The 8th edition of the Frascari Symposium turns the focus from architecture to the architect. The profession’s figure, often idealized as a singular creative genius, has always been shaped by shifting pedagogies, ideologies, and material conditions. Today, as new technologies and economic forces redefine design practice, it becomes vital to reconsider who the architect is and what the architect does.
Building on an advocacy of architectural imagination as the faculty through which architects weave meaning, construct relationships, and mediate between diverse agents, the symposium investigates the subject of the architect as both a personal and collective endeavor. It invites discussion on the architect’s role as mediator, storyteller, and collaborator within broader cultural, social, and technological contexts, where authorship emerges through negotiation rather than individual autonomy.
Amid urgent challenges such as the rise of AI and the increasing fragmentation of practice, this symposium calls for a reexamination of the lore that has long shaped architectural identity. We invite architectural historians, theorists, researchers, designers, and practitioners to contribute critical perspectives that deepen the investigation into the narratives, institutions, and embodied practices that continue to define, and transform the architect’s disciplinary identity.
Abstracts should be submitted by March 29, 2026 to frascarisymposium8@gmail.com. For full CFP with thematic currents see: https://architectaslore.vt.domains/
The 8th Frascari Symposium will take place in Ankara, Turkey in June 10-12, 2027.