ARCHITECTURE AS HUMAN INTERFACE 2012
The 4th Symposium of Architectural Research in Finland
The 4th International Conference on Architectural Competitions
26.-27.10.2012
This scientific conference in Helsinki is a joint venture between researches in Finland and Sweden. The conference themes is developed in cooperation between the 4th Architectural Research Symposium in Finland and the 4th International conference on architectural competitions. Due to many requests we have extended the deadline for submitted abstrtacts to 16th of March.
Venue: The Department of Architecture
Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Espoo, Finland
Organized by:
Department of Architecture, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Department of Surveying and Planning, Aalto UniversitySchool of Engineering
Department of Architecture, Tampere University of Technology
Department of Architecture, Oulu University Faculty ofTechnology
School of Architecture and the Built Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Department of Construction Engineering, Novia University of Applied Sciences
Finnish Association of Architects SAFA
Interface is a word that is traditionally used in the context of information and communication technology; it is the meeting point between the human being and the machine or program, making it possible to operate the machine, and also receive the experience it provides. As technology is about to take the next step and turn ubiquitous, the problems and prospects of computer interfaces will become relevant to the whole built environment. However, architecture has always had its human interface: building facades have communicated their function, their social prestige, their history, and their aesthetics. Doors and windows have been used much before Microsoft revolutionized personal computer interfaces with its Mac-inspired Windows user interface. But how much do we actually know about the way that people use the built environment, how they interpret the messages that architects send them, and how far their basic needs and feelings are touched by this human interface? Architects have developed ways of ensuring architectural and urban quality, such as architectural competitions, but should be now turn a critical eye on these institutions and traditions? As the ethos of co-design, collaborative planning, and user oriented living environment dominates our current discussion, what kind of ideas of humanity and human agency are embedded in our thinking?
The organizers invite papers on all fields of architectural research. The symposium will address the following themes, but not exclusively:
Track 1: Competing in Architecture
Track 2: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
Track 3: Research and Design – Bridging the Gap
Track 4: Human Oriented Living Environment
Track 5: The Future of the Past
Track 6: Sustainability and Creativity
Track 1: Competing in Architecture
This part of the conference covers the whole competition process; from prequalification of architect firms (design teams), development of the competitions program, design solutions, evaluation and ranking of the entries, to the appointment of the winner. The following issues have been specified in themes for the paper presentations in workshop sessions:
- Prequalification in competitions: How does the organizers steer competitions through demands in invitations and selection of candidates to competitions? Who will be put on the short list? What kind ofprofessional profiles are organizers looking for?
- The competition program: What characterize is a good brief? In what way can the program support creativity and innovative solution in competitions? How does the competing architects use the brief in their architectural work with design proposals?
- Competing architects and design proposals: What makes competitions attractive for architects? How is the design work organized at competing offices? How are key ideas and promising design solutions identified and developed by design teams?
- Jury work and quality assessment of design proposals: How do juries organize their assessment of the entries in order to identify good practices, gaps or unclear design solution? On what basis is the winner selected and how do juries legitimize their decision?
- Competitions, profession and society-building: Is competition a good method for promoting goof design, or is it production of myths and an unrealistic self-image for architects? How are architects as aprofession affected by competitions?
- Architectural competitions and politics: What is the relation between competitions and political processes? Why are competitions highlighted in the architectural policy documents?
Track 2: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
In 1966 Robert Venturi wrote his “gentle manifesto” against modernist rationalism and simplicity. Since then, the word complexity has gained momentum in a very different context: in our attempts to understand buildings and the city as complex adaptive systems. The role of new scientific understanding of urban dynamics – in addition to offering new tools for architects – challenges the way that we used to conceptualize the role of design and planning in a time of continuous change.
Track 3: Research and Design – Bridging the Gap
Contemporary understanding of research is taking distance from a purely scientific and academic understanding of research, allowing also other forms of constructing knowledge through practice and design. Althoughdiscussed extensively by scholars during the last decades, the concepts of practice-based research or research-by-design have remained ill-defined, and researchers and designers still often remain in their respective silos, developing and defending their artistic or academic cultures. How could universities and practitioners bridge this gap, opening ways to new generations of knowledge and creativity?
Track 4: Human Oriented Living Environment
As buzzwords such as co-design, collaborative planning and user oriented architecture raise the human being as the center of our interest, we need to readdress the human-environment relationship. The track calls for research on novel ways to produce the built environment and to provide services through rethinking what we call ´the quality of life´. In what way can the quality of life be interpreted in the context of sustainable development? What does human orientation mean in this interpretation? What is human oriented architecture or human oriented urban environment? Does eco-efficiency yield a human oriented approach?
Track 5: The Future of the Past
Interest in history is what distinguishes architecture from other technical fields such as engineering. History is for architects not only ‘nice to know’; it is considered essential ingredient in the development of mature personalities able to contribute to contemporary architecture. Although historicism itself is no longer a topical issue in contemporary design, theproblems of dealing with the historical built environment, as well as our underlying theories of conservation, are as important as ever. The relationship between history and theory of architecture also calls for further reflection.
Track 6: Sustainability and Creativity
During the last decades sustainability has become almost self-evident part of architectural design and planning, implying challengesrelated to the use of materials, energy or eco-efficiency, and supporting more sustainable life-styles. Its problematic relationship with the original ethos of architectural creativity and freedom has remained, however. Are new and innovative uses of materials, traditional and new, a source of inspiration, or an iron cage of architectural creativity? What will be the role of ubiquitous technology in smart buildings and the urban environment?
Abstracts
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS IS CLOSED
Abstracts of no more than 3000 characters (without spaces), including the authors’ names, their affiliation and contact information should be sent to leif.ostman(at)novia.fi (with the title “abstract”) for the distribution to the scientific committee the 16th of March 2012. Authors of accepted papers will be informed the 13th of April, and the authors are requested to submit their full paper the 15th of August for refereeing. Referees’ comments will be given the 30th of September, and the final paper should be submitted the 21st of October. All submitted final papers will be published on-line, and a selection of the papers will be published as a book in 2013.
Registration and Fee
Registration before May 15, 2012/ the fee for attending the conference is 100 Euros for students and 200 Euros for others(researches, teachers and practicing architects).
Registration after May 15, 2012/ 150 Euros for students and 250 Euros for others.
Registration: https://www.webropolsurveys.com/S/351BC9752ADF67B6.par
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