Study Architecture 
ProPEL Call for Submissions
This year’s 109th Annual Meeting will be held virtually from March 24 – 26, 2021. The virtual conference is designed for educators, practitioners, researchers, and students to explore and discuss the latest research, ideas, and practices in architecture, education, and allied disciplines.
Submission Deadline: July 1, 2020
The Annual Meeting Committee will maintain topics year to year in order to address the diversity of our members scholarly, creative and pedagogic interests. This consistent and, we hope, inclusive list of topics will also ensure an annual venue for all members to submit to an ACSA conference. The topics, described below, are intended to be encompassing, relevant and predictable and, at times, may overlap with each other.
Building Science and Technology
Emerging and traditional areas of building science and construction technology including, but not limited to topics such as: building enclosures; structures; energy; materials; heating, cooling, and ventilation; acoustics; lighting; water; and the environmental impact of construction and the operation of buildings.
Design
Processes of making architecture, including, but not limited to topics such as: fabrication; design-build; representation and media; discursive images; typologies including housing; design process; interdisciplinary or collaborative design; as well as built and unbuilt work.
Digital Technology
Digital and computational processes related to design methods and contemporary architectural production that reflect on the potential of digital technologies in design research, practice and pedagogy including, but not limited to topics such as: computation; digital fabrication; generative design; robotics; responsive systems and environments; augmented and virtual reality; artificial intelligence; and machine learning.
Ecology
Interactions of architecture with our planet’s systems and more immediate ecosystems, including, but not limited to topics such as: life-cycle analysis; landscape architecture; resilience; adaptive reuse; biophilic design; and regenerative design.
Health
Architectural application of research findings and user-derived knowledge to tackle health inequalities and improve well-being outcomes across the spectrum of health vulnerabilities and building types, including, but not limited to topics such as: human comfort and productivity; quality of life and well-being; environmental and social determinates of health; indoor environmental quality; urban health; air pollution; light; strategies to temper water, moisture and temperature; safety; aging-in-place; and innovative healthcare environments.
History, Theory, Criticism
History, theory, or criticism as disciplines in their own right, or as tools to advance understanding of pedagogy, the profession, and design practices, broadly defined.
Pedagogy
Methodologies and practice of teaching in architecture and design fields; the origins, strategies, and influences on students of different approaches to instruction and learning, including, but not limited to application of new tools, methods and methodologies in architectural education and the assessment and evolution of these, as well as student learning outcomes.
Practice
Architecture’s professional focus and its intersection with construction and development, including, but not limited to topics such as: firm management and leadership; project management; interdisciplinary collaboration; ethics and professional judgement; legal issues; programming; accessibility; life safety; economics; construction; prefabrication and modular construction; building codes; and licensure.
Society + Community
Community-engaged scholarship, also referred to as public interest design, including engagement in partnerships with non-profit organizations that support specific communities or social challenges, including, but not limited to planning; programming; housing; climate change; public facilities; public space; and other topics that address complex social relationships through architectural scholarship.
Urbanism
The role of architecture in the urban environment including the distinctions between private and public, individual and social spaces, incorporating buildings and public space in a variety of scales and densities, including but not limited to infrastructure and networks; smart cities; smart growth; new urbanism; urban design, geography, and planning; and transportation.
What are the prospects for a transformative architectural education considering our evolving context and the emerging diversity of schools and communities?
Submission Requirements
Authors must submit through the ACSA online interface. All submitting authors must have an ACSA database profile. If you are not an ACSA member or do not have an account, you can create an account.
Authors may submit abstracts for papers or design projects. Submissions must report on recently completed work and cannot have been previously published or presented in public except to a regional audience. Submissions to the Annual Meeting will be accepted on all topics that contribute to architecture research and do not need to be tied to an overarching conference theme. While the Annual Meeting will have a theme for special focus sessions, workshops and keynotes, the peer-reviewed content presentations will not. Paper sessions will be organized through a bottom-up process based on submission content rather than a top-down approach where session topics are determined in advance in response to a theme.
Abstract Requirements:
- Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words, excluding the abstract title and endnotes.
- No more than 5 images may be submitted along with the abstract.
- Omit all author names from the submission and any other identifying information to maintain an anonymous review process.
- Abstract must be written in English.
- An author may present no more than two papers at the Annual Meeting.
- Papers must report on recently completed work, and papers cannot have been previously published or presented in public except to a regional audience.
Accepted abstracts will be invited to expand on their research and submit a full paper or project for a second peer-review. Full papers are to be 2500-4000 words with optional 1-5 images. Full Projects are to be up to 1000-words with 5-10 images.
We will offer virtual presentation options.
Submission Process
Follow the steps below to complete your submission. The ACSA online interface will guide you through the remaining steps.
- Log in using your ACSA username and password. Click here if you forgot your password.
- Click the Enter Now button.
- Select 109th Annual Meeting from the dropdown menu and click Create New Submission.
- Click Add Myself as Author and then add other authors, if applicable.
- On the next page, fill in the text boxes for title and abstract. These are simple copy/paste text boxes.
- To add images, attach them by clicking Browse.
- Select a primary and secondary topic including: Building Science & Technology, Design, Digital Technology, Ecology, Health, History, Theory, Criticism, Pedagogy, Practice, Society + Community, and Urbanism that describes the focus of the research, scholarship or creative practice. To see full description of Annual Meeting Topics, see above.
- Add three additional ranked keywords based on ACSA’s research areas used in the Index of Scholarship.
- Select Either: Paper or Project
- On the Proofread page you have the opportunity to review your work before finalizing your submission.
- Click Complete My Submission. You have completed your submission and should receive a confirmation email for verification.
Following the double-blind review process, the Review Committee makes final acceptance decisions. All authors will be notified of the status of their submission and will receive comments from their reviewers. Accepted abstracts will be invited to expand on their research and submit a full paper or project for a second peer-review.
Peer-Review Process
The Review Committee is composed of experts, especially those engaged in affiliated organizations, and structured by the ten topics:
- Building Science & Technology
- Design
- Digital Technology
- Ecology
- Health
- History, Theory, Criticism
- Pedagogy
- Practice
- Society + Community
- Urbanism
The Review Committee oversees the peer-review process, which includes matching reviewer’s expertise with that of the submission.
Authors will select 2 topics as well as three ranked keywords to their submission, in order to facilitate the matching process. All submissions will receive a two-stage peer-review process, with abstracts (for papers and projects) submitted first and then, for authors whose abstracts are accepted, full papers or projects second. Both stages will feature double-blind peer review by at least three reviewers and provide constructive comments that advance the effort and improve the review experience for both reviewers and reviewees.
Final acceptance of the full paper or full project translates to presentation at the conference and inclusion in the Proceedings. Sessions will be composed of both papers and projects, when possible, allowing for both scholarly and applied research to mutually demonstrate impact.
Two-stage Peer Review Process
Stage 1: Abstracts for papers and projects
- Abstract submissions for papers and projects include up to 500-word abstracts and up to 5 images. Omit all author names and any other identifying information. Abstract must be written in English.
- Authors will receive a double-blind review by at least three reviewers and comments for further development for possible full paper and/or project.
- Following acceptance, authors are asked to submit the full paper/project, responding to reviewers’ comments, for consideration in the conference.
Stage 2: Papers and Projects
- Full papers should be no longer than 4,000 words, excluding the abstract and endnotes, and may contain up to 5 images. Omit all author names and any other identifying information. Must be written in English.
- Full projects should include no more than 10 images and may contain up to 1000 words, excluding the abstract and endnotes. Omit all author names and any other identifying information. Must be written in English.
- Authors will receive a double-blind review by at least three reviewers and comments for further development for possible presentation and publication.
- Following acceptance, authors will finalize the full paper or full project addressing reviewers’ comments and required formatting for presentation at the Annual Meeting the subsequent publication.
Preview the review form prior to submission.
Paper & Project Presentations
Authors accepted to present at the conference will be required to complete a copyright transfer form and agree to present the paper/project at the Annual Meeting before it is published. It is ACSA policy that accepted authors must pay full conference registration for the Annual Meeting in order to be included in the conference presentation and Proceedings.
Sessions will be composed of both papers and projects, when possible, allowing for both scholarly and applied research to mutually demonstrate impact. Each session will have a moderator, who will coordinate with authors regarding session guidelines as well as the general expectations for the session in advance. Accepted authors will have approximately 10-minutes to present in a session at the Annual Meeting. ACSA reserves the right to withhold a paper from the program if the author fails to comply with guidelines, including deadlines and requests for submission of materials.
We will offer virtual presentation options.
Questions
Michelle Sturges
Conferences Manager
202-785-2324
msturges@acsa-arch.org
Eric W. Ellis
Sr. Director of Operations and Programs
202-785-2324
eellis@acsa-arch.org
