This conference takes place from October 6-8, 2006 in the world heritage site of the Old City of Quebec. Established in 1608, Quebec has periodically reimagined its future and is again reinventing itself in preparation for its 400th anniversary.
Architecture defines itself within and against a rich space/time framework. In giving form to space and shape to matter, practitioners anchor their projects in multilayered built landscapes of the past, reflect on present conditions and conjectures, and project possible futures of the world. However, dominant theoretical discourses in architecture have shied away from the future tense over the past three decades. This is perhaps in part due to the disenchantment with modernist visions, revolutionary ideals, and grand social theories. Yet, the future implicitly pervades all architectural activity: in the intentions of clients and designers; in explorations of new technologies and strategies for generating form; in anticipating and solving future needs for crises.
Conference participants together will examine notions of futurity in architecture. How is and was a work forged by the designer’s sense of the future? How does or did she integrate “tomorrow” into projects of today? How does or did he imagine the world of the future? What is the place of the “future” in architectural knowledge? In what ways does the act of making architecture give form to the future? How does one’s conception of the future shape architectural research, design, practice, and education? The conference explores worlds of tomorrow at various scales, past and present; it considers retrospective views and critical perspectives on the representations of changes to come in architecture.
The conference organizers seek a wide variety of creative work and scholarship that will stimulate debates on the urgent questions and issues concerning our future and the ways architectural imagination looks forward.
Formatted for US letter (8″ x 11″), submissions should comprise the following:
*an identification page, including paper or project title and author’s name, position, affiliation, postal and e-mail addresses;
*title and abstract of paper of project not exceeding 500 words, formatted for blind review. Project submissions should include an appendix of a maximum of five illustrations;
*a statement not exceeding 100 words explaining how the author’s work is related to the conference theme.
Submissions should be transmitted in PDF or MS-Word format via e-mail attachment to [email protected] no later than April 30, 2006. Notification will take place on May 20, 2006. Final paper is due on August 15, 2006. Early conference registration is due September 1, 2006.
For further information, please contact the conference co-chairs at the same address or see www.arc.ulaval.ca/ACSAconf06.