EDRA53 Call for Proposals

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EDRA53 Call for Proposals

EDRA53 Greenville HEALTH IN ALL DESIGN: PROMOTING HEALTH, EQUITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) invites practitioners, researchers, and educators to submit their proposals and join the 53rd annual conference on the theme Health in All Design. The conference will focus on the role of the built environment in promoting health, equity, sustainability and resilience as we move beyond the pandemic.

As we experience a global pandemic, it has become imperative that environmental designers and researchers consider health – a state of complete physical, social and mental wellbeing over time – as a critical goal for all design projects. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of the built environment in promoting safe and healthy lifestyles by providing access to outdoors and green spaces for physical activity good air quality and building layouts that support hygienic practices indoors; and ergonomic design that promotes wellness in workplaces.

The pandemic has also highlighted stark inequalities – black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) communities have been disproportionately impacted in terms of mortality, illness and unemployment. Providing access to safe and affordable housing, healthcare and health-promoting resources has never been more critical for these communities.

Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity, including transportation, building construction, and operation, contribute to climate change, and the destruction of ecosystems. Designs should not only improve individual and community health, but also help preserve planetary health. Inclusive of sustainability, cities should help nurture diverse environments, cultures, and economies locally and globally. Design should also support resiliency so communities can anticipate and recover from the unknown challenges that lie ahead. This is needed now more than ever before.

EDRA53 will take place in Greenville, South Carolina, a prime example of our proposed theme: Health in all Design. Forty years ago, downtown Greenville, SC, was almost completely derelict. Today Greenville is thriving in part because of a series of successful public-private partnership efforts. The decades-long process of revitalization—including extensive participation by Clemson University and the Clemson City and Regional Planning Program—yielded the addition of flagship developments such as an attractive performing arts center, a riverfront revitalization which turned a toxic dumping ground into an inviting public park replete with waterfall and mixed-use development, and a minor league ballpark which is a miniature replica of Boston’s Fenway Park.

Today, Greenville often appears on “best downtown” lists, is the subject of frequent media coverage, and hosts political delegations from cities across the nation who come to see the results of the Greenville miracle and learn lessons that can be applied to their communities.

How will the design of physical environments change in the future to address the challenges highlighted by the pandemic? Do we need to rethink the design of environments to prevent the social isolation experienced by the elderly and children during the pandemic? What strategies need to be implemented to support communication and collaborations as workplaces become more virtual? What role do natural and built environments play in supporting mental health? How should cities be designed to promote access to health promoting resources among disadvantaged communities?

This conference invites papers that focus on the theories, research methods, histories, practices, and design solutions related to promoting health, equity, sustainability and resilience through the design of the natural and built environment. Read more in our Call for Proposals.

EDRA53 CALL FOR PROPOSALS & SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
EDRA53 SUBMISSION PORTAL

EDRA53 conference themes

EDRA 53 provides the space to brainstorm how environmental design researchers collaborate with academia, not-for-profit organizations, public sectors, and private sectors to lead the charge in transforming people’s relationships with each other, their communities, and their environments toward net positive futures. We encourage you to join us as we debate, discuss, reflect, and transform our capacity to impact social, environmental, and economic challenges around the world.

HEALTH, EQUITY, RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

This track will examine how we generate knowledge to address the great challenges of our time that influence intersections across human health, community health, and planetary health. Examples of topics include public health issues, an increasingly digital society, climate change, social inequities, overpopulation, stewarding tangible and intangible heritage, an increase in both waste and pollution (soil, air, noise, water), natural resource depletion, access to affordable housing, access to food and water, loss of bio-diversity, loss of cultural diversity, and urban sprawl. How do we rely upon simultaneity and adjustability to manage these challenges both locally and globally?

DESIGNING FOR DIVERSE POPULATIONS

This track will focus on how we design environments that recognize the needs of a diverse population shaped by people’s unique perspectives, life experiences, socio-demographics, cultural influences, identities, geography, and preferences to name a few. What impacts did our buildings, communities and natural environments have on vulnerable populations including children, ethnic minorities, young adults, the elderly, people with mental health disorders, and people with physical disabilities during the pandemic? How will the lessons learned during the pandemic shape the design of future environments to better support all people?

DESIGNING FOR HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

This track will focus on the various ways planning and design professionals, researchers and educators define health and apply this concept to their practice. How does the concept of health affect their philosophy toward design, approaches, methods and tools used to design for health and wellbeing? What is the theoretical foundation for research and practice focused on the built environment and health? What are the emerging design tools (data, simulation, virtual) and how are they being deployed in design projects? What are the ways researchers are studying communities, landscapes, buildings, spaces, and products in relation to health-related outcomes?

ACTIVISM & ADVOCACY

This track will focus on critical conversations to seek ways to improve advocacy for better designed environments that promote health and wellbeing for all people, communities, animals, eco-systems and living systems. We are especially interested in magnifying how to create equitable design practices, improve diversity within our design community, and identify best practices that can transform local practice and global movements toward higher-quality environments. This track will cover the methods, conversations, and outcomes for those researching and designing under the auspices of design activism, action research, public service, and public education. We encourage not only success stories but also critical discussions of pitfalls and “failures” that serve as learning opportunities for this work.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS

This track focuses on the different ways of working that have proven to be effective during and following a post-pandemic world. Armed with new perspectives gained from an awakening during the pandemic, this track will highlight how professionals and academics are crossing boundaries to address emerging issues that compromise health, equity, sustainability and resilience in a post-pandemic world. The intersections between academia and practice that offer new modes of collaborating to create better environments that promote health are covered. What are the means for embarking on productive collaborations and partnerships? What are the benefits and challenges? What critiques emerge when blurring and/or borrowing from multiple disciplines?

PEDAGOGIES & METHODS

This track examines the ways in which teaching promotes design and research excellence, innovation, and/or activism related to health, equity, resiliency and sustainability. What methodologies are being embraced by environmental design faculty in order to innovate and stimulate teaching and research? How are emerging design processes and tools (data, simulation, virtual, etc.) being used in the classroom and/or in research? What new methods, ways of working, or insights can be shared to help advance critical thinking, and the leadership to advocate for change and the practice of environmental design for health? What methods and ways of working can help bring together academics and practitioners?

EDRA53 submission types

Submissions must be made through the EDRA53 submission portal following the session types described below. Session lengths will be 60-90 minutes unless otherwise noted. Intensive sessions, groups presentations and the Graduate Student Workshop will be peer-reviewed. Individual presentations and visual presentations will be blind peer reviewed, meaning authors should not include their names or other identifying information in the abstracts and papers. Intensives and the Graduate Student Workshop will be held June 1, 2022 at the Clemson University campus in Clemson, South Carolina. For more information, visit the EDRA53 home page at this link.

I. INTENSIVES

June 1, 2022 Intensive Sessions
Intensives are sessions that provide an opportunity for a group to devote a significant amount of time to in-depth explorations of a single topic or theme. They can use a variety of formats (e.g., presentation, charrette, working session) to engage varying numbers of attendees. Intensive sessions will be held on Wednesday, June 1st at the Clemson University campus in Clemson, SC. The due date for intensive session submissions is November 1, 2021.

II. INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS

Paper/abstracts presentations
Individual presentations should focus on original scholarly or professional research that has not been published or presented elsewhere. There are two types of individual submissions: an abstract or a paper. The due date for individual presentation submissions is November 1, 2021. All individual presentation abstracts and full papers will undergo a blind peer-review process in two stages. The first stage will have three decisions: Accepted, Accepted Pending Revisions, or Rejected. Abstracts and Papers receiving an Accepted Pending Revisions decision must be revised per reviewers’ comments and uploaded by February 7, 2022 in order to be fully considered for acceptance.

III. group presentations

Symposia
A symposia submission organizes a group of three to four presenters, plus one facilitator as a forum, around a theme on emerging conceptual and methodological issues or a critical discussion of exploratory research and work in progress. The discussion moderator must be able to assure a professional level of discourse. Sessions should include time for audience questions and comments. The due date for group presentation submissions is November 1, 2021.

Workshops
A workshop submission may be designed to collaboratively explore a particular research or practice construct; or discuss a particular advanced design, method or practice concept. Workshops should be considered as interactive sessions and therefore should limit time spent in formal presentations and encourage interaction and discussion among organizers and audience.

Practitioner/researcher collaborations
The practitioner/researcher collaborations are group sessions intended to provide a forum in which collaborative, cross disciplinary teams can describe the integration of research and design or planning practice on specific projects. Teams can also profile a project of the built or natural environment where research has been used to inform adaptive management practices or policies. Collaborative presentations by both a researcher and practitioner (or a team where they are represented) should describe the problem addressed, place, project, research methods and outcomes.

IV. visual PRESENTATIONS

Display posters
Display Posters provide an opportunity for open discussion among the authors and an interested audience. Authors are invited to stand by their display and discuss its content, process, or design with other conference attendees. The display should represent in-progress or finished research that lends itself to visual presentation, and/or research-informed design projects. Among other types of research, poster sessions are an appropriate outlet for professional or student studio-based design work, experimental or empirical prototypes, policy studies, or visual research. The due date for visual presentation submissions is January 10, 2022. The due date for uploading visual presentations (poster and pre-recorded presentation) is May 2, 2022.

Digital Media Shorts
Digital Media Shorts are a kind of multimedia poster. They are a means to offer a brief digital presentation in an engaging, abbreviated way. Digital Media Shorts can include video, audio, slides and animation and should be limited to 6 minutes of total presentation time. Submissions are intended to impart a story about research or practical research application through image, moving image, with or without sound.

V. GRADUATE STUDENT MENTORING WORKSHOP

On June 1, 2022
The Graduate Student Mentoring Workshop is designed to provide a forum for graduate students to present and discuss their ongoing research with senior mentors in environmental design research and affiliated fields. The purpose of the workshop is to strengthen and further thesis/dissertation work, support the development of networks for young researchers, and offer professional advice. Graduate students who are EDRA members and are enrolled in Master or Doctoral programs in the Environmental Design and affiliated fields are eligible to participate in the Graduate Student Mentoring Workshop. For more information, please visit the EDRA53 Home Page and follow our social media. The due date for the Graduate Student Mentoring Workshop submissions is January 10, 2022.

Selection and review process

Individual Presentations (Abstracts and Full Papers) and Visual Presentations (Posters and Digital Media Shorts) will undergo a blind peer-review process.
Blind peer-review requires authors not to include names or other identifying information in the uploaded abstracts and papers. Other types of submissions will be peer-reviewed and accepted based on recommendations from the reviewing board and at the discretion of the EDRA 53 Organizing Committee.

Submitting a proposal?

EDRA53 CALL FOR PROPOSALS & SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
EDRA53 SUBMISSION PORTAL

Questions about our Call for Proposals?
The EDRA53 Greenville team is happy to assist you. Just email us at conference@edra.org.