Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development

The increasing urbanization of many parts of the world coupled with other global issues such as environmental pollution, energy consumption, and resources shortage are resulting in major urban crises in many parts of the world. In an effort to explore and map the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at Al-Fateh University and the Center for the Study of Architecture in the Arab Region (CSAAR) have joined together to organize an international conference on sustainable architecture and urban development.

The conference aims to address the various aspects of urban development in accordance with the principles of sustainability. The conference will address issues such as ecological and social sustainability, transit-oriented development, neotraditional design, eco-friendly development, economic and environmental sustainability, environmentalism, regionalism and architectural design. In addition, the conference will explore how neighborhood design can further a sustainable region and how local culture and history can interact with new urbanism concepts to create a new mix of urban development options. Of particular interest for the conference is sustainability in the Arab cities. These cities undergo one of the fastest rates of developments in the world. This rapid, often erratic, growth has not occurred without unwanted consequences in the built environment.

The theme of the conference is "Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development". It aims to provide a forum to examine and discuss solution-oriented methods for implementing sustainable development and urbanism, and to stimulate more ideas and useful insights regarding architecture and urban development within the context of sustainability. The conference welcomes papers that address issues related to sustainability in urban development and planning in the Middle East and elsewhere. In the interest of tackling these issues from multiple perspectives, we invite a wide array of research approaches, ranging from critical-theoretical interrogations to experimental-empirical studies that would encompass not only the spatial and physical aspects of the built environment, but also the social, economic, legislative, and ecological contexts and consequences.