International Conference: Architecture & Urbanism in the Age of Planetary Crisis

Call for Papers

Architecture and urbanism play a significant role in the production and reproduction of urbanization and the supremacy of the state and capital, which results in the current planetary crisis. Unveiling the interconnection of this crisis and architecture and urbanism is the first and the most significant step to finding out the ethical function of architecture and urbanism in the solution of this crisis. 

Wars, deforestation, poverty, soil erosion, hunger, pollution, injustice, climate change, inequality, mass extinction of species, uncontrollable wildfires, and current epidemics - the ravages of our time - as well as mass migration have changed the 21st Century to a century of planetary crisis.

In addition to the ecological effects of this crisis, especially climate change and associated extremities which mostly preoccupy our attention, the social impacts of the current crisis are also major concerns. We are witnessing alarming inequalities that are unprecedented in history. While the richest 1% of the world population is holding almost 50% of the wealth of the planet, the majority of the rest is struggling with poverty, wars, autocratic regimes, racism, and famine. All these make the most excluded communities of the world more susceptible and vulnerable to the impacts of this crisis.

With all its different aspects from injustices to environmental disasters, this crisis is a result of a union of hegemonic forces between state and capital which are both products and byproducts of current urbanization and its consumerist life, centralized services and hegemonic control mechanisms over massive populations that largely reside in easily steerable dense areas. These characteristics eradicate human scale relations, and people’s will and control over their lives, their self-sufficiency and independence and builds consumer, dependent and vulnerable societies.

This conference aims to examine the different roles architecture and urbanism, as agencies of the current urbanization, have played in the emergence of the current planetary crisis and more importantly to explore the necessary shifts in the education and practice of architecture and urbanism which can lead to possible solutions to this crisis and promise a better world for all of its inhabitants. 

Conference Chair

•  Senem ZEYBEKOGLU, Associate Professor, Director of Ecodemia

Advisory Committee Members

• Ashraf Salama,  Professor, University of Strathclyde  
• David Gloster, Professor, Director of Education, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
• Jose Manuel Pages Madrigal, Professor, Dean, German University in Cairo
• Karim Hadjri, Professor, Head of School, University of Sheffield
• Ramin Keivani, Professor, Head of School, Oxford Brookes University

Scientific Committee Members

• Alessandro Camiz, Associate Professor, Ozyegin University
• Benno Albrecht, Professor, IUAV University Venice
• Farhan Karim, Associate Professor, University of Kansas
• Francesca Giofrè, Associate Professor,  Università degli Studi di ROMA "La Sapienza"  
• Guido Cimadomo, Senior Lecturer,  Universidad de Malaga
• Gul Kacmaz Erk, Senior Lecturer, Queens University Belfast
• Hossein Sadri, Associate Professor, Girne American University
• Ipek Akpinar Aksugur, Professor, Izmir Institute of Technology
• Julie Gwilliam, Senior Lecturer, Dean, Cardiff University
• Konstantinos Lalenis, Professor,  University of Thessaly
• Ligia Nunes, Chair, ASF International, Assistant Professor, Universidade Lusófona do Porto 
• Miguel Paredes Maldonado, Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
• Murat Cemal Yalcintan, Professor, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University
• Naima Benkari, Assistant Professor, Sultan Qaboos University
• Nicola Marzot, Associate Professor,  University of Ferrara 
• Paola Rizzi, Associate Professor, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila
• Renato Capozzi, Associate Professor,  University of Studies of Naples "Federico II" 
• Sally Stone, Reader, University of Manchester
• Silvia Covarino, Assistant Professor, German University in Cairo
• Socrates Stratis, Associate Professor, University of Cyprus
• Stefan Gruber, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
• Uwe Schröder, Professor, RWTH Aachen University
• Zuhal Ulusoy, Professor, Istanbul Bilgi University

Key Dates

• 15 April 2020 - Call for Abstracts
• 30 May 2020 - Deadline for Submission of Abstracts
• 30 June 2020 - Announcement of Selection of Abstracts
• 15 July 2020 - Deadline for early-bird registration
• 15 Sep. 2020 - Extended Abstract Submission (1000 words) 
• 23-24 Oct. 2020 - Conference 

CONFERENCE FEES:

  Early Bird Fees (Until 15 July 2020)

• £280, Delegate Regular Conference Fee 
• £180, Concession-Regular (Students / 2nd Authors)  

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Publication

 The proceedings of this conference including all the extended abstracts will be published as a printed volume prior to the conference date.