Architecture Unlocks Nature is an international conference that will take place on January 24, 25 and 26, 2024 at the Politecnico di Milano.
This conference aims to gather contributions from European researchers and Ph.D. candidates interested in exploring how different viewpoints in architecture address the ecological transition.
By exploring both theory and practice, the intent is to provide a European overview of the field of design and the various standpoints in academic research today.
What are the roles of Design and Nature today? How do they engage with one another?
How does ecological transition become a spatial matter?
How are architecture, landscape and urban design contributing to, and being influenced by, this change?

The theoretical background of the conference is based on the outcomes of the EAAE Charter on Architectural Research, which emphasises the importance of SDGs in reflecting on how the climate crisis and the ecological transition impact space. Also the work carried on by the New European Bauhaus, which focuses on the same topics from a European perspective, is taken into consideration to discuss the role of architecture in ecological transition. To expand on these themes, the conference will focus is on how architecture unlocks nature and will highlight best practices as well as the ambiguities of the discourse about nature in contemporary architectural practice. Using this framework the conference is looking for contributions which inquire into how architecture and research can, as the EAAE Charter states, «understand, explain, anticipate and influence the consequences of these changes», and which explicitly investigate, among others, themes like the typological implication of nature, biodiverse environments and their care, social access and the right to green spaces.
The aim is to gather voices that are able to critically reflect on the relationship between project and nature, to explore and redefine architecute’s role and its theoretical implications for ecological transition.
Contributions can include, among other themes, theoretical research, presentation of best practices, design-driven reflections, and exploratory research.
Which projects, conceptual frameworks, cultural implications and critical positions are important in the current design panorama? Which new possibilities open up an experimental field in research and practice?
How is academic research addressing the necessary ecological transition, and how are young European researchers addressing it?