Study Architecture 
ProPEL SCHEDULE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2025
Below is the schedule for Thursday, September 25, 2025, featuring session descriptions. You can read the research abstracts by clicking HERE. The conference schedule is subject to change.
Continuing Education Credits
Obtain Continuing Education Credits (CES) / Learning Units (LU), including Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW) when applicable. Registered conference attendees will be able to submit session attended for Continuing Education Credits (CES).
ABSTRACT BOOK
PRE-CONFERENCE | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2025
9:00am-12:00pm
Ticketed Events
Workshop Leaders: xFigura Founder
Description:
xFigura is an AI-powered platform that enables collaborative ideation and visualization for 2D and 3D design. Envisioned as a “Miro for Architects and Designers,” it brings together 25 of the most advanced generative AI models in a seamless web-based interface. Used by leading architecture practices, xFigura allows you to stay in control while generating visuals and 3D forms from prompts, sketches, or your own models. The session will include a live demo and hands-on training with the platform.
Tour Leaders: Ignacio Cardona & Katarina Richter-Lunn, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Description:
Established in 1636, the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established a college in Cambridge and later named it Harvard College for its first benefactor. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in America. Learn the history of the institution and its relationship to the world around it through the rich mix of American architecture and objects. This tour will tell the stories of Harvard’s development over the centuries and the social changes that the university has seen.
1:00pm-4:00pm
Ticketed Events
Workshop Leaders: Robin Franke, Autodesk Forma
Description:
Join us for the Autodesk Forma Architecture Training, designed exclusively for the Architecture Faculty! This transformative workshop offers a deep dive into Autodesk Forma, the cutting-edge industry cloud powered by AI. Discover how AI enhances Sustainability and outcome-driven Building Information Modeling (BIM) empowering your students with hands-on learning. Explore how current Universities integrate Forma into their design studio making Outcome Based BIM and Sustainability accessible and impactful.
Tour Leaders: Mark Jarzombek & Brent Ryan, MIT
Description:
Explore MIT’s dynamic campus and experience firsthand how MIT is making a better world. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston, in the vibrant innovation district of Kendall Square. Founded in 1865, MIT established a new kind of independent educational institution relevant to an increasingly industrialized America. Since then, the Institute has built a robust tradition of solving problems in the public interest at the intersection of technology and humanity.
CONFERENCE | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2025
5:00pm-6:00pm
Plenary
Antoine Picon is the G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology at Harvard GSD where he is also Chair of the PhD in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning. He teaches courses in the history and theory of architecture and technology. Trained as an engineer, architect, and historian, Picon works on the relationships between architectural and urban space, technology, and society, from the eighteenth century to the present.
At the intersection of an enduring interest for the history of construction and his research on digital culture in architecture, Picon has developed a theoretical and historical approach to the question of materiality that has led to his book The Materiality of Architecture (2021). How is the digital, the recent rise of artificial intelligence in particular, transforming the materiality of architecture is among his current topics of investigation.
6:00pm
OPENING RECEPTION
Continuing Education Credits
Obtain Continuing Education Credits (CES) / Learning Units (LU), including Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW) when applicable. Registered conference attendees will be able to submit session attended for Continuing Education Credits (CES). Register for the conference today to gain access to all the AIA/CES credit sessions.
Conference Partners
Michelle Sturges
ACSA
Conferences Manager
202-785-2324
msturges@acsa-arch.org
Eric Wayne Ellis
ACSA
Sr. Dir. of Operations & Programs
202-785-2324
eellis@acsa-arch.org
