Spaces & Flows: 6th Intl Conf on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies (Oct 2015, Chicago USA)

Dates: 15-16 October 2015
Location: University Center Chicago, Chicago, USA
Website: http://spacesandflows.com/the-conference/call-for-papers
Deadline for submission of proposals: 16 April 2015 (there will be further rounds)

Theme: Decline Belt Cities and Places: Prospects, Problems, Possibilities

This conference aims to critically engage the contemporary and ongoing spatial, social, ideological, and political transformations in a transnational, global, and neoliberal world. In a process-oriented world of flows and movement, we posit, the global north and global south now simultaneously converge and diverge in a dialectic that shapes and transforms cities, suburbs, and rural areas. This conference addresses the mapping of, the nature of, and the forces that propel these processural changes.

See the website for further details.

EcoDesign 2015: 9th Intl Symp on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing (Dec 2015, Tokyo Japan)

Dates: 2-4 December 2015
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Website: http://ecodenet.com/ed2015/eng/indexeng.html
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 April 2015

The purpose of EcoDesign 2015 is to bring together worldwide professionals interested in advancing the state of the art in EcoDesign for exchanging knowledge that encompasses a broad range of disciplines among various distinct communities.

In the EcoDesign 2015, the latest issues on EcoDesign are discussed. Professionals from industry, research laboratories, consulting, government, and academia are encouraged to attend.

See the website for further details.

Cumulus Mumbai (Dec 2015, Bombay India)

Dates: 4-6 December 2015
Location: Industrial Design Centre (IDC), at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai.
Website: http://www.cumulusmumbai2015.org
Deadline for submissions: 31 May 2015

Cumulus Mumbai 2015: ‘In a planet of our own – a vision of sustainability with focus on water’.

The event Cumulus Mumbai 2015: ‘In a planet of our own’ is being held at Mumbai, India on 4,5, 6 December 2015, hosted by the Industrial Design Centre(IDC), at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai.  This international event is aimed at creating design awareness on sustainability bringing focus on water and simultaneously offers a platform for interaction for the art, design and media community. The events are centered around the interests of students, educationalists and practicing professional designers. The event is expected to throw light on the role of art, design and media in an interconnected global world within the context of sustainability.  The event has been designed to be lively, interactive and thought provoking and will provide great opportunity to converse with grandmasters of design, interact with thought leaders and listen to visions by outstanding speakers.

iConference 2015 Workshop: ICT for Sustainability (March 2015, California USA)

Dates: 24 March 2015
Location: Newport Beach, California, USA
Website: http://iconf2015ict4s.120cell.org/
Deadline for submission of abstracts (1-2 pages): 15 February 2015

This workshop aims at establishing a community and potential research collaborations within the iSchools network to link efforts around ICT for sustainability. ICT can be a threat but also an enabler for environmental and social sustainability, in the form of systems that support the protection of natural resources, that foster communities and participation. Supporting systems build on many intellectual traditions within the information field (e.g., requirements engineering, software quality, life cycle analysis, value-based design, sustainable HCI). As information scholars, we have a responsibility to work on the survival and thriving of all life on this planet, as well as to think about related issues of long-term perspectives. Sustainability is thus a critical value for ICT researchers to embrace and strive toward.

NORDES 20115: Design Ecologies: Challenging anthropocentrism in the design of sustainable futures (June 2015, Stockholm Sweden)

Dates: 7-10 June 2015
Location: Konstfack – University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden
Website: http://nordes.org/nordes2015
Deadline for submissions: 7 January 2015

Design hinges a natural-artificial continuum through humans’ natural capacity to produce what we call ‘the artificial’. At a time when human activity is threatening biodiversity and causing severe climate change, it becomes obvious that natural and artificial systems can no longer be conceived in isolation but only in relation to each other – or indeed as one.

The coupling of natural and artificial systems poses challenges due to its complexity and partly reveals the anthropocentrism that has traditionally characterised design. Several questions arise in this context. How can design practices embrace pluralism by recognising, in the manifestation of design itself, biological as well as cultural diversity? In other words, how do we in design, and beyond, move from the kind of ego-system we seem to be so trapped in towards the kind of eco-system everyone and everything can gain from? How are designers, educators and researchers of design currently engaging with these challenges, and how might or should they engage with them in the near future? Designers in Scandinavia have shaped and influenced many local human societies to an important extent through a legacy of democratic and user-centred values. How can these be extended to acknowledge and celebrate humans’ cohabitation on a global scale to also include the myriad of all other existing species and systems at alternative scales in time and space? How can the various design practices be genuinely sensitive to ecological complexity? And how can they be understood, designed and studied in relation to each other – or indeed as a whole?

20th Intl Conf on Engineering Design: Design for Life (July 2015, Milan Italy)

Dates: 27-30 July 2015
Location: Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Website: http://www.iced15.org
Deadline for submissions: UPDATED 15 December 2014

We are pleased to invite you to prepare and submit papers to the 20th International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED 15!

The ICED15 conference will be held in Milan, at the same time as EXPO 2015, making this a truly unique occasion for participants to attend both events. The EXPO 2015 theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” inspired the ICED 15 motto to be “Design for Life”, which points to the role and responsibility that designers have in improving human existence.

“Design for a healthy life”, “Design for a sustainable life” and “Design for a contented life” are three fields in which design can have a particularly strong impact and have therefore been selected as themes for the ICED 15 conference.

Unmaking Waste: Transforming Production and Consumption in Time and Place (May 2015, Adelaide Australia)

Dates: 21-24 May 2015
Location: Zero Waste SA Research Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour, University of South Australia, Adelaide
Website: www.unmakingwaste2015.org
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 17 October 2014

Waste is created when we no longer value something we create, possess or use. Barriers to prematurely discarding goods and resources have steadily fallen in recent years. Easy credit, low prices, instant online access, and a 24 hour promotional media all reinforce an expanding consumerism.

While much effort has gone into researching and implementing successful technical strategies for reducing waste and emissions, accelerating rates of consumption are undermining these efforts. It is clear that we need new systems-based approaches to reduce this excess consumption, including the excesses of our ‘waste-making’, to generate a more sustainable circular economy.

This conference invites participants to explore new approaches to reduce the speed, volume and impacts of ‘waste-ready’ global consumerism.

EESD15: 7th Intl Conf on Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (Jun 2015, Vancouver Canada)

Dates: 9-12 June 2015
Location: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Website: http://eesd15.engineering.ubc.ca
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 16 September 2014

The 2015 Engineering Education for Sustainable Development conference at the University of British Columbia will explore current and future ways of thinking in this emerging field and celebrate the ground-breaking work accomplished in EESD since 2002. After 6 successful EESD conferences, EESD15 will be the first to be held outside of Europe. EESD15 is the premiere forum for contributing to, and learning about, engineering education for sustainable development.

Please refer to the website for details.

Conference on Product Lifetimes And The Environment (PLATE) June 2015, Nottingham (UK)

Dates: 17-19 June 2015
Location: Nottingham UK
Website: http://www.ntu.ac.uk/plate_conference/index.html
Deadline for submissions: 8 September 2014

Call for Papers 

Nottingham Trent University is pleased to be hosting the first international conference to examine Product Lifetimes and the Environment in the context of sustainability. This ground breaking event will include keynote presentations, discussion, debate and workshops, an exhibition and gallery of artefacts, and a gala dinner.

Intl Seminar on Planning for Sustainable Urban Form

Dates: 12-14 November 2014
Location: Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
Contact: Abdellah.abarkan@bth.se
Deadline for submission of abstracts & registration: 15 September 2014

On November 2013, The Swedish School of Planning organized an International Seminar on the theme of “Planning for Sustainable Urban Form”. The seminar gathered about 30 participants, from different countries, representing a broad disciplinary field, ranging from planning to architecture. The meeting was successful in providing a forum to debate on sustainability with focus on planning and urban form, and an opportunity for PhD-students to meet with senior researchers and internationally recognized scholars. In an attempt to support the continuity of this meeting, the Swedish School of Planning is organizing the Second International Seminar on November 12th to 14th, 2014.

We invite scholars to submit abstracts on the following broad subjects:
1. Planning processes in changing governance networks
2. Urban form, agency and sustainable development

The deadline for submitting abstracts and registering is September 15th, 2014. Abstracts should be sent to Abdellah.abarkan@bth.se. Accepted abstracts will be notified by September 30th.

For details, see BTH Call for abstracts final 2014.