Biennial Conferences
Since 2010, the Network has organized a major international conference every second year. The biennial conferences have proved extremely popular and have played a leading role in consolidating and promoting architectural history research in Europe and overseas.
The EAHN warmly invites proposals to host EAHN 2022. Read the full call here.
Edinburgh 2020
Sixth International Meeting
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
It is with great regret that we have decided to postpone EAHN2020 (the EAHN Biennial conference) to next year (2-5 June 2021) due to the rapidly evolving impact of Covid-19. Registration is now closed, all paper deadlines cancelled and refunds will be issued to those who had already registered. Please read the full statement here.
EAHN2020 takes place in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, UK. The venue is the University of Edinburgh, and the conference takes full advantage of the university, and the city’s numerous architectural sites. The call for sessions and roundtable proposals is now open, please find details here.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, Edinburgh has a well-preserved Medieval Old Town, a New Town built in the early 19th century on Enlightenment principles, and some of the UK’s best examples of post-war modernism. Edinburgh is also the seat of the remarkable Scottish Parliament designed by Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, which opened in 2004. Edinburgh is a city in which questions of architectural history are unusually live: What to build, what not to build, and what to preserve are questions at the centre of both local, and national political debate. EAHN2020 will be based in the central George Square campus, and will make use of the extraordinary Playfair Library, amongst other notable buildings. Join us for an extensive programme of architectural tours, of the city and the region. EAHN2020 promises to be an outstanding conference. It will be accompanied by an exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery, with four specially commissioned works of art on an architectural theme.
Conference Chairs
Richard Williams
Richard Anderson
Themed Conferences & Events
In addition to the biennial conference, the EAHN collaborates with institutions across the world to organize smaller, more focused themed conferences and seminars. These events are intended to raise the international profile of the Network through local collaborations and to promote inclusivity and interdisciplinarity.
Past Events
Tallinn 2018
Fifth International Meeting
National Library of Estonia
EAHN 2018 was held in Tallinn, Estonia, and featured five thematic parallel sessions over three days, ranging from panels on reinterpreting the rediscovery of antiquity in Renaissance to critical retakes on the UN Development programmes and a round table on the usefulness of the term “Eastern Europe”. There were three keynote presentations by leading architectural historians – Christine Stevenson from the Courtauld Institute, Krista Kodres from the Estonian Academy of Arts and Reinhold Martin from Columbia Univeristy. The meeting was organised and chaired by Andres Kurg (Tallinn, Estonia).
Dublin 2016
The fourth international meeting of the EAHN was held in Dublin, Ireland, 2-4 June 2016. It featured five blocks of parallel sessions and round tables; keynote addresses by Sibel Bozdogan, Jean-Louis Cohen, and Roger Stalley; and a full program of walking and bus tours of Dublin and Ireland’s architectural heritage. Receptions for delegates were hosted by the Irish Architectural Archive, the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin.
Details of the sessions and the full conference can be found on the conference website.
Chair: Kathleen James-Chakraborty (Dublin Ireland)
Sydney 2019
Distance Looks Back
A Thematic Conference of the European Architectural History Network, held in conjunction with the 36thAnnual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ)
University of Sydney, School of Architecture, Design and Planning
10-13 July 2019
Conference Chairs
Andrew Leach and Lee Stickells
London 2019
Building-Object/Design-Architecture: Exploring Interconnections
A conference jointly organised with the Design History Society and the Architecture Space and Society Centre (Birkbeck).
Clore Business School, Birkbeck College, London, United Kingdom
6-8 June 2019
Brussels 2019
Displacement and Domesticity since 1945. Refugees, migrants and expats making homes
Palace of the Academies, Brussels, Belgium
28-29 March 2019
Conference Chairs
Hilde Heynen, Alessandra Gola, Anamica Singh, Ashika Singh (KU Leuven)
Keynote speakers
Peter Gatrell, Romola Sanyal, Paolo Boccagni
Delft 2017
The Tools of the Architect
TU Delft and Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam, The Netherlands
22 – 24 November 2017
Architects have for their activities of drawing, writing and building always depended upon the potential of particular tools –ranging from practical instruments such as straight edges, French curves, compasses, rulers and pencils to conceptual tools such as working drawings, collages, photographic surveys, infographics, diagrams, casts and mass models.
As technologies advanced the toolbox of architects has changed and expanded. Today architects have an extraordinary array of sophisticated tools at their disposal but also rely on many of same tools as their 18th and 19th century peers. Working drawings, pencils and tracing paper continue to appear in the designer’s studio while their role and potential is being redefined.
This conference wants to focus on the changing practical and conceptual tools of the architect and their effect on the logos and praxis of architecture.
Conference Chairs
Tom Avermaete, Delft University of Technology
Merlijn Hurx, Utrecht University
Keynote speakers
Mari Lending (professor of architectural theory and history, Oslo School of Architecture and Design/ OCCAS: the Oslo Center for Critical Architectural Studies)
Michiel Riedijk (professor at Chair of Public Building, Delft University of Technology/ Neutelings Riedijk Architects, Rotterdam)
Jerusalem 2017
H
ISTORIES IN CONFLICT: CITIES | BUILDINGS | LANDSCAPES
Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem
June 13-15 2017
How can historians account for the predicaments of violence and uneven distributions of power in the built environment, particularly in the face of current worldwide geo-political crises?
At the heart of this conference will be the question of how eruptions of strife shape architectural and urban histories; and reciprocally, how larger architectural and planning processes, along with the histories that register their impact, intervene in the predicament of conflict. The aim of the conference is to bring together different responses to this predicament from both regional architectural and urban historians and worldwide members of the EAHN.
All queries should be addressed to Alona Nitzan-Shiftan or Panayiota Pyla.
Belgrade 2015
Entangled Histories, Multiple Geographies
Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Serbia
14-17 October 2015
The third thematic conference will focus on the multiple perceptual forms and interpretations of architecture and their entanglements regarding conditions of historicity, notions of geographical belonging, as well as concepts of cultural or political identity.
Chairperson, Themed Conference Committee: Ljiljana Blagojević (Belgrade, Serbia)
Turin 2014
Over 500 abstracts were submitted in response to the Call for Papers. TURIN 2014 hosted 30 sessions covering a broad spectrum of subjects, periods, and thematic tracks, including Representation and Communication, Questions of Methodology and Circulation of Architectural Culture and Practices.
Chair, Michela Rosso (Turin, Italy)
São Paulo 2013
Architectural Elective Affinities: Correspondences, Transfers, Multi/Interdisciplinarity
School of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo. Brazil, March 2013.
Chair, Anat Falbel/ Monica Junqueira de Camargo, (São Paulo, Brazil)
Brussels 2012
The EAHN 2012 conference was held at the Academy of Sciences in Brussels and hosted jointly by Belgian Universities and Architecture Schools. Over 400 abstracts were submitted in response to the call for papers, of which 140 were accepted. There were 386 registered participants from 31 different countries, including Japan, Taiwan, US, Australia and New Zealand. Keynote speakers were Beatriz Colomina, Akos Moravanszky, Mary McLeod, and Maarten Delbeke. The conference was accompanied by lunch tours and regional tours.
Conference Chair, Hilde Heynen (Leuven, Belgium)
Edinburgh 2011
Post War Housing
Docomomo Scotland / Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, September 2011.
Chair, Miles Glendinning (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Carmen Popescu (Paris, France)
Guimarães 2010
The first EAHN conference took place in Guimarães, Portugal, and was hosted by the University of Minho. It had 20 sessions and 5 round table discussions. Over 250 people attended from 26 different countries, including Turkey, Ireland, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Cyprus, Canada, Cuba, Brazil, Israel, and Australia. The four keynote speakers were Paulo Varela Gomes, Denise Scott Brown, Gulsum Baydar and Antoine Picon. The conference also hosted local lunch tours and two regional full-day tours.
Conference Chair, Jorge Correia (Guimarães, Portugal)
