also want to be part of our volunteer reporters and become "the voice of your country on WAC while being the face of WAC in your country", please send your motivation message and your CV to [email protected]. But first, please read WAC's application details here. 

Top image: WAC's Reporters network on the world map. Image © WAC