MIT will host the 2017 ACADIA Conference in November 2017.

Disciplines & Disruption initiates a dialog about the state of the discipline of architecture and the impact of technology in shaping or disrupting design, methods and cultural fronts. For the past 30 years, distinctive advancements in technologies have delivered unprecedented possibilities to architects and enabled new expressions, performance, materials, fabrication and construction processes. Simultaneously, digital technology has permeated the social fabric around architecture with broad influences ranging from digital preservation to design with the developing world. Driven by technological, data and material advances, architecture now witnesses the moment of disruption, whereby formerly distinct areas of operation become increasingly connected and accessible to architecture's sphere of concerns in ways never before possible. Distinctions between design and making, building and urban scale, architecture and engineering, real and virtual, on site and remote, physical and digital data, professionals and crowds, are diminishing as technology increases the designer's reach far beyond the confines of the drafting board. This conference provides a platform to investigate the shifting landscape of the discipline today, and to help define and navigate the future.

Call for Papers and Project Submissions:

What is the state of computation in architecture today, and where are the predominant transformations beginning to take shape for designers and the built environment? 

Half a century ago, pioneers of computational design laid out a road map for the future of architectural design with incredible imagination and the backbone of computational theory. They predicted architects would make drawings with input devices and electronically store them, design renditions would be made by computer software, computer-controlled machines would be making models of architectural components, and information about building design would be integrated in software used to interact with it. The roots of computational techniques such as stereographic viewing, immersive environments, photogrammetry, and parametric design dates back even further in history.

Today, many of these technological predictions have been fully realized and the tools to execute them have become ubiquitous in an architect's daily life, from computational design software to digital fabrication and AR/VR. The advancement of technology has already delivered unprecedented possibilities for architects and enabled new expression, performance, material, fabrication and construction processes. Simultaneously, digital technology has permeated the social fabric of architecture with broad influences ranging from digital preservation to design with the developing world.

In this way, the first revolutionary period in design computation, led by the original pioneers of the field,seems largely accomplished. We are now moving into a 2nd phase of evolution that is to be imagined and created by all of us. Disciplines & Disruption initiates a dialog about the state of the discipline of architecture and the impact of technology in shaping or disrupting design, methods and cultural fronts.

What are the new possibilities beyond the initial predictions by the pioneers? 
Are there still emerging technological fronts yet to be explored? 
Are new opportunities made by synthesizing the technologies already available around us? 
Where do we go from here? 

Driven by technological, data and material advances, architecture now witnesses a moment, whereby previously distinct areas of operation become increasingly connected and accessible to architecture's sphere of concerns in ways never before possible. Distinctions between design and making, building and urban scale, architecture and engineering, real and virtual, on site and remote, physical and digital data, individuals and crowds, are diminishing as technology increases the designer's reach far beyond the confines of the drafting board.

We have also witnessed the rise of a new reality with high speed internet connecting people around the world instantly, big data piling up in servers and communication platforms, enormous computing power packed in a tiny mobile device to allow 3D viewing in AR and VR, drones operated by kids to record wedding scenes, and cars driven autonomously by software.

This conference provides a platform to investigate the shifting landscape of the discipline to help define and navigate the future. To help organizing the paper sessions for such an inquiry, each paper submission is asked to select one of the three topics of disruption as well as any number of keywords from the list below. 

Changes/disruptions in Material/Construction front
​Changes/disruptions in Design Tool/Information Processing front
Changes/disruptions in Social/Cultural front

Questions? Contact acadia2017@mit.edu.