Thursday, October 23 will mark the opening of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) 2014 Design Agency conference at the USC School of Architecture in Los Angeles. Hosted by faculty Alvin Huang, Jose Sanchez, and David Gerber, the conference will exhibit and share a broad spectrum of design and research that highlights innovation in architecture through a focus on design and computation. Headliners include Pritzker laureate Zaha Hadid, SimCity creator Will Wright and computational architect Mar Fornes.
Press Release: Coinciding with the School’s 100-year anniversary initiative, Design Forward, the conference, titled Design Agency, exhibits and shares a broad spectrum of design and research that highlights innovation in architecture through a focus on design and computation. The conference presents work that redefines itself through the new paradigms of cloud, big data, global project delivery, and novel forms of collective intelligence in design, architecture, urbanism, fabrication, and media arts.
ACADIA 2014 | Design Agency’s presence at the USC School of Architecture marks the School’s importance as one of the world’s preeminent institutions for the advancement of architectural practice, research, and education. This is the first time the conference is being held at USC.
Attracting more than 350 registered attendees and many of the world’s most important practicing architects, design researchers, and architectural academics from around the world, the 2014 ACADIA Conference is the largest and most significant architecture event to be held in Southern California this year. It is also one of the most important events of October’s official Los Angeles Architecture Month.
The USC School of Architecture will be represented by more than 10 faculty and 5 students, each presenting and exhibiting their design research. In addition, for the first time in its history, all three conference co-chairs, David Gerber, Alvin Huang, and Jose Sanchez, are from the same host institution. All three are assistant professors in the School of Architecture.
One of the highlights coinciding with the conference is a very special keynote lecture and conversation with Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, organized by David Gerber and sponsored by the USC Provost’s Visions and Voices Program. Additional highlights include keynotes by Will Wright, Casey Reas, Marc Fornes, Greg Otto, and a special talk by MIT Media Lab Professor Neil Gershenfeld.
During the conference, over 70+ peer-reviewed design and research papers and projects will be presented by practitioners, students, faculty, and design researchers from all over the world. The conference also includes a series of panels and the book launch of Paradigms in Computing, Making, Machines, and Models for Design Agency in Architecture by USC faculty David Gerber. For the duration of the conference, an exhibition will be on display throughout the USC School of Architecture. This will consist of 50+ peer-reviewed project posters, including works by USC School of Architecture Faculty Alex Robinson, Gail Borden, Doris Sung, Warren Techentin, Scott Uriu, Rob Ley, Kris Mun, Patrick Tighe, John Mutlow, Jose Sanchez, Alvin Huang, and David Gerber, an interactive installation by F. Myles Sciotto and Jean Michel Crettaz, and an exhibition of the full-scale mock-ups of the finalists for the TEX-FAB digital fabrication competition. Best student presentation, best paper, and best project winners will be announced at an awards banquet on the last day of the conference.
The conference will conclude on October 25 with a full-day Hackathon hosted by USC School of Architecture’s Jose Sanchez in collaboration with USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab.
For a complete listing of events please visit the conference webpage. For registration, please follow this link.
