Call for Abstracts: “Repurposing places for social and environmental resilience” | International Conference 2023, London | UEL, Arup, Counterarchitecture | Deadline: September 5, 2022

When: 23rd and 24th of March 2023

Where: Arup, 8-13 Fitzroy St, London W1T 4BQ, UK 

Whilst 20th century was mostly about starchitects, 21st century is about synergies and the relevant complex dynamics that these allow to grow. This shift happens in parallel to others; reusing, retrofitting, and giving a new life to the existing places, buildings and neighbourhoods, in an environmentally and socially resilient manner, developing ways for the existing communities to grow in a symbiotic relationship with new ones, designing processes of circular economy and upcycling, which allow people to collaborate and find viable solutions. Participation in architecture is a notion that continuously evolves, even more so in recent years. Knowledge and innovation that contributes to social justice and responsible design practices, emerges from complex networks and agile cross-disciplinary collaborations. 

In this context, this conference aims to discuss the link between social and environmental resilience, by looking into designed projects, cross-disciplinary research and investigations, participatory and collaborative design methods. It welcomes architects, designers, artists, planners, academics, educators, who have addressed some of the above themes through their work. Projects on adaptation and retrofitting of places in an environmentally and socially responsible way, as well as participatory projects, are particularly welcome. It also welcomes presentations of ongoing projects and collaborations, which will drive the relevant conversations forward. 

Indicative topics

Topic 1: Designed and built projects that address the conference theme. 

Topic 2: Critical analysis of case studies and places in relation to the conference theme. 

Topic 3: New approaches to participation and mapping, in the context of architecture, arts, urbanism, social sciences. 

Topic 4: Educational briefs and student projects that address the conference theme.  

Keynote speakers

Simon Allford, RIBA Director  

Anna Minton 

Prof Doina Petrescu 

Alex Scott-Whitby 

The conference is co-organised by the UEL, Counterarchitecture, Arup. 

Conference organisers: Dr Anastasia Karandinou (UEL, Counterarchitecture), Florence Lam (Arup) 

Advisory Committee: Prof Hassan Abdalla, Carl Callaghan, Alan Chandler, Prof Richard Coyne, Prof Gail Findlay, Prof David Tann, Dr Julie Wall 

Organising Committee: Dr Deborah Benros, Christian Groothuizen, Dr Debra Shaw, Catalina Pollak, Clare Penny 

Scientific Committee: Prof Ela Aral, Dr Aghlab Al-Attili, Pauline Desouza, Dr Angelique Edmonds, Prof Heba Elsarkawy, Prof Ozlem Erkarslan, Armor Gutierrez, Prof Luisa Maria Gutierrez, Dr Arman Hashemi, Carsten Jungfer, Prof Roland Karthaus, Prof Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira, Prof Anastasios Maragiannis, Dr Kat Martindale,  Dr Anna Mavrogianni, Prof Rosa Mendosa, Fernanda Palmieri, Sowmya Parthasarathy, Melina Philippou, Prof Christine Schwaiger, Dr Sally Shahzad, Dr Renee Tobe, Amanda Wanner

Deadline for abstract submission: September 5, 2022

https://www.counterarchitecture.com/repurposing-places-conference

https://www.uel.ac.uk/about-uel/events/2023/march/repurposing-places-social-environmental-resilience

AHRA 2020: “Housing and the City” Conference _ Deadline for Abstracts: June 30, 2020

AHRA 2020 Housing and the City conference online only. Information on fees and registration will be communicated at the end of the month. 

17th Annual International Conference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association

Hosted by the Architecture, Culture and Tectonics Research Group, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham 

Given the changes to our lives brought about by the current Covid19 pandemic, we are sending a short additional call for papers for this year’s AHRA International Conference, Housing and the City, as follows:

Housing and the City After the Pandemic 

The primary question asked by the original AHRA 2020 conference call was this: what does it mean to be at home in the city in the twenty-first century? As the world continues to fight the rapid spread of Covid19, we might not yet be in a position to substantively rethink this question, let alone to predict a new urban reality of segregation and containment. However, we invite you to reflect and speculate on how the effects of the pandemic will shape our lives, how it challenges our conception of the home and the city, and how it affects the complex relationships between the individual and the collective, the public and the private. We ask how it might affect the dynamism of the urban.

We invite contributions in the form of individual papers or roundtable discussions, as well as submissions in a range of media, for example film, artwork or photography, that reflect and speculate on how the pandemic will shape our urban lives into the future. 

Expressions of interest should take the form of an abstract of 300 words, be submitted via the conference website, by 30 June 2020. 

You should submit your abstract by visiting our EasyChair account here: 
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-eng/ahra-2020/index.aspx

Conference dates: 19, 20, 21 November 2020  (Virtual Conference)

Featured Image: © Atelier Z+& Ye Xu