Study Architecture 
ProPEL Aug. 7-8, 2025 in Charlotte, NC | Sep. 11-12, 2025 Virtual
2025 Summer Conference
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Charlotte SCHEDULE
In-person Conference | Aug. 7-8, 2025
Below is the schedule for the In-Person Summer Conference, August 7-8, 2025. 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).
Conference Registration Hours
Thursday, August 7 at 12:00pm-6:00pm
Friday, August 8 at 8:30am-1:00pm
ABSTRACT BOOK
Program BOOK
1:00pm-2:30pm
Research Sessions
Memory, Memorials and Resilience
1.5 AIA/CES HSW
From historical lessons in infrastructure during pandemics to community-generated memorials and contested sites of public memory, participants will challenge dominant narratives and call for decentralized, participatory approaches to design. Together, these works reveal how urban systems, commemorative structures, and civic spaces can reinforce or dismantle structural inequities. Participants will gain insight into how architecture can heal social wounds, support collective welfare, and advocate for plural and liberatory futures—especially in communities historically excluded.
Moderator: Kyle Spence, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Beyond Bazalgette: Public health and resilience in decentralized urban design
Anirban Adhya, Lawrence Technological University
Infrastructures of Memory: Representation as a Response to Urban Redevelopment in the New American South
Eric Moed, Pratt Institute
Samuel Maddox, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Architectures of Dissent: Every day memorials to Gandhi
Sarosh Anklesaria, Carnegie Mellon University
2:30pm-3:00pm
Coffee Break
3:00pm-4:30pm
Research Sessions
Environmental Conflict and Collective Identity
1.5 AIA/CES HSW
This session will explore how design can expose hidden harms, amplify marginalized voices, and heal fractured landscapes. Participants will learn how architecture can promote climate action, social cohesion, and environmental stewardship by confronting systemic inequities in land use, material sourcing, and spatial representation. Emphasis is placed on student-led design investigations that prioritize adaptive reuse, cultural resilience, ecological regeneration, and the visible acknowledgment of past and ongoing environmental injustices.
Moderator: June Williamson, City College of New York
Prodotti Protetti(vi): Repair and Revitalization in Rural Italy through the EU’s Geographical Indication Regime
Samuel Maddox, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Mediating Fluid Conflicts: Democratizing CFD for Urban Surface Simulations
Kentaro Tsubaki, Tulane University
Conflicting SpaceScapes: Coconut Grove’s (Florida) Environmental and Social Dilemmas
Camilo Rosales, Florida International University
Impactful Community-Engaged Design
1.5 AIA/CES HSW
Participants will learn about Albany’s Hive public park, informal urban economies in Bangkok, and a design studio emphasizing public engagement. Where participants will examine how designers can respond to both visible and invisible challenges in underserved communities. From stewardship plans and urban informality to interdisciplinary team-based learning, presenters demonstrate how public space can be reimagined to support safety, dignity, and wellbeing for historically marginalized populations. The session emphasizes tools and methodologies that empower students and professionals alike to co-create environments that prioritize environmental and social health, long-term maintenance, and civic inclusion.
Moderator: Cathi Ho Schar, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Creating the Hive: A Model for Design Educators to Engage in Community Partnership
Fleet Hower & Christianna Bennett, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Seen vs Unseen: Inquiry-based Pedagogy to Understand the Conflicts of Urban Informality in the Global South
Adrian Lo & Amika Naknawaphan, Thammasat University
Internal and External Conflict as an Opportunity for Growth: Teamwork in the Community-Engaged Design Studio
Edward Orlowski, Lawrence Technological University
4:30pm-5:00pm
Break
5:00pm-6:00pm
Plenary
6:00pm
Networking
Opening Reception
9:00am-10:30am
Research Sessions
Curriculum & Innovation for Sustainable Futures
1.5 AIA/CES HSW
How can architectural education prepare future practitioners to design for a changing climate while advancing equity and public wellbeing? This session explores innovative models and research initiatives that connect sustainable design theory with practice through interdisciplinary collaboration, resilient urban analysis, and equity-focused mapping. We will look at curricular reforms for sustainability integration, synthetic mappings of climate vulnerability, and studio models that demonstrate how educators are equipping students to design buildings and communities that protect health and enhance welfare.
Moderator: Rachel Dickey, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Bridging the Gap Between Sustainability Theory and Practice in Architectural Education: A Case Study of Curriculum Enhancement and Student Outcomes
Mehdi Danesh & Somaye Seddighikhavidak, University of Hartford
Mohammadreza Ostadalimakhmalbaf, Seminole State College
Integrating and applying Advanced sustainable Architecture into Design studio through Energy Simulations technology: A Case Study of Curriculum Enhancement
Mehdi Danesh, University of Hartford
Mohammadreza Ostadalimakhmal, Seminole State College
Mapping Resilience: Peninsular Charleston’s Future
Bradford Watson, Clemson University
10:30am-11:00am
Coffee Break
11:00am-12:30pm
Research Sessions
Designing Intelligence
1.5 AIA/CES HSW
This session examines how evolving pedagogical approaches—rooted in equity, intuition, and technological integration—can reframe architectural education to better support welfare. Explore how inclusive design processes, critical engagement with artificial intelligence, and intuitive reasoning can reshape how future architects assess risk, respond to human needs, and serve diverse communities. This session challenges the discipline to reconsider how learning environments shape the architects of tomorrow.
Moderator: Ian Caine, University of Texas at San Antonio
Augmented Intuition – Using mixed reality to synthesize the technical knowledge with the designer instinct in architectural education
Chowdhury Imam, Laura Cruz, & Orsolya Gaspar, Pennsylvania State University
Do We Still Need the Admissions Portfolio?
Erika Zekos, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Architecture and Identity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Rachel Dickey, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Architecture in the Public Realm
1.5 AIA/CES HSW
Participants will examine how built environments support physical safety, environmental resilience, and social inclusion. Investigate how design can mediate between security and civic openness in public spaces vulnerable to human-caused threats. This session challenges architects to move beyond code compliance and consider how spatial strategies when rooted in local conditions and broader systemic forces can promote public well-being and equity.
Moderator: Bradford Watson, Clemson University
Designing Safe Public Places: Security, Architecture, and a Flourishing Public Realm
David Fannon, Northeastern University
Mutable Publicness, Revisited
Zahra Safaverdi, Washington University in St. Louis
Border as Market: Food Security, Spatial Resilience, and Colonial Legacy at the Haiti-Dominican Republic Border
Samendy Brice, University at Buffalo, SUNY
12:30pm
Plenary Lunch
Conference Partners
Michelle Sturges
Conferences Manager
202-785-2324
msturges@acsa-arch.org
Eric W. Ellis
Director of Operations and Programs
202-785-2324
eellis@acsa-arch.org
