Prof. Mehrdad Hadighi while elaborating history of evolution of design of cultural cross-fertilization, of adaptation, appropriation and refusal has said that evolution by design implies conscious choices that shape the nature of future development. Prof. Mehrdad is the department Head of Architecture Pennsylvania State University was speaking as the key note speaker at International Design Conference 2017 sponsored by the U.S. State Department | Higher Education Academic Exchange Partners Program held in Karachi.

The partnership is between the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, Pakistan and Kennesaw State University, Georgia, U.S.A. which are the organizing institutions of this conference. The three day conference on the theme of “Design, evolution, education and practice” currently being held at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture Prof. Mehrdad said that innovation emerges at crossroads and trading centers—in evolutionary terms, the loci of cultural “punctuated equilibrium.”

Where are the contemporary equivalents of ancient crossroads situated? Are trends in East-West cross-fertilization evolving by accident or design? And are the exchanges mutually beneficial, however the widening gap between design and material used in construction is threatening to creativity segment of designing. The techniques for cutting stones and cutting tools have had to be altered.