Surfacing Urbanisms: Recent Approaches to Metropolitan Design
October 12 -15, 2006, Woodbury University, Pasadena, California
Keynote Speaker: Keller Easterling

The past decade has witnessed an increased interest in certain research topics---the explosion of sprawl, regional planning, geography, land reclamation, and land use study---that share a focus on the growth of the city and its concomitant suburbs. Despite this shared focus, definitive and at times antagonistic factions engage heated debates about the future of urban design...
Among the more influential models to emerge are New Urbanism, Infrastructural Urbanism, Dutch Urbanism, Post-Urbanism, Environmental Urbanism, and the Bilbao effect. Added to this list might be other types of research into the city and suburbs that investigate race and cultural enclaves, minor urbanisms that promote small but highly influential change at the scale of human beings, the challenges of a terrain vague, or an urbanism devoted to exploring the socio-political complexities of borders.

This conference proposes to ask what can be learned from exploring these approaches in a single venue? What indeed can be learned from the venue of Los Angeles, which offers examples of many of the urbanisms described above? The 2006 West Regional Meeting invites papers and projects that directly address the topic of urbanism as well as topics that address the conference themes in more oblique ways. For example, how might the practice of building design or interior design form a type of urbanism or a response to urban fabric? How do educators address urbanism within their various studios and seminars? Or, how do other cultural media, film, literature, music contribute to our understanding of the contemporary city?

In order to elicit the broadest range of excellent work, the conference is open to all submittals, without a list of preconceived topics, that will be peer-reviewed to determine acceptance and thematic intersections. The list of topics mentioned above should provide interested applicants with a guide to drafting their submittals.

Abstracts due: Friday, April 7           
Notification: Monday, May 8           
Final papers due: August 10

Abstract submission: Please send abstracts, not exceeding 500 words, in PDF of MS Word-compatible format via email attachment to nick.roberts@woodbury.edu