Uncharted Territories focuces on the advent of the third millennium, the survival and relevance of both the university as an institution and the architecture discipline have been challenged by a global economic crisis, emerging technologies, new means of production and communications, and the prophesy of on-line education. Social media, external think tanks and digital innovation signal significant changes that are taking place faster than our ability to digest them, and more and rapid invention is occurring outside the university in spite of our best intentions.

On the one hand, research and interdisciplinary collaborations have unlocked intriguing possibilities for the discipline, but, on the other, the new economics of education have resulted in diminished enrollments and increased fundraising responsibilities for administrators. Furthermore, the recent debate on a streamlined path to licensure could drastically alter the relationship between academia and the profession.

These new realities call for academia and its administrative leaders to re-evaluate the traditional models that regulate our accepted notions of governance and planning.

The theme of the ACSA conference, Uncharted Territories, is neither a cyclopean prescription nor a myopic proscription, but a diagnostic filter that will focus on a series of new challenges that are relevant to the present and the future of architectural pedagogy. 

Joshua Prince-Ramus, is the founding principal and president of REX. image © Bjarne Jonasson

Conference chairs: Patricia Belton Oliver, University of Houston and Francisco Javier Rodríguez, Universidad de Puerto Rico. The conference program includes workshops, panel discussions and lectures about education, universities and their image & policies, cities, research and the creation of discipliNnary knowledge, emerging technologies and evolving pedagogies, on-line collaboration and the globalization of academia and many more...

Download detail conference program