The ConCave Student Organization Hosted Their First Ph.D. Symposium: Divergence in Architectural Research

March 5-6, 2020 | Atlanta, GA

The ConCave Ph.D. student group would like to welcome you to the 2020 International Ph.D. Symposium: Divergence in Architectural Research, and to the School of Architecture of Georgia Institute of Technology.

From the initial call for papers, we received 104 abstracts from 56 schools in 19 countries. The initial peer review of abstracts was conducted by 40 members of our scientific committee, who hold academic or research positions, and are experts in their field. From this initial review, 62 abstracts were accepted to advance to the second stage. The review of papers was conducted by 45 members of our scientific committee, again distributed according to areas of research expertise. From this final review, 47 papers were accepted, from 33 schools in 14 countries. Our initial goal to spark a convergence of voices has borne fruit, and we are really thrilled to announce that 42% of our participants hail from schools outside the United States. These papers reveal the spectrum of concentrations now active in architectural research, including history and theory, urbanism and environmental studies, culture and behavior, design process and machine learning, simulation, modeling and computation, and envelope design and building performance.

It has always been our expressed desire for all participants to be present on campus, to encourage the potential for informal collaboration and discussion. However, recent events in China have required as much support and generosity from us, as we have received from others. We therefore have three presenters, unable to travel to the United States from China, who will present their research, either by proxy or on video feed. The comments on their research will be relayed back, if not in real time, in the course of the conference. We hope by this to enable some semblance of contact and participation, under such exceptional and unfortunate circumstances.

As a Research I Institute, Georgia Tech offers researchers a divergent academic environment in which to discuss and advance emergent studies in architecture. The goal of the PhD Symposium is to provide a supportive atmosphere for PhD students at different stages in their research to present and receive feedback on their ongoing work. The symposium provides doctoral students a diverse academic ground from which to share their research with established scholars and other graduate students interested in similar research areas. The symposium also aims to enable PhD students to interact and network with other participants and potential collaborators, in order to stimulate an exchange of ideas, suggestions and experiences. 
Architecture, as a discipline, embodies various fields of knowledge. Architectural research derives from within its own discipline and diverges into an interdisciplinary domain. Divergence in architectural research implies that there is agency to expand the disciplinary boundary of architecture and produce new fields of knowledge emerging from within the architectural domain. It offers making new connections between different epistemological frameworks and transforms our knowledge of architecture into unanticipated forms. Divergent approaches to interdisciplinary research in architecture prepares scholars and researchers for shared contributions across a rich array of intellectual fields.

Session Topics

"Post"Colonial Narratives
Design Methodologies and Historiography of Computation
Building Skin and Its Performance
Urbanism, Data Structures
Architecture and Social Justice
New Materials and Construction Techniques
Materialization of Space
Historiography of Representation and Design
Technology, Media and Epistemelogies​

Keynotes

March 5, Thursday at 6 pm
KATHY VELIKOV, University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

FROM PROTOTYPES TO TERRITORIES: MULTI DOMAIN DESIGN RESEARCH 
March 6, Friday at 1:45 pm

STEPHEN PHILLIPS, California Polytechnic State University

A DIVERGENT MIND: ARCHITECTURE’S INTERDISCIPLINARITY​

Workshops
March 5, Thursday, 10.45-11.45 am / Caddell Building
WORKSHOP I: GETTING THAT PROFESSOR POSITION: UNDERSTANDING ACADEMIC JOB SEARCH
By Tarek Rakha​

March 5, Thursday, 12.30-1.30 pm / Caddell Building
WORKSHOP II: PUBLISHING RESEARCH PRACTICE
By Stephen Phillips

March 6, Friday, 9.15-10.15 am / Caddell Building
WORKSHOP IV: CONTESTED HISTORIES OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN
By Lydia Kallipoliti​

March 6, Friday, 12.30-1.30 pm / Caddell Building
WORKSHOP IV: RESEARCH AS PRACTICE: HYBRID EPISTEMOLOGIES
By Kathy Velikov​

Book Talks

March 5, Thursday, 12.30-1.30 pm / Caddell Building
Urban Systems Design
By Perry Yang

Retrofitting Suburbia Case Studies
by Ellen Dunham-Jones

March 5, Thursday, 12.30-1.30 pm / Caddell Building
Assembling the Architect: The History and Theory of Professional Practice
by George Johnston
Grace and Gravity: Architectures of Figure
by Lars Spuybroek​

Exhibition

March 5, Thursday
Crow’s Nest, Architecture West Building

Closing Panel

March 6, Friday at 6pm
Caddell Building