New books - January 2018

A few new books in the library are listed below. You can also see a list of recent print additions to the library (the list is sorted by dewey decimal number - the most relevant areas for Architecture & Urban Design might be 307, 711-729, 745, 747 and 749). Also, to search for new books by topic, try your search, refine the results to books and order by publication date - e.g., urban design.

Please send any library requests to Tristan or Vivian for graphic arts.

Caliper journal
Caliper is an independent, student led architecture journal based in Melbourne, Australia. "The agency of the student is more powerful than ever. We have the desire and opportunity to produce more, talk more, challenge more, and the ability to consistently redefine our tertiary boundaries. Pioneered by fearless alumni - some of whom are published in this pilot issue - a revaluation of the student’s role within architectural discourse is occurring. We are beginning to circumnavigate architecture as a means of penetrating it further. Descending from our ivory towers,we are discovering that the ‘real world’ is far more complex, bizarre and stimulating than we’d ever imagined. We are now straddling these polarities but tasked with reconciling them into intelligible architectural form." - description from first issue.

3056 - Lost in Brunswick

"This volume is the product of looking around, in the available time, or with some depth of inquiry. Exploring the contingent, the familiar & unfamiliar, or being given an X on a map to seek, each contributor has developed pages in response to Brunswick, postcode 3056". Created by graphic design students from the Brunswick RMIT campus.

call for proposals - Annual Design Research Conference (ADR18)

This is a call for proposals to be included in the Annual Design Research Conference for 2018 (ADR18). The Conference is devoted to design research in built environment fields (architecture, landscape, interior, and urban design), it will consist of plenary sessions and a curated exhibition for design works.

ADR18 will be held at the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney, in association with the Tin Sheds Gallery on 27-28 September 2018. Our Keynote speakers at this conference will be Momoyo Kaijima from Atelier Bow-wow and Leon van Schaik AO from RMIT.

Proposals to present design research at ADR18 are welcomed from academics, researchers, students and practitioners. Proposals should specifically relate to built environment design research and may respond to one or more indicative thematic sessions of ADR18, including (but not limited to): Industry and Applied Design Research; Scholarship and Theory of Design Research; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Design Research; Digital and Automated Fabrication in Design Research, Design Research Education and Critical Spatial Practice.

Initial proposals for plenary session papers should take the form of a 300 word abstract, and

Special Issue of Revista Diseña: Design-Led Research Into Matters of Concern

"Design contributes to interdisciplinary research in three ways:

• in the aid of a project within another discipline (e.g. design for healthcare)
• contributing to a matter of concern (e.g. Latour 2004) that crosses disciplines, but as a substantive research partner in a project led by another discipline (e.g. design for smart grids)
• in a leadership role on a project that crosses disciplines, and addresses a matter of concern (e.g. design of mediating artifacts).

Matters of concern are topics that are not the central research area for any given discipline, but instead require contributions from many disciplines. Erling Björgvinsson, Pelle Ehn, and Per-Anders Hillgren, of the Malmö Living Labs, talk about “matters of concern” in the context of their work as being served by Things (“Socio-material assemblies”), as opposed to the usual “things” of products and services."

Deadline for submissions: 28 February 2018

More information at the Revista Diseña website.

Call for papers - LA+ Vitality

Vitality is liveliness, to be alive. To be alive is to have the ability to harvest energy for movement, growth, and self-replication. But without health, vitality is just mechanistic. In issue 10 of LA+ we'll be exploring the notion of vitality as a proxy for the health of all things. We are particularly interested in submissions that discuss how design can improve the vitality of people, cities, systems, and landscapes. As always, we are open to works that are critical, novel, speculative, or provocative, and those that challenge us with alternative views. 

Deadline for abstracts: March 10, 2018

More information at the LA+ website.

POLIMORFO 5: Design in the Face of Disaster

Call for papers Polimorfo vol. 5

Theme: Design in the Face of Disaster

According to Z. Bauman, we live in times of uncertainty, times that, rather than encouraging the realization of utopian projects or profound changes, discourage them. In our present situation, uncertainty has not only taken over general socio-economic and political conditions, it has intensified in the way we now interact and live after two relentless weather events. In these circumstances, inaction and uncritical action are equally as threatening, given that, in a state of perplexity, they can indefinitely stall solutions that are consonant with sustainable development. 

Thus, in our upcoming issue, we seek to assess the new conditions under which design, architecture, and the city should be produced, but also about those postponed projects that may have partially avoided the disaster. 

We encourage you to think critically about what took place, by identifying problems and obstacles in the process of building better spaces, and to approach slogans of reconstruction, normality, and resilience with suspicion. 

How can we produce urgent architecture without giving up on the collective project? How to manage a massive adaptive reuse of spaces? How to articulate the new duties of the designer? What does the disaster entail for the built heritage? How can designers, architects, planners, citizens, and academics assist in the improvement of living conditions in the short, medium, and long terms after the disaster? What teaching and working tools, theories, strategies, and methodologies should be implemented in the recovery process? What other global experiences can we learn from?

Submission deadline: March 5, 2018

More information.

Design and displacement

DHS 2018: Design and Displacement

6 September 2018

Parsons School of Design, New York

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that in 2016, some 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide - a number not seen since the end of World War II. On average, 20 people were driven from their homes every minute. The challenges faced by vast numbers of migrants and refugees uprooted by war, persecution, ecological crises, natural disasters, or even relocating in search of economic opportunity, are often urgent, and, unfortunately, all too familiar.

The movement of populations has spurred - and continues to spur - great changes in the cultural landscape in general and design in particular, both positive and problematic. Displacement creates opportunities for cross-cultural dialogues and inspires design solutions, whether they be related to objects used for disaster relief, temporary housing for displaced persons during wartime or following natural disasters, or more substantial and lasting interventions into the landscape, such as the exponential and necessary growth of cities.

Taking place from 6-8 September 2018, this conference will examine displacement and attendant issues from a design perspective. In addition to the current displacement of people and populations, papers can consider the theme more broadly and historically, including connections among displacement of objects and styles, changing technologies, and broad geographies and histories related to landscapes and urban development.

Call for Papers

We invite contributions from design historians, scholars, and academics in related fields, as well as practitioners, design educators, museum professionals, and students. Topics might deal with such issues as:

• Design and the Displacement of Peoples
• Issues of immigration and emigration
• Camps and disaster relief
• Colonialism, post-colonialism, and the displacement or replacement of cultures
• Exiles and exile culture
• Passports and borders
• Asylum seekers and climate refugees

Iterations: Design research and practice review

From insight to impact: Designing for growth

• In business
• In self
• In society

From insight to impact in business : New reports link design to economic value, increased performance and innovation. This track looks for best in class examples, reflections on practice, and theoretical discussion illustrating noteworthy approaches in design applied in small, medium and large organisations. In particular we welcome contributions that inform cause and effect models, analysis, or wider commentary around design in business.

From insight to impact in self : In today’s fast moving world there are new challenges when maintaining personal health and wellbeing. This track looks for reflections, examples and theoretical discussion in exploring the role of design in navigating life. In particular we welcome contributions that inform analysis or wider commentary around design for the individual.

From insight to impact in society : Today’s society is fast evolving and changing. This track looks to explore the role for design in impacting identity, policy, systems and services for the good of society. In particular we welcome contributions that inform analysis or wider commentary around design for society.

By this theme we encourage articles that contribute to the national conversation around design initiated by the recent government publication, “Winning By Design” (2017).

We encourage contributions from academics, individuals and industries that demonstrate the role of design in delivering real impact. We are particularly interested in academic

I'm not sure why there is a need to re-make 'Jumanji', but Jack Black seems to think libraries are cool*







*Maybe.