Built Environments

Teaching & Research Conference | Part of the Focus on Pedagogy Series

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OXFORD, UK

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Event: 14 – 16 July, 2027      |      Abstracts: 25 July, 2026

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CONFERENCE

Teaching & Research | Understanding the Modern Academy

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Built Environments

The Built Environments strand of this conference is interested in questions of all aspects of the design. construction and planning of our built environment as both subjects of academic research and as disciplines with innovative pedagogies to share. It is open to the full range of built environment disciplines including, but not limited to: building science, engineering, architecture, urban design, regional planning, landscape architecture and interior design.

The overall event forms part of the International Focus on Pedagogy series with previous conferences held in San Francisco, Madrid, Toronto, Florida, Prague, LA and elsewhere. It examines teaching and research at a moment when the ways knowledge is produced, taught and experienced is changing at dizzying speed. Whether it be AI, tools like ChatGPT, reflexive research practices, microlearning, participatory action research or learning analytics, the plethora of new and emerging factors informing the modern academy is enormous. We seek to better understand best practice teaching in this context and, in addition, ask whether this scenario could blur the difference between classroom teaching, investigation and published research.

Taking place in the historic city of Oxford, UK, the site of the conference is one of the world’s most renowned centres of scholarship and learning. It has centuries-long academic traditions, colleges and architecture, as well as a current, vibrant and cutting-edge intellectual life today. It thus offers an ideal backdrop for discussions about the evolving role of teaching and research in the modern academy. Bringing together participants from across disciplines and institutions to this iconic venue, we seek to foster new conversations about how teaching and research can inform, challenge and enrich one another in various fields.

Disciplinary Themes

BUILT ENVIRONMENTS:

Themes include but are not limited to:

Case studies of innovative architecture and building pedagogies, best practice engineering and urban planning teaching,  examples of sustainability embedded in curricula structure and ecology informed landscape design, to name but a few examples. Thinking beyond our disciplinary fields, we seek papers on participatory planning projects, interdisciplinary design initiatives, partnerships between academia & practice, and more.

Other themes:

Teaching & Learning | Methods, modes of practice and innovations in both how we teach building technology and construction, and what we research in design and planning.
Sustainability & Resilience| rom integrating SDGs into curricula, to ensuring supporting sustainable teaching and learning practices for both educators and students.
Art & Design| Case studies of collaboration between the art and design disciplines and professionals and educators in the built environment.
Science & Technology| Presentations on the smart city, AI, parametric architecture, VR in spatial design and big data analysis of cities.
Health & Wellbeing | Presentations on Covid-19, design for life, sick building syndrome, care in the community, healthy cities, sanitation and public health, and more.
Humanities & Social Sciences | Examinations of innovative education and research on socio-cultural readings of our cities, architecture, landscapes and public spaces.

Further details and to submit your abstract: