ATUT Proceedings, 5th Annual Symposium of Architectural Research, Architecture and Resilience, August 28-30, 2013 Tampere, Finland

Globally, a scientific conference that focuses specifically on architectural research is a rarity. Finland has been a pioneer in foregrounding architects’ knowledge and their ways of knowing. The Annual Symposium of Architectural Research, organized by Aalto University, Tampere University of Technology, University of Oulu and the Finnish Association of Architects, has established itself as a key forum of knowledge exchange, debate and brainstorming. In August 2013, the 5th Symposium was organized in Tampere. The theme was “Architecture and Resilience”, in Finnish “Notkea arkkitehtuuri”. The Symposium was successful, bringing together 45 papers and presentations by scholars in architecture, urban design, planning and urban studies from around the world. This Proceedings Book presents a representative collection of the conference papers, peer-reviewed by the Scientific Committee. Its chapters mirror the tracks of the conference. When preparing the Symposium, we realized that the theme of resilience is very topical in architecture and urbanism. Clearly, the constantly changing urbanity warrants a revision of theories, methods, design applications and professional cultures. A systemic transition of our society and space is underway. Starting from these broad notions, we collectively engaged in multiple discussions to find out why resilience is important, how to study it, and what in our discourse is meant by “resilience” in the first place. The participants explored the current state of architecture and urbanism and their potential to shape the future. The complex and relational nature of this potential became evident. How should we tackle the complex, interlinked and inter-scalar social, spatial, natural and economic networks in constant flux? How to operationalize the links between architecture and the resilience of urban systems? What are the exemplary cases and projects? The papers by researchers and practitioners in architecture, urban design, planning, geography, social sciences, ecology and other fields approached these questions in various ways: from history to contemporary and future challenges, from the role of architects to urban evolution and permanence in change