The program includes the three plenaries with a coherent intellectual arc:
- Industry Funding and Curriculum – institutional mechanisms shaping knowledge production.
- Materials and the Built Environment – technological and material innovation shaping architecture.
- Artificial Intelligence – computational transformation affecting both practice and education.
Date: Thursday, 9/Apr/2026
Location: Kennesaw State University (Marietta Campus)
D2 Auditorium (I2 Building)
Time: 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Title: Curriculum as Infrastructure: How Research Funding Can Shape What We Teach
Speaker(s): TBD
Moderator: TBD
Description
This plenary investigates the reciprocal relationship between architectural research and curriculum development, focusing on industry-supported educational initiatives. Through the perspectives of organizations that fund multi-year academic programs, the session explores how financial support, research priorities, and pedagogical goals intersect, and how schools can leverage these partnerships while maintaining intellectual independence. The discussion aims to surface models that advance both innovation and critical inquiry.
Structure
- Brief framing statement (5 minutes) by the moderator to situate the issue.
- 10-minute perspectives from each organization
- comparative dialogue (20 minutes)
- audience discussion (25–30 minutes)
Moderator prompts
- How do funding frameworks influence what becomes “core knowledge” in architecture programs?
- What mechanisms ensure academic independence while maintaining meaningful partnership?
- How can research outcomes feed back into curriculum in ways that outlast the funding cycle?
- Are there gaps—materials or topics—that remain underrepresented because they lack comparable funding structures?
- What would an ideal partnership model look like from both academic and industry perspectives?
Date: Friday, 10/Apr/2026
Location: Loews Midtown Atlanta Mercer Salon I
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Title: Material Agency: Research Frontiers Shaping the Built Environment
Speaker(s): TBD
Moderator: TBD
Description
This plenary examines how contemporary research in structural and envelope materials is redefining architectural possibility, environmental performance, and construction logics. Bringing together perspectives from concrete, steel, and timber research, the session focuses on measurable advances, unresolved challenges, and the translational gap between laboratory innovation and industry adoption. The objective is to articulate where material science is actively reshaping design thinking and where critical research questions remain open.
Structure
- 10 minutes per speaker (three speakers + optional respondent)
- moderated cross-discussion (15–20 minutes) and audience engagement (20–25 minute)
- Final 5-minute synthesis from the moderator to extract research trajectories rather than leaving it as discrete viewpoints.
Moderator prompts
- Where is the most significant disconnect between current research findings and standard practice?
- How do performance metrics (carbon, durability, circularity) alter design priorities within your material domain?
- What research questions require cross-material collaboration rather than siloed advancement?
- Which innovations are technically viable yet institutionally constrained?
Date: Saturday, 11/Apr/2026
Location: Loews Midtown Atlanta Mercer Salon I
Time: 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Title: AI and the Built Environment: Local Applications of a Global Technology
Speakers: TBD
Moderator: TBD
Description
This plenary examines the expanding role of artificial intelligence across the architecture, engineering, and construction ecosystem. While AI technologies are developed and disseminated globally, their adoption occurs within local professional, regulatory, and educational contexts. The session brings together voices from practice, research, and academia to examine how AI is currently used in design and construction workflows, how it is shaping professional roles, and how architecture and construction programs should respond in their curricula. The goal is to move beyond speculation toward concrete examples, emerging best practices, and critical questions for the discipline.
Structure
- Three or four speakers, each with approximately ten minutes. Each speaker represents a different vantage point: one from practice (design or construction firm), one from computational research, one from technology development or software, and one from academia focused on pedagogy.
- Moderated conversation (15–20 minutes)
- Audience discussion (20–25 minutes)
Moderator prompts
- Where is AI already producing measurable change in professional workflows within the built environment?
- Which tasks in architectural and construction practice are realistically being augmented or automated?
- What new competencies should architecture and construction students develop in response?
- Should AI be embedded across existing courses, or does it require dedicated courses and labs?
- What risks accompany the rapid integration of AI tools (data ownership, authorship, intellectual responsibility)?
- How can research institutions contribute to shaping AI tools rather than simply adopting them?