CF 2021: CAADFutures 2021 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA, United States, July 16-18, 2021

Conference website	http://www.caadfutures2021.org
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cf2021
Submission deadline	March 15, 2021

CAAD Futures is a biannual international conference on computational architecture, which was founded in 1985 by the CAAD Futures Foundation with the mission to "advance Computer Aided Architectural Design in the service of those concerned with the quality of the built environment". While many design computing conferences have generally focused on similar agendas, CAAD Futures stands out as a more reflective meeting intending a comprehensive perspective of the field. In line with its mission, conferences have taken place all around the world. Recent conferences were held in Daejeon (2019), Istanbul (2017), Sao Paulo (2015), Shanghai (2013), and Liège (2011). The best papers of each conference are collected in a proceedings volume and published by Springer. CAAD Futures is part of the Cumulative Index of CAAD (CumInCAD) database. The 2021 CAAD Futures Conference will be formally hosted by the University of Southern California and will take place between July 16-18 2021, on both the physical and virtual formats.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following paper categories are welcome:

Paper Templates (Microsoft Word for both MAC and WIN users) -Download Template package

Paper Submission Process

The paper submission process opens on October 12 2020 and ends on March 1st, 2021 (deadline extended!). Submissions are handled by EasyChair. Authors are recommended to use the provided document template and follow its instructions for formatting and referencing. The conference accepts Short Papers (up to 10 pages) and Long Papers (15-20 pages). The number of pages refers to the whole document including the bibliography and abstract. Both submission formats are subject to the same peer-review process. Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings by the CAAD Futures Foundation. A selection of the best papers is included in a volume published by Springer.

Paper Review Process

The conference follows a double-blind review. Submissions are initially reviewed by 3-5 peers. Authors are sent feedback on their submissions and notification of Acceptance, Rejection, or for Review and Resubmission by March 29, 2021. Revised and Accepted papers are resubmitted by April 15 2021 including responses to previous feedback. Submitted papers pass through a second review round by 2 peers at a minimum. Authors are notified by April 30 2021 for Acceptance or Rejection.

Paper Publication Process

The acceptance rate is about 33%. Of those, about 12% of the best-accepted papers are published in Springer’s CCIS Series (Communications in Computer and Information Science). The rest 21% of papers are published in the Conference Proceedings which is indexed in the CumInCAD database and are open-access. Both publications are intended to be in the public’s hands by the time the conference takes place. Whether the Conference Proceedings and Springer Volume will be published in physical form besides in digital, will be announced in due time.

List of Topics

The theme “Design Imperatives: The Future is Now” is an instigation and reflection onto imminent matters that we are confronted with as designers, architects, planners, engineers, innovators, and policymakers of the living environment. More than ever, our discipline is facing challenging imperatives including rapid and pervasive digitization and automation, the overwhelming rate of data availability, the question of continuous growth as well as the diminished resources, and the impending environmental crisis. These are conditions that generate even greater degrees of uncertainty in conceiving design strategies. Against this backdrop, the augmentation of new affordances and sensibilities into design practice is deemed necessary for the definition of new paradigms of architectural relevance. Establishing a design practice capable of addressing both issues of the social and material world mandates the reformulation of computational design thinking, the renewal of our methodologies, and the reevaluation of frameworks for interdisciplinary synergy and social participation. Central to this new relevance is a critical, unambiguous, and active positioning against the face of pressing imperatives. As key considerations, we identify our global ecological health; our duty of care towards helping ourselves and future generations to better manage the planetary boundaries; the betterment of the human condition at large as well as the support of resilient and sustainable architectural futures. Under these circumstances, CAAD Futures 2021 aims to broaden its inquiry into the socio-economic, political, and environmental imperatives as they pertain to space, and the capacity of computational design to intervene. Extending this call, the conference intends to raise these issues within the design-computing discourse, and foster synergistic relationships for their investigation through the lens of design. To instigate discussions we pose the following questions:

- Can the reconsideration of computational design thinking serve towards the formulation of a plan of action to address planetary crises underway?- What is the heritage of design-computing and what futures can we imagine?- How does design maintain its disciplinary unity against the situatedness of its knowledge and the multi-modality of its practices?- What is the future of design-computing practice within the architectural profession?- How can we advocate for novel funding models and policies that foster scalable and responsible research in line with a resilient and ethical practice?

We cordially invite and encourage researchers, practitioners, and especially doctoral students coming from architecture, design, urban design, geography, social sciences, computer science, engineering, and other relevant disciplines, to submit research papers and critical essays addressing the following research topics:

1. PAST FUTURES PRESENT FUTURES

1.1 Where have we been? & Where are we now?

- Histories and critical theories of design-computing- The heritage of architecture’s ‘digital avant-garde’- Antecedent computational futures; Other computations; Digital regionalism

1.2 Politics, aesthetics and ethics of space

- Critique of computational design- Social and political equity in computational design (intersectionality, norms and political power)

1.3 Education & Research

- CAAD curricula & Computational literacy- Computational design research: Methods, methodologies & definitions

2. ARCHITECTURAL AUTOMATIONS & AUGMENTATIONS

2.1 Design

- Generative design; Artificial Intelligence & Machine learning- Design cognition; Design support systems; Human building interaction- Building science; Simulation; Goal & Performance-driven design

2.2 Fabrication

- Digital fabrication; Robotics; Additive manufacturing- Novel fabrication techniques; Autonomous construction

2.3 Environment

- Intelligent environments & Ubiquitous computing- Spatial computing; Virtual environments; Mixed reality- Computational urban & landscape design- Digital heritage

3. POLICIES & PRACTICES

3.1 Collaborative & participatory design practices

- Participatory design and community engagement frameworks- Interdisciplinary collaboration and multimodal engagement methods- Emerging technologies and new project delivery processes (Industry 4.0, IPD, Blockchain, etc.)

3.2 RETHINKING SUSTAINABILITY

- Circular economies in design: material and immaterial- Digital twins and building life cycle- Maintenance and care of urban and social infrastructure

3.3 NEW MODELS OF ARCHITECTURAL DIPLOMACY

- Architectural unionization- Architecture as service- Shared economies and distributed spaces- Urban policy; Management of public and private data- Tools-of-the-trade: Software, platforms, and digital standards- Open-source initiatives; Open-data policies

4. OPEN TRACK

4.1 Other Design Imperatives

Committees

• Dr. David Gerber (University of Southern California)
• Dr. Alicia Nahmad (University of Calgary + Architectural Association)
• Dr. Evangelos Pantazis (IBI Group + University of Southern California)
• Biayna Bogosian, PhD(c) (University of Southern California + Florida International University)
• Constantinos Miltiadis, PhD(c) (Aalto University)

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to <caadfutures2021@gmail.com>