AHRA 2021: REGION Online November 11-13, 2021

Conference website	https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/abce/ahra2021-region/
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ahra2021
Abstract registration deadline	May 31, 2021
Submission deadline	May 31, 2021

THEME: ‘REGION’

LU-Arc, of the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering at the University of Loughborough UK, is proud to have the opportunity to host the 18th Annual International AHRA (Architectural Humanities Research Association) Conference. This will be a virtual/online conference, running from 11th-13th November 2021.

The purpose of our conference will be to question what the ‘region’ and ‘regional’ mean for architectural cultures past and present, and to speculate on what different forms and formulations they might take in future. Among other sub-themes and topics, we aim to explore the region as a real geographical site of evolving socio-economic activity, as a mythical locus of enduring value, as a gatekeeper of indigenous crafts and vernacular techniques, as a site of architectural and artistic imagination, as a repository of contested and mobile identities, and more.

Confirmed keynote speakers include:

• Carolyn Steel: Architect and Author of Hungry City (2008) and Sitopia (2020) - https://www.carolynsteel.com/

• Abdoumaliq Simone: Urbanist and Senior Professorial Fellow, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield - http://urbaninstitute/abdoumaliq-simone/

• Dana Buntrock: Architect and Professor, Dept. of Architecture, UC Berkeley - https://ced.berkeley.edu/ced/faculty-staff/dana-buntrock

• Andrew Fre ear: Architect and Professor, SAPLA, Auburn University; Director of Rural Studio - http://ruralstudio.org/

• Xu Tiantian: Architect and Founding Principal of DnA_Design and Architecture - http://www.designandarchitecture.net/

• Nikos Katsikis: Architect and Assistant Professor, TU Delft - http://terraurbis.com/

 

Please see our conference website for m ore details and discussion:

https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/abce/ahra2021-region/

 

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We invite contributors to engage with the theme or Region from a variety of disciplines including architecture and design, urbanism, literature, the arts and film, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and geography.

We welcome proposals for research papers and interactive workshops, as well as other kinds of contributions across diverse media, such as performance, film, game, poster or exhibit. And we are especially keen to receive and discuss proposals that give us the opportunity engage in creative research collaborations during the conference itself.

If you wish to present a research paper or some other form of individual contribution, please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words.

If you wish to coordinate a workshop or some other form of interactive or creative activity, please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words indicating how you propose to set up and manage the session, the number and role of participants, and what the resource implications might be. Please be mindful that this will be a virtual/online conference.

The extended deadline for the submission of abstracts is 31st May 2021.

Please note: we do not ask for/require final papers at this time (see 'Publications' below).

 

POTENTIAL SUB-THEMES

Below are a series of suggestions around the broader theme of Region, but we invite contributors to think creatively and not to be limited by them.

Crafted Regions

• Craft, tradition and the contemporary vernacular
• Heritage: industries and anthropologies
• Regional style and typologies

Networked Regions

• Sustainability, infrastructure and distribution
• Ekistics, metabolism and planetary urbanism
• Spatial analytics and new cartographies

Political Regions

• Regional retreats and communes: Die Brücke to Drop City
• Borders, conflicts and resistances
• Portable regions: identity and migration

Future Regions

• Uninhabited hinterlands, robotized regions
• Archipelago cities and megalopolises
• Extremes: depths, altitudes, terraforming

 

PUBLICATIONS

Selected paper and projects from the conference will be published by Routledge in the dedicated AHRA journal Architecture and Culture and in the AHRA Critiques book series. If you wish to be considered for inclusion in either of these we will require submission of your final work by 29th October 2021. Details to follow.

 

VENUE and REGISTRATION

The conference will be held online and registration will open in June/July. Details to follow.

 

CONTACTS

The conference team is Falli Palaiologou, Simon Richards, Cagri Sanliturk and Rob Schmidt III. Please feel free to contact us with queries and to discuss your ideas. We look forward to hearing from you: Ahra2021.Region@lboro.ac.uk