This year's conference will question what the ‘region’ and ‘regional’ mean for architectural cultures past and present, and to speculate on what different forms and formulations they might take in future.

International Fórum Recife Exchange Netherlands: "Water as Heritage: visions and strategies about the rising sea levels in Recife and in Netherlands"

The AF team will facilitate an event introducing the AF framework for understanding adaptability of buildings and specific design strategies, scenarios and solutions for increasing the longevity and sustainability of our built environment.  The goal is to encourage designers to think beyond the stereotypes of what constitutes adaptability in buildings.  Evidence from case studies and interviews with industry stakeholders will be used to demonstrate good practice and common pitfalls when designing for change.

Delegates will receive a compact card version of the Adaptable Futures toolkit developed by Loughborough University, containing: methods to communicate and engage with clients, including briefing exercises and conceptual diagrams; design resources for adaptability, for example guidelines and change scenarios; and approaches to assessing adaptability in buildings, such as change propagation and quantification. Delegates will explore, through facilitated exercises, how the tools can be appropriated to suit a practice's briefing and design processes.

This year's AF event will be on 3rd October and be held at the Building Centre in London again. The format will be interactive and team-based arranged around a series of games, exercises and debates about adaptability (flyer).  The intent is to create a fun atmosphere allowing participants to showcase their knowledge and skills as well as communicate the work AF has done over the past year - a hybrid design charrette, think tank session and conference – challenging participants thinking and design skills towards adaptability. The number in attendance will be limited to 16 teams made up of 3 people from the same or different organisations - multi-disciplinary teams are encouraged, but not essential. Participation is by invitation only. Organisations that will participate include CBRE, AHMM, Ash Sakula, Igloo/ Blueprint, Stanhope, 3D Reid, Pie Architecture and Adams Kara Taylor.   For enquires and more information about the event email Rob Schmidt (r.schmidt-iii@lboro.ac.uk).  

The AF team will participate at CoreNet's Global Summit this September in London.  We will chair (and present at) a session on the creative reuse of our existing office stock.  The session is part of our collaborative effort with CBRE London's workplace strategies group.  

The AF group will join Assistant at the Aomori Contemporary Arts Centre for a weekend of exercises around the design and construction of its Nara House.  The AF workshop will map the design, construction and future use(s) proecesses.  Participants include members of the Aomori Contemporary Arts Centre, Assistant Architects and Sendai School of design (staff and students).  Watch a video of the students constructing part of the house.

AF will be traveling to Copenhagen for a day's event w/ Vankunsten Architects.  AF will run a project based workshop at the masterplan and building scale for Vankunsten's Carl Jacobsensvej project in Ny Ellebjerg, Copenhagen.  The workshop will move through a process of brainstorming, conceptual design, and assessment exercises in regards to the project's adaptability.

Rachael will present a case study of a large city centre retail scheme to the practice and discuss how the lessons might apply to adapting secondary shopping centres in the UK.

AF will present their recent works on adaptability to graduate students of Shibaura Institute of Technology.  The presentation will highlight the use of the AF toolkit of thinking about and implementing adaptability in practice.

Charles Holland from FAT architecture will speak about our collaborative work regarding the possibilities of adapting some of Croydon’s buildings and urban spaces. The work will examine technical issues, catalogue design tactics, illustrate conversion scenarios and most importantly push creative possibilities for Croydon’s existing buildings and spaces – appropriating the AF research knowledge into the context of Croydon’s central area.