“We see the earth as Client. This brings with it long-lasting responsibilities.”

Few have expressed the urgency of a collective and collaborative effort on a global scale as succinctly as curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in their FREESPACE MANIFESTO for the 2018 Architecture Biennale in Venice. In the words of Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change, “what we need is the cultural world to help us invent the narrative of the world we must work for… the narrative of how we will live… that will move people in a positive way.” The research, thinking, ideas, visions, images, stories, and designs from the variety of ways in which architecture is practised play a significant role in leading this new narrative of keeping our earth as a liveable world for future generations. As it has the capacity to span scales, to engage deeply with context and society, with technology and economy, architecture must take cultural leadership in this global action.

We invite contributions from researchers, practitioners, theoreticians and pedagogues of architecture, and from those of other disciplines working within and around the interests of architecture. We welcome papers that consider the impact, contribution and responsibilities of architecture, across a range of topics that might include but is certainly not limited to:

• adaptive governance, policies, architecture as a public service
• architect and/as client, contractual relationships
• bodies, gender, empowerment, advocacy, de-colonisation
• climate action, sustainable futures, science fiction
• experiments in education, innovative pedagogies
• geology, geography, light, air, atmospheres, energy, time
• globalisation, alternative economies, commodification of design
• histories of habitation, spaces of refuge, digital spatial futures
• innovative construction, materials, technologies, structures
• imagination, cultural artefacts, literature, photography, design
• radical ecologies, sustainable landscapes, local and global habitats
• spatial justice, global migration, networked societies

The Irish Architecture Foundation and the All-Ireland Architectural Research Group have adopted The Earth as Client as the theme of their joint efforts in 2020, with the ninth AIARG conference as a starting point. This annual conference promotes innovative academic research as well as the practice, pedagogy and progress of architecture in the widest sense.

21 October 2019:

Submit abstracts (300 words or less) to 2020aiarg@gmail.com and please add contact details and a short biography (100 words).

23 January 2020:

Architecture Students Thesis and Dissertation Symposium (morning) AIARG Research Workshop “Making Research Happen” (early afternoon) AIARG Keynote Lecture (late afternoon) and Conference Dinner (evening)

24 January 2020:

AIARG Annual Conference – Paper Presentations (all day)

Following the conference, authors may be invited to submit their conference papers for publication in building material, the peer-reviewed journal jointly published by the Architectural Association of Ireland, the All-Ireland Architecture Research Group and the Irish Architecture Foundation. For more information: https://aiarg2020.wordpress.com/