CfP: Creativity and Reality. The Art of building the Future Cities. Rome, 18-19 December 2019

Call for Papers: Creativity and Reality. The Art of building the Future Cities. Rome, 18-19 December 2019

You are invited to participate to the 1st International Conference IConA 2019 International Conference on Architecture on the theme CREATIVITY and REALITY. The art of building the future cities to be held in Rome at Sapienza Faculty of Architecture, Piazza Borghese 9, on the 18th and 19th December 2019.
The field of knowledge defined by the terms “creativity” and “reality” may be considered the permanent framework for a reflection on innovation and the transformation of architecture and cities.
However, it should be noted that in recent decades, creativity as the engine of human invention and reality as a response to human needs have had, as their dominant field of application, technological innovation rather than the development of new city images. In recent times architecture and world cities have been especially “designed” by neoliberal, global and urban policies following the realization of mega-events, shopping malls, gated communities, large scale facilities, urban villages, spectacular architectural objects, territorial infrastructure and immaterial networks.
Moreover, while the urban transformations of the European cities are still designed according to the tradition of the last two-centuries, the challenge to design within informal contexts emerged as an inevitable need to match and support the cultural and social identities of the enormous “informal” and “illegal” communities, to deal with inequalities and “expulsions”, to improve living conditions and make urban space more democratic, technological and dialogic.
Within this framework of “Plural Urbanism” rethinking the concepts of Creativity and Reality can be an important contribution to the construction of an “open city” in which sympathetic imagination, realistic and bold innovation will still be considered the architect’s principal means and can still feed the art of building the future city and architecture according to its actual realities, needs, emergencies, for pursuing a widespread human wellbeing and tackling the forces hidden in the global changes.

The theme of the conference is presented in six topic tracks. Therefore, participants are invited to select their contribution within one of them:
  • Formal and Informal
  • Art and Artefact
  • Autonomy and Heteronomy
  • Vision and Reality
  • Memories and Places
  • Form and Structure
  • Policies and Rules
Authors must register and upload their abstract on https://www.conftool.net/icona2019 directly by 7 October 2019 (new extended deadline).
The full call for papers with instructions for authors is available here.

Share this post

News from the field

Open Letter arc en rêve

Dear friends of arc en rêve, We wish to share the full text of the open letter—Letter of support for the arc en rêve public interest initiative—available for signature on the change.org digital platform: https://c.org/cbghsK7B8x This open letter, sent on October the...

Reflections from the EAHN Zürich

by Gregorio Astengo, Nikolaos Magouliotis, Noelle Paulson, Maarten Delbeke The day after our call for papers closed was one of mixed emotions. As we started to go through over 440 proposals, we wondered with satisfaction at the interest that microhistory, a...

Folger Institute Short-Term Fellowships

Applications are open through January 15th, 2026 for Folger Institute Short-Term Fellowships! Each year the Folger Institute awards research fellowships to create a high-powered, multidisciplinary community of inquiry. This community of researchers may come from...

EAHN Annual Business Meeting, Glasgow

EAHN Annual Business Meeting, Glasgow, 20-21 February 2026 Glasgow School of Art (GSA), 167 Renfrew St, Glasgow G3 6RQ Bourdon Building, Seminar Room 2, First Floor Accommodation – please make your own arrangements. Thursday 19 February 20:00 Scottish traditional...