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[1] Reconstructing the Wounded City: Neuroarchitecture, Memory and Immersive Approaches to Post-Traumatic Urban
From: Maria Beltran-Rodriguez
Date: 13 Oct 2026

Session convenors: Maria Beltran-Rodriguez, Universidad de Diseño, Innovación y Tecnología (UDIT); Olena Oliynyk, National Union of Architects of Ukraine; Julio A. Soria-Lara, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.
Email: maria.beltranudit.es

Cities affected by war, natural disasters, forced displacement, or prolonged social crises face challenges that go beyond physical reconstruction. Urban trauma reshapes not only buildings and infrastructures, but also collective memory, emotional attachment, perception, and everyday experiences of space. In this context, processes of reconstruction increasingly require interdisciplinary approaches capable of addressing both the material and experiential dimensions of the city. This session proposes a discussion on emerging methodologies for studying and imagining post-traumatic urban futures through the intersection of neuroarchitecture, immersive technologies, urban studies, and participatory design. The session aims to critically explore how tools such as virtual environments, digital twins, biometric evaluation, and sensory analysis may contribute to understanding the cognitive and emotional impact of urban environments affected by conflict, rupture, or disaster. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between urban reconstruction, memory, wellbeing, and perception, as well as to the ethical implications of technologically mediated approaches to the “wounded city.” The session will bring together researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds to discuss how immersive and neurophysiological methodologies may open new perspectives for evaluating urban experience, supporting participatory processes, and rethinking reconstruction beyond purely functional or infrastructural responses. The proposal is connected to ongoing European collaborative research exploring urban trauma, perception, and immersive methodologies in post-conflict and post-disaster contexts. Rather than presenting finalized results, the session seeks to open an interdisciplinary dialogue on future research directions, methodological challenges, and new forms of understanding the relationship between cities, crisis, and human experience.

How to submit a paper to the session:
- Deadline: 18 Oct 2026
- Session languages: English or Spanish
- Call for papers: https://aisuinternational.org/en/genova-2027-sessioni/
- Submit your title and abstract on the congress website, selecting Session 5.15:
https://aisuinternational.org/en/genova-2027-sessioni-macrosessione-5-proposta-paper/
- Notification: 6 December 2026
- Final abstracts for the Proceedings: 15 June 2027; full papers for the post-congress volumes (Insights series): 15 October 2027

For questions about the session, please contact: maria.beltranudit.es

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[2] Trauma, Destruction, and Urban Transformation: The Impact of War on European Artistic Culture during the First and Second World Wars
From: Anna Vyazemtseva
Date: 12 Oct 2026

During the two great conflicts of the twentieth century, the visual arts, active in an era still characterized by the limited reach of the media, represented fundamental and powerful tools for propaganda and for preserving the memory of the transformations brought about by the war. By helping convey propaganda messages, artistic research represented a fundamental documentation of the wounds inflicted on urban centers by the war. By preserving the memory of these dramatic transformations of the architectural and social fabric, they were a useful resource in the subsequent years of reconstruction. The documentation of the war’s damage – the collapse of public buildings and civilian residences, the destruction of infrastructure, and the progressive lack of services – was entrusted not only to the major arts, painting and sculpture, but also, for a more immediate and incisive form of communication, to mass-produced art, such as posters, signs, and urban installations.
The session invites proposals for interventions that, focusing on the visual relics of the First and Second World Wars, analyze the impact of war events on urban structures through the diverse range of artistic forms produced at the time.

Convenors: Matteo Fochessati, Wolfsoniana - Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura; Anna Vyazemtseva, Politecnico di Milano
Email: mfochessatipalazzoducale.genova.it; avyazemtsevapalazzoducale.genova.it

Submit your title and abstract on the congress website, selecting Session 4.10.: https://aisuinternational.org/en/genova-2027-sessioni-macrosessione-4-proposta-paper/

Deadline: 18 Oct 2026