ACADIA 2024: Designing Change

ACADIA 2024, themed “Designing Change,” looks at computational design as an active agent of change in the built environment. Designing Change invites a variety of submissions encompassing recent research, practice, and theory in architecture. This call seeks scholarly, practice-based research and hands-on applications that demonstrate the transformative impact of computational design to redefine ways of living, working and existing together at various scales—from nano to micro, to demonstrations and pavilions, to buildings, and master plans. As computational design evolves from theoretical concepts to practical implementations, it redefines conventional architectural practices and introduces new operational modes in both the physical world and new realities.

The 2024 ACADIA conference spotlights the emergence of 'archipreneurs'—innovators who combine digital design with entrepreneurial ventures, such as consulting, digital fabrication, or startups at the crossroads of technology, architecture, and fabrication. In the contemporary milieu, particularly within Calgary's innovative ecosystem, the fields of architecture and urban design are experiencing a surge in technology-driven entrepreneurial ventures. Emphasizing this milieu, post-pandemic cities are redefining the ground for digital design and fabrication as agents of change to address housing and construction challenges, enhance urban infrastructure, and develop new typologies.

Within this technological, critical, and entrepreneurial landscape, ACADIA 2024 positions itself at this pivotal juncture, aiming to deliberate on the emergent socio-technical roles of digital designers. This conference aspires to engage in a constructive and critical dialogue between academia, industry, and professional practitioners in such innovations. It seeks to unpack the multifaceted implications novel design methods and technologies have on the discourse and praxis of architectural and urban design, thereby contributing to a nuanced understanding of the intersection between design, technology, entrepreneurship, and the socio-spatial fabric.

We invite contributions from researchers, practitioners, and students across diverse disciplines such as architecture, design, urban design and planning, landscape architecture and geography, social sciences, computer science, engineering and environmental sciences, and other related fields. Designing Change welcomes submissions that focus on one of the following scales (XL, L, M, S or XS) and address one of the following research topics, which are indicative but not limited to the five outlined categories:

Material Design Thinking

• Human-computer Interaction and Design Cognition

• Robotics, Digital Fabrication, Biodesign, and Construction

• Theories, Pedagogies, Philosophies, and Methodologies in Computational Design Research

• Circular Design Thinking and Materialization

Digital Naturalism

• Data acquisition, Data Visualization, Big Data, Data Ethics, and Digital Twins in Built Environment

• Smart and Responsive Design and Optimization of Structures

• Building Information Modelling, Parametric and Generative Design

Material Hyperlocalism

• Digital Heritage and Preservation

• Environmental and Ecological Performance

• Material Systems, Processes, and Assembly

Applied Research – New Craft Models

• Internet of Things applications in Built Environment

• Extended Reality (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality) in Design

• Gaming and Gamification in Design

• Artificial Intelligence in Design

• Participatory and Socially Engaged Co-design and Co-production

Integrated Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities

• Urban Analytics, Big Data Analysis, and Smart City Development

• Computational Design in Landscape Architecture

• Supply Chains and Design to Manufacturing Processes

• AI and Performance-driven Design