Territoriality and temporality in architecture

The International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) invites researchers, academics, and professionals to submit abstracts for its 2025 conference on the evolving relationships between buildings, time, and place.

The 2025 CICA International Conference on Architectural Criticism builds on the themes of past editions, expanding the discourse around the ways in which buildings engage with both their immediate surroundings and the passage of time. Set to take place online over two weekends in October (18–19, 25–26), the online conference will bring together up to 16 speakers and four keynote lecturers to critically examine case studies that demonstrate the interplay between architecture and its evolving contexts.

This year’s theme interrogates how buildings stake their claim to space and persist (or erode) over time. How do architects negotiate these dual forces? How do buildings live and die? In moving beyond static interpretations of space and time, the conference aims to investigate architecture’s social and ecological potentials through the lens of temporality and territoriality.

The conference organisers seek paper submissions that offer a critical analysis of a built project’s engagement with these themes. Each abstract (maximum 500 words) should focus on a single case study that has been visited by the author and will form the basis for further development into a full paper upon selection.

Keynote Speakers
This year’s keynote speakers include Rozana Montiel Saucedo (Mexico) and Simone AbdouMaliq (Sierra Leone-UK), whose work addresses themes of social engagement, adaptation, and longevity in the built environment.

Conference Format
The event’s online format will facilitate interactive discussions between speakers and the audience. Each presentation will be concise, allowing for extended debate and exchange of ideas. All sessions will be recorded and made available on YouTube.

Publication
Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings by Park Books in 2026.

Timeline