How can we design large projects without necessarily imposing uniformity and rigidity where variety and adaptability over time are desirable? []Habraken 1967, 3

The origins of ‘open building,’ a term coined by Age van Randen at TU Delft in the eighties, developed from the ideas of N. John Habraken, the Dutch architect and the director of the Foundation for Architects’ Research (SAR), whose work had the specific aim of energizing housing industrialization through a research agenda focused on the relationships between the profession of architecture and the housing industries, emphasizing the role of users in the process (Bosma et al. 2001).

Specifically in his 1962 book, Supports: An Alternative to Mass Housing, Habraken combined many forward-thinking perspectives that are now widely accepted in the research and practice of architecture, urbanism and the social sciences such as:

• designing for openness, which involves not only capacity, but inclusivity;
• the recognition that many actors influence design and construction processes;
• the ongoing transformative properties of the built environment.

The conference organizers of THE FUTURE OF OPEN BUILDING would like to invite participants to clarify how these core perspectives come together within empirically grounded case studies, but with the explicit aim of challenging scholars and practitioners to consider how their paper and poster case studies inform which directions ‘open building’ should take in the twenty-first century.

Submissions on topics relevant to the built environment are encouraged from fields, which are not limited to: architecture, urban design, urban planning, geography, public policy, facilities management, sociology, as well as science and technology studies.

Using the templates provided, 300 word paper abstracts and poster proposals should foreground a conference theme (A, B or C), and additionally, highlight one of the subthemes (x.1, x.2 or x.3). The authors of accepted paper abstracts will be asked to submit 3,500 word articles (excluding references, captions and footnotes) for peer review. Authors of accepted poster abstracts will be asked to submit one A1 size PDF board in landscape format.

Paper session themes will be supplemented with keynote speakers and panel sessions.