Education for or an Uncertain Future

–

Livable Towns, Cities, Regions   2027  | Dublin, Ireland

A conference on the Future of Place, Planning, Communities & Design.

Dates: 28-30 June, 2021   |   Abstracts: 5 Dec, 2026

–

STRAND CALL:

The Education for or an Uncertain Future strand welcomes contributions on education across built environment disciplines, with particular interest in collaborative learning, community engagement, reuse and conservation and, increasingly today of course, the role of AI and technologies in how we do this. It is split across two broad areas of interest:

Embedding Conservation Values within Built Environment Pedagogy

One of the most pressing current and future problems we face as a society is climate change. Preparing built environment students for the uncertainty this brings requires conservation to be understood not as a specialist concern, but as a core design and planning value predicated on minimizing our resource use. In this strand we argue that embedding principles of stewardship, adaptive reuse, material responsibility, circularity and long-term thinking within curricula is essential. It can, we suggest, help future architects, planners, designers, and engineers respond to climate pressures, resource constraints, and social change while sustaining the cultural and environmental value of existing places over time.

Collaborative Design Learning and Communities

Preparing students for an uncertain future requires several things, one of which we argue here, is learning environments that reflect the collaborative nature of built environment practice. Working within communities of peers, professionals and external partners helps students negotiate different perspectives, share knowledge and respond collectively to complex spatial, social and environmental challenges. Collaborative learning also develops communication, adaptability and responsibility, preparing graduates to participate effectively in interdisciplinary teams and communities where knowledge is distributed, contested and continually evolving. This strand seeks examples of different type sand levels of community involvement in design education internationally

Overall Call Summary

Towns, cities and regions around the world are confronting profound environmental, social and spatial transformation. Population growth, housing pressures and infrastructural demands are reshaping how our built environments are envisaged, developed and governed. Climate change, sustainability and resilience are reframing how we think about the future of design and planning. In their turn, our existing urban fabrics, inherited buildings and historic neighbourhoods, shape the possibilities of change.

In this context, when we design, preserve and plan the places in which we live, we are dealing with an increasingly complex and interconnected problem. Whether it be conservation, planning or architecture, or questions of communities, health and climate change, the terrain on which we tread inevitably overlaps.

The challenge in this scenario then, is not simply to preserve the past, design the present and plan a sustainable future, but to do it unison. For example, the reuse of existing buildings is central to carbon reduction; the participation of communities in design is key to urban planning; the adaptation of cities to digital infrastructures supports resilience and sustainability. It is a scenario that requires the skills of architects, planners, environmental scientists and technologists; the perspective of historians, sociologists and health professionals; and the knowledge and insights of local people and communities.

With all this in mind, the 17th Annual Conference in this series explores the design, management and experience of life in cities from across the full range of social science disciplines including:

Public Health, Accessibility Studies, Public Policy, Geography, Sociology, Anthropology, Design and more.

Other themes

Interdisciplinary:

 

Public Health: Example themes: Covid-19, healthy buildings, healthy cities, environmental psychology, walkable cities, design 4 life, sick building syndrome, accessible design….

Transport, Infrastructure & Urban Management: Example themes: Urban regeneration, city and regional planning, integrated transportation, soft mobility, the economies of cities, urban sprawl, managing growth….

Sustainability + Resilience: Example themes: Strategic retreat, urban heat islands, resilient cities, net zero energy buildings, the carbon footprint of the building industry, resource use and cities….

Livable Towns, Cities, Regions

Research + Publication Program

This conference is part of the AMPS Critical Futures research program that encompasses a range of interconnected issues from infrastructure, public health and transport to communities, architectural design, heritage and sustainability. In each of these areas AMPS supports the research of academics focused on the full range of interdisciplinary issues that affect how and where we live.

Publications

Books, Journal, Proceedings

The Critical Futures program draws upon the AMPS publication network based on tje journal and book series with several international publishing houses: Routledge Taylor & Francis | UCL Press | Intellect Books | Libri Publishing | Vernon Press | Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

In addition, the work of researchers is shared through the AMPS Academic YouTube channel, its series of international conferences and its associated  proceedings publications.

Abstract Submissions

Click the button below to submit your abstract.

Fee: $415 USD  –  Queries: info@amps-research.com