From the Home to the City: Designing Spatial Experiences
The Sixteenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment invites participants to explore the intersections between spatial design, human experiences, and contemporary global challenges. Under the theme From the Home to the City: Designing Spatial Experiences, this conference addresses how thoughtfully designed environments—from intimate domestic interiors to expansive urban landscapes—can foster human well-being, community connection, and environmental sustainability.
At the domestic scale, we examine how homes shape daily routines, emotional health, and social interactions, highlighting the critical role of design in creating spaces of care, comfort, and dignity. Amidst ongoing global shifts such as remote work, aging populations, and housing crises, we invite research to consider both technical dimensions—including sustainability, adaptability, and healthy materials—and sensory experiences involving spatial form, natural light, and tactile qualities. Echoing architect Kazuo Shinohara, we reflect on how domestic spaces are deeply embedded in human identity and cultural expression.
At the urban scale, we aim to understand how cities can cultivate inclusive, resilient, and engaging environments amidst rapid urbanization, climate change, and socio-economic disparities. We invite contributions investigating participatory urban planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and empathetic design practices that foster safety, accessibility, and belonging. As urbanist Jan Gehl observed, thriving cities are spaces of joyful human interaction designed for lingering, sharing, and meaningful connection.
Additionally, we welcome research on intermediate scales—such as shared community spaces, transitional interiors, neighborhoods, and collective housing—that bridge private and public realms. These environments represent thresholds of care and encounter, requiring responsive design strategies that address complex and overlapping needs.
Proposals are invited across disciplines including architecture, urban planning, interior design, engineering, environmental psychology, and interdisciplinary fields. We particularly encourage submissions aligned with the following four thematic areas:
1. The Design of Space and Place: Exploring how spaces are defined not only by physical boundaries but by rituals, memory, and emotional connections, emphasizing the choreographic role of design in fostering meaningful inhabitation.
2. Constructing the Environment: Examining the role of everyday objects and material systems in shaping human experiences, from small-scale domestic artifacts to flexible, adaptive structures that support both rootedness and mobility.
3. Environmental Impacts: Investigating how the built environment mirrors and influences our ecological relationships, emphasizing aesthetics and sustainability as interlinked values guiding ethical design practices.
4. Social Impacts: Reflecting on how spatial design can promote inclusivity, equity, and social justice, addressing critical questions of belonging, care infrastructures, and community visibility in built environments.
We invite innovative, multidisciplinary contributions that critically engage with these themes, advancing the discourse on designing resilient, empathetic, and sustainable spaces for contemporary life.