Fragile

International Student Conference

The recent publication of Searchingfor the Just City. ‘Debates inurban theory and practice’ (Marcuse,et al., 2009) illustrates that the neoliberal discourse is underpressure and that people fromdifferent fields are increasinglyquestioning this way of looking atthe world.For Simone (2010, p. 3),“cityness refers to the city as athing in the making”. More thanever cities are more than built upspace, morphological compositionor architectural spectacle. Theyreflect the strong intertwinementof space and people, they areabout lived realities, as, using thewords of de Certeau, the city hastruly become a “practiced place”(1984: 117).The aim of the conferenceis to bring together students andyoung academics who will be ourfuture influential thinkers andwho will reflect on how space andarchitecture are putting the peopleback in the centre of their disciplines.The conference is abouthow the urban reality can be notonly about the built up environmentbut about how it can be aspace that is able to absorb thedifferences between people, howit can transform the hard builtenvironment in a ‘people-centered’soft space. It is about howarchitecture is no longer aboutcity branding or nation brandingbut about putting people first, it isabout creating Alive Architecture.

We invite students and recent graduates (up till5 years after graduation) from a broad range ofspatial disciplines and greatly appreciate inputin different formats. Paper topics are open to allrelevant fields and scholarly approaches. Abstractsmight consider, but are not limited to theoreticalapproaches, project presentations, case studies,architectural and urban approaches.We will have parallel paper sessions andparallel project presentations, poster sessions andart exhibitions.Additionally we invite students to putforward thematic sessions in addition to the oneslisted below:
1 Soft City
2 Alive Architecture
3 Research by Design
4 Critical Urban Theory
5 Participatory design
6 Mapping
7 City installations
8 Detailing sustainability
9 Eco-building
We encourage proposals for papers and panelsfrom as many disciplines as possible.

Abstracts of 250 to 500 words need to be send byJanuary 14th. A scientific committee will formulatean advice by February 1. Selected papers need toreach the organisation by March 31.Proposals for project presentations and art projectsalso need to be sent by January 14th to info@architectuur.sintlucas.wenk.be. In the proposalplease state the format you wish to use as well asthe space that is needed.The fragile website will provide a forumwere incoming students at Sint-Lucas can eitherfind a couch to sleep on or to provide one:http://www.sintlucasfragile.be
More details regarding the schedule ofevents and the composition of the panels will beavailable at http://www.sintlucasfragile.be early November.