Adopting an understanding of architecture in a widened sense – as practice, knowledge and a way of looking; as process, representation and consolidated capital; as a form of spatial organisation that shapes social conditions as much as being shaped by it – makes us uniquely able to transgress the borders between the real and the imaginary.

This special issue of IJIA focuses on the impact of the current climate crisis on the built environments of the Islamic world.

New forms of adaptable designs and constructive flexibility may help society in achieving new models of comfort that resolve spatial issues more effectively and propose patterns that can set innovative minimum habitation standards.

Architecture that exhibits commonality or neutrality, dependent upon its situation and context – buffer zones, no-mans-lands, and transitional spaces have spawned a range of programmes that facilitate either community interaction and cross cultural dialogue or conflict, smuggling, escapes, rituals, parades, performances, protests and other kinds of border events.

This symposium explores the history of the idea of ‘zero degree’ of architectural writing, as it moved across the globe in various media and theatres of debate, and its resonance in the present.

The 2022 conference themes seek to draw responses from the wider fields of Engineering, Design, Sustainability and Ecology.