In both the profession and the academy, there is a renewed interest in the past. With the passing of theory, and efforts to move beyond the emphases on economics, technology, and ecology, contemporary architects are once again looking to history and the past as drivers for design. History is not just a source of precedents, or a "bag of tricks" for the architect to apply, but a research problem, the source of a design strategy, even a layer of complexity in the material of architecture. Architects are ever more self-consciously inventing, projecting, or manipulating the relation of present and past.

We are interested in collecting and presenting an array of "strategies" that focus on the practice of architecture as an intellectual process in dialogue with history. We seek papers that challenge given notions of the distinct role that practice and history play, that scrutinize situations where the threads of history and practice cross paths in a critical and productive dialogue. We welcome investigations into all manner of critical exchange between the project of architecture and the project of history. We are curious about collaborations between architects and historians, as well as architects working as historians, and vice versa. We are especially interested in cases in which contemporary architecture pushes the historical discourse into new territories.

For more info on the overall call for papers on the conference website.

Topic Chairs:

• Dr. Francesca Torello, Carnegie Mellon University (ftorello[at]andrew.cmu.edu)
• Dr. Kai K. Gutschow, Carnegie Mellon University (gutschow[at]cmu.edu)