Society of Architectural Historians Annual International Conference 2025.

[1] Roots to Skylines: Hybrid Labor and Planetary Building
From: Clemens Finkelstein
Date: May 23, 2024
Deadline: Jun 5, 2024

Amid interconnected ecological and sociopolitical tipping points, the architectural and spatial sciences progressively embrace a shift toward hybridity. Marked by experimental alliances with atmospheric phenomena, biological entities, or geological processes, hybrid practices seek to stabilize planetary environments by addressing the disequilibrium of Earth’s metabolic systems. Departing from modernist extraction paradigms, adaptive design moves beyond buildings integrated into landscapes to structures that actively process, respond to, and engineer planetary systems. From albedo modification to geoengineering for carbon sequestration to landscapes that remediate contaminated soil, the spectrum of possibilities is vast, encompassing a discourse historically ranging from pre-architectural dwelling to architecture’s postcolonial legacies.

We invite papers that explore the dialogue between human-made structures and planetary forces. Embracing Indigenous epistemologies, situated knowledges, or activism, contributors are encouraged to present emblematic case studies, institutions, or buildings illuminating historical moments where architecture and landscape converged toward a truly “planetary” (Gabrys) understanding. Whether examining the resilience of Mayan agroecological landscape design or futuristic infra-architectural concepts for data centers in extreme climates, submissions should reflect a nuanced grasp of the evolving relationship between the built environment and the planetary.

Departing from the conventional view of the material world as a mere resource for extraction, this panel seeks to challenge the modernist dictum that shackles the Earth in service to humanity, capital, and construction. Contributors are encouraged to reconceptualize ecopolitical relationships towards hybrid labor (Battistoni) and collaborative engagement with the more-than-human. Papers exploring human and more-than-humans’ co-constitutive labor in the built environment and historical narratives of such collaborations are particularly welcomed. Submissions are anticipated to contribute to a rich tapestry of perspectives that deepen our understanding of the evolving dynamics between the built environment and the planetary, fostering a holistic discourse within the spatial disciplines—encompassing landscape, architecture, planning, and beyond.

Session Co-Chairs:
Clemens Finkelstein (Princeton University)
Sonia Sobrino Ralston (Northeastern University)

Submission Guidelines:
1. Confirmed 2025 Session Chairs are not eligible to submit to the Call for Papers
2. Abstracts must be under 300 words.
3. The title cannot exceed 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
4. Abstracts and titles must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
5. Only one abstract per conference by an author or co-author may be submitted.
6. A maximum of three (3) authors per abstract will be accepted.
7. Please attach a two-page CV in PDF format.
8. Abstracts are to be submitted online using the link: https://auth.oxfordabstracts.com/?redirect=/stages/45961/submitter

Abstracts should define the subject and summarize the argument to be presented in the proposed paper. The content of that paper should be the product of well-documented original research that is primarily analytical and interpretive rather than descriptive in nature. Papers cannot have been previously published or presented in public except to a small, local audience (under 100 people). All abstracts will be held in confidence during the review and selection process, and only the Session Chair and Conference Chair will have access to them.

For further inquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact clemensfprinceton.edu or consult the Call for Papers https://www.sah.org/2025/call-for-papers