Hello Archinect,

Just sharing a press release from our friends across the pond.

Lian

***

Launch of the ARENA research network
September 2013

The Architectural Research European Network Association, known as ARENA, has been launched as an open, inclusive and comprehensive network for architectural researchers across Europe. Its inaugural meeting will be held at the Technical University of Delft in The Netherlands on 2nd November 2013.

ARENA offers a shared platform that aims to promote, support, develop and disseminate high-quality research in all fields of architecture in the widest sense, including its links to building technology, environmental design, sustainable development, interior design, landscape architecture and urban design/urbanism, operating in domains from science and technology through to arts and humanities. To do so it will work alongside all existing bodies to promote the quality, breadth and significance of architectural research to the key institutions involved.

ARENA supports the culture of European architectural research by gradually creating a broad network of established academics and practitioners in the field, and by providing information resources to help the development of doctoral students and early-career researchers, and by encouraging the exploration of newly emerging and transdisciplinary/interdisciplinary research fields. It will develop European architectural research by providing regular forums for the exchange of ideas, rigorous processes of peer-review, clear definitions of research terms and methods, and by setting up strong links between partner universities and architectural practices in Europe and also internationally.

Its aim in due course is to disseminate all forms of architectural research through refereed conferences, research symposia for researchers and students, and high-quality research publications and websites — as well as reaching out to other researchers working in related disciplines. ARENA welcomes all proposals which promote, support, develop and disseminate high-quality architectural research provided that they meet its stated criteria.
Initially the network will include representatives from a selection of leading European architectural research schools, but the intention is for it to expand in due course.

For more information about ARENA, or if you wish to enquire about joining one of its emerging research projects, please refer to the ARENA website.

Or you can contact Professor Murray Fraser of the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, UK, at: murray.fraser@arena-architecture.eu.