Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU)

Data structures and network protocols now integrate operations of entire industries, and digital workflows encompass virtually all stages of architectural production. Buildings and the processes they undergo are represented by digital building information models, which are shared across disciplines to generate options and support decisions before they are committed to built form.

Yet, there are limits to the reach of digital modeling and predictability. The tools and frameworks within which building information models are created and used, are themselves subject to constraints and forces similar to those that impede architectural production and maintenance, including technical glitches, noise, error, versioning and compatibility issues, limits to quantifiability, questions of cost effectiveness, incomplete “information”, and challenges of interpretation and negotiation. The question arises whether more powerful tools resolve challenges, or whether, in doing so, they encourage us to venture deeper into territories where yet more challenges are encountered?

However, our field of computer-aided architectural design engages also that which cannot, or cannot yet, be readily described or modelled. We thus negotiate the reach of formal representation, deepening appreciations of human agency and creativity and laying foundations for industry-transforming technologies.

CAADRIA2017 invites original high quality papers and posters presenting current computer-aided architectural design research in a general sense, accommodating a broad spectrum of approaches ranging from speculative, informal investigations to conventional scientific research, including but not limited to the following topics:

  • Computational design research and education
  • Computational design analysis
  • Generative, algorithmic and evolutionary design
  • Digital fabrication and construction
  • Collaborative and collective design
  • Design cognition
  • Virtual/augmented reality and interactive environments
  • Virtual architecture and city modeling
  • Human-computer interaction
  • Ubiquitous and mobile computing
  • Practice-based and interdisciplinary computational design research
  • Theory, philosophy and methodology of computational design research
  • Simulation and Visualization
  • Building Information Modelling

Paper acceptance will be subject to a two-stage reviewing process, consisting of an initial abstract review and a later double-blind peer review of full-length manuscripts. Paper publication will be subject to review acceptance, to compliance with submission deadlines and formatting guidelines, and to payment of the conference registration fee.

Besides the above specific theme, CAADRIA 2016 also invites posters on general topics in computational design research.Young researchers currently involved in postgraduate studies are invited to submit their work-in-progress research papers to the Postgraduate Student Consortium.