Call for Papers /// Mapping Architectural Integration (1960–2000): Concepts, Controversies and Entangled Objects

Mapping Architectural Integration (1960–2000): Concepts, Controversies and Entangled Objects

Abstract:

The international symposium Mapping Architectural Integration (1960–2000) aims to critically examine architectural approaches, projects, and debates in which the sensitive and contextual integration of contemporary architecture into historic cities emerged as a contested—and often contentious—issue. Within historic cityscapes, architects have often claimed expertise and agency to deliver design solutions that reconciled the contradictory demands of conservation and urban planning: adapting to historical contexts, respecting heritage values, contributing to urban renewal, and producing an architecture “of its time.” Histories and critiques of architectural integration have often refrained from questioning the architect’s claim to mediate among diverse stakeholders and concerns. Today, historical reassessments of these projects face the challenge of addressing the socio-economic complexities, governance frameworks, and interdisciplinary controversies in which they were embedded.

This symposium proposes to re-examine the history of architectural integration in historic cities through a cartography of previously understudied cases. We seek papers that contribute to mappings of:

1. Theorizations of different strands and degrees of integration across discursive and cultural contexts.

2. The negotiations, debates, and controversies through which integration projects were constituted.

3. The entanglements of these projects with broader environmental, economic, and infrastructural processes and scales that conditioned their materialization.

A key ambition of the symposium is to redirect this multidimensional cartography and historiography toward peripheral urban contexts worldwide, frequently marginalized within architectural historiography.

Submission instructions:

Please submit an abstract of 500 words, an academic bio, and an image, by September 15th, 2026, via the symposium website: www.mappingarchitecturalintegration.com

For questions, please contact: mapping.arch.integration@gmail.com

The symposium is organized within the framework of the research project Integration of Contemporary Architecture in Historical Cities in Belgium (1970–1989) at Université libre de Bruxelles and Ghent University, funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and the National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS).

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