Fragile - International Student Conference

During last year’s conference, the different contributions illustrated how the urban reality can be not only about the built up environment but about how it can be a space that is able to absorb the differences between people, how it can transform the hard built environment in a ‘people-centered’ soft space. This years conference builds further on these ideas … it is still about how architecture can no longer be about city branding or nation branding but about putting people first, it will still be about creating Alive Architecture. Additionally it has become clear that our contemporary societies are in need of a new future project. We need to critically think about our current society and envisage a future -more inclusive and equal- one. One in which people value other human beings, one were the importance of equality and equity is understood and were the importance of collective responsibility and action is obvious The Sint-Lucas school calls for an architecture that goes beyond excellent design, it calls for a way of designing and working that takes into account the permanent effects of the design and the building on its inhabitants and the community at large. Fragile provides the lense to look into this complex interrelation. It is a way to support to think about the issues mentioned above and to become more aware of the role architecture and the architect as a person have to play in all this. As such this year’s edition will develop some of last year’s topics further and additionally it calls for a new utopian project, which cannot be the tabula rasa one of the modernists but which should be an activist utopian attitude that stimulates a continuous search for future promises of a better world. We invite students and recent graduates (up till 5 years after graduation) from a broad range of spatial disciplines and greatly appreciate input in different formats. Paper topics are open to all relevant fields and scholarly approaches. Abstracts might consider, but are not limited to theoretical approaches, project presentations, case studies, architectural and urban approaches. We will have parallel paper sessions and parallel project presentations, poster sessions and art exhibitions. Additionally we invite students to put forward thematic sessions in addition to the ones listed below:

1. Soft City
2. Alive Architecture
3. Research by Design
4. Critical Urban Theory
5. Participatory design
6. Towards a new Utopian activism

We encourage proposals for papers and panels from as many disciplines as possible. For PhD students we have created the opportunity to present in separate PhD sessions with discussants (names to be announced). http://www.sintlucasconference.be http://www.sintlucasfragiles.be http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fragiles-2011-2012/153311484761236