We invite you to the CAAD Futures 2009 Conference in Montreal

(17-19 June 2009, preceded by 2 days of Ideation and Digital Creativity workshops)

www.2009.caadfutures.org

The CAAD Futures conference reflects on design methodology and discusses the latest innovations in CAD technology. Most importantly, CAAD Futures has always been concerned with both the actual technology and the complexities of its use and adaptation in the very human practice of design. The conference is organised on a different continent each two years and is a peak forum compared to the sister regional conferences held each year. The academic standards of CAADFutures are reflected in its historically low rate of paper acceptance ­ a CAADFutures paper is a significant achievement for scholars in the field.

The general objectives of the conference are to provide a forum for presentation of the latest advances in the theory of design and computation; in the reception and transformative effects of computation in design practice, in the technology, instrumentation and media linked to architecture, design, building performance and fabrication; and in design teaching and communication strategies. By moving each time to a different region, the Conference aims at disseminating Computer-Aided Design knowledge to research communities and students widely around the world.

For the first time in its 24 years history, the Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD Futures) Conference will take place in Canada next year, from 15-19 June 2009. The Université de Montréal will host this premiere international event in this domain, associated with the Canadian Design Research Network (CDRN), thus uniting Canadian researchers in the field for exchange of ideas with academia and practitioners coming from all the continents.

The theme of the CAAD Futures¹09 conference in Montreal is ³Joining Languages, Cultures and Visions². It seeks to give a new breath to this type of conferences by joining new disciplines, especially industrial design, to the traditionally architectural domain. Moreover, the conference will be bilingual: English and French, in order to create a vivid dialogue between different cultural approaches, computational methods and philosophical positions. Starting from digital approaches to architectural design and sustainability, the conference subjects will include computer-aided industrial design, and heritage conservation, thus embracing a great variety of contemporary issues.

Conference Chair: Temy Tidafi, Ph.D. (Université de Montréal)

Conference Co-Chairs: Tomás Dorta, Ph.D. (Université de Montréal) Rob Woodbury, Ph.D. (Simon Frazer University, Vancouver)

Key-note speakers: Yehuda Kalay, Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley)

Antoine Picon, Ph.D. (Harvard University) Gale Moore, Ph.D. (Univ. of Toronto)

Recently declared a ³UNESCO City of Design², Montreal will be proud to offer its hospitality to the CAAD Futures¹09 conference, which will surely contribute to its already known reputation as a city of new technology.

Taking advantage the fact the Faculty is hosting this international event, the themes and subjects will be open for different disciplines: from design to architecture; from interaction design to built heritage reconstruction and conservation. The subjects include (but are not limited to):

  •  Design cognition
  •  Design Thinking
  •  Interaction Design
  •  Knowledge based design
  •  Intelligent, interactive and responsive environments
  •  Project management
  •  Organizational transformation
  •  Advanced geometric and parametric design
  •  Building performance analysis and simulation
  •  Heritage modeling and reconstruction
  •  CAD education
  •  Collaboration and communication
  •  Digital making and prototyping
  •  Digital tools for ideation
  •  Simulation and performance evaluation for sustainable design
  •  Virtual and augmented reality