EAAE/ARCC Conference: Cities in Transformation Research & Design

Konferans 7-10 Haziran 2012 tarihleri arasında Milano'da gerçekleşiyor.

Schools of architecture constitute fundamental repositories of knowledge and ability which have, along with the training of students, contributed for a long time to the growth of research in architecture and the city, fields in which they have made and make valuable contributions to society in terms of ideas, proposals and projects.

As institutions heterogeneous, rich in culture and interdisciplinary interests, schools of architecture develop strong links with the city and the surrounding areas, and together constitute a unique operational network capable of contributing in an organic and extended way to the solution of cities’ and regions’ problems of organization, technique and expression.

The Conference aims are linked to the knowledge and sharing of issues, problems and results of research conducted in European and American schools of architecture related to city issues, which are seen as the vast sea into which the rivers of research in architecture flow.

The central goals of the Conference are to increase our knowledge of tools and experimental methods which explore the active relationships between disciplines in solving problems and to examine major achievements.

Other objectives of the Conference include recognizing the network of schools, defining their characteristics and abilities and exploring its potentialities through discussion. Given the complexity, the importance and the dimension of the problems linked to people living in the world today, it is useful to propose a broad and open discussion, knowing that the questions should be addressed in a general way and shared by different cultures.

The intention of the Conference is to involve scholars and teachers from all the continents to compare problems, issues and solutions.

THEMES
The well known sentence by Leon Battista Alberti: A house is like a small city and the city is like a big house, stressing a recognized Italian tradition of research studies on the city, is a brief indication of the Conference themes. The Conference proposes to discuss the role of architectural research in relation to issues linked to urban transformation, which are more relevant than ever given the widespread urbanization of large parts of the world, given the problems of diametrically opposed so-called shrinking cities and also given the severity of the effects of climate change and energy issues.

Since research in architecture mainly concerns the relationships between nature, technique, history and society, arguments are developed in a thematic matrix in which the issues of sustainability and energy are always included. The general topics are closely related to the problems that architectural research must unavoidably face today, particularly in cities that can be crucial contributors to climate change.

The Conference invites teachers, researchers and scholars to send in abstracts for paper about Ideas, Methods, Techniques, Tools and Cases of urban transformations on the following general themes:

1. Knowledge of the City for Urban Transformation
Studies and experiences of technical knowledge that allow us an almost complete understanding of the physical realities of the cities and the surrounding areas. At the same time, the city’s history has played and plays a central role in the understanding of urban form and identity and their possible transformations.

2. History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Urban Design
Studies and historical cases in the relationships between architectural design and town development – from the transformation of ancient sites to a megalopolis, with its lack of balance between downtown and suburbs, to the construction of new towns. Current theory and critical thinking required to deal with the challenge faced by architecture from the new global and local dimensions of the urban experience.

3. Criticism, Conservation and Restoration
Studies and design or planning experiences in conservation and restoration, aimed to create a critical attitude when making conscious choices within the existing city. The development of refined analytic, diagnostic and intervention techniques and procedures for the tutorship, conservation, maintenance and the compatible reuse of the heritage which we recognize to be important in tracing the culture of the past that must be considered a living part of the present and of the future.

4. Housing and the Shape of the City
Studies and experiences in housing and residential settlements, taking account of the careful use of soil, proper integration between public and private spaces, and of a wide variety of types and housing solutions.

5. Architecture and Technical Innovation
Studies and experiences in current areas of innovation in architecture including the characteristics of materials and construction processes in view of a city that can properly resolve constructive problems through solutions for rapid and durable realization, evaluation of the role of energy needs in the processes of transformation and construction of the new city, as well as other areas of technological innovation relevant to the conference theme”.

6. Infrastructure Networks and Landscape
Studies in and examples of infrastructure design as a field of interdisciplinary practices, characterized by the research on the compatibility between networks and affected landscapes and as a field of study in new terminal nodes and new public spaces.

7. Education in Architecture
Teaching experiences