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

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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