The conference will address the particularities of contemporary Southeast Asian urbanism at a moment when massive urban growth, shifts in productivity and a frantic rush to “modernization” threaten to homogenize territories and their settlement systems. The conference will critically look to the region’s past where urban and architectural traditions of living were more in-sync with the rhythms of nature and were embedded within landscape structures can perhaps offer insights for cities and settlements of tomorrow to develop contextresponsive approaches to urbanism able to address the challenges ahead.
It will focus on the evolving notion of "landscape urbanism" through three sub-categories. Water urbanism underscores the inextricable link of water and settlement, from notions of strategic citing to flood adaptation. Forest urbanism accentuates the growing recognition of the importance of trees in the city to address the heat island effect, increased necessity for shade and carbon sequestration. Water and forest urbanisms go handin-hand and can be pursued to increase a complementary nature/ culture relationship and the necessity to retore ecosystems. Urban countryside/rural metropolis stresses the region’s innate resistance to traditional dichotomies.
The first SEA Asian Urbanisms Seminar is co-organized by the International Center of Urbanisms: Settlements & Environments (ICoU) at the Department of Architecture, KU Leuven, the University of Architecture HCMC (UAH) and the Institute of Smart City & Management, University of Economics HCMC (ISCM, UEH). This first Southeast Asian Urbanism Seminar (SEAUS) will debate global warming in relation to architecture and urbanism through coursework results, design studio outcomes, research theses, doctoral research presentations, keynote lectures and insights from practice (from private professionals as well as civil servants).
Call for papers
Abstracts are to be submitted here (please create an individual account in order to submit).
Deadline of 500 word abstracts for PhD/research seminar: February 28, 2023
Notification of acceptance: March 10, 2023
Deadline for 3000-word draft of paper/ images: April 15, 2023
Comments on draft paper: May 1, 2023
Final paper/images: May 15, 2023
For more information and the paper template please see here. All accepted abstracts (through double, blind peer-review of the scientific committee) will be published by the organizing committee in a book of abstracts with an ISBN number. The abstracts will have had the benefit of constructive criticism by the scientific committee. They will not be edited for language and grammar (that is each author’s responsibility). The book of abstracts will be distributed to all paying participants during the conference. It will also be available as an online PDF through the conference’s website. The full (3000-word) papers will also be available online.
After the conference, members of the scientific committee will work to develop a theme issue for one or two journals and potentially a book for selected contributions that best represent the high quality, novelty and interdisciplinary approach of the emerging discourse on global warming challenges of landscape urbanism in Southeast Asia. Selected participants will be asked to resubmit their texts (3000 words) in the form of an extended paper (circa 5000–6000 words) after the event for the theme issue(s). To ensure the quality of these contributions, all selected papers will be subjected to an additional peer review and editorial process, which will be formed by the organisational committee and selected members of the scientific committee. The theme issue(s) will build upon the respective experience of these members, well-versed in the communication, layout and financial aspects of publication.
