Photo: Casa da Arquitectura | Ivo Tavares
CICA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM 2026
ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM: RESISTANCE AND COMMITMENT
Hybrid Conference: 10-11, 17-18 October 2026 at the
Casa da Arquitectura – Portuguese Centre for Architecture
Matosinhos, Portugal
Call for Abstracts
Truth, if rigorously deduced, then uttered or written, leads to enlightenment. In his Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech of 1957, Albert Camus reminded us that writers serve truth and liberty: “the nobility of our craft will always be rooted in two commitments, difficult to maintain: the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance to oppression.”
Today, once again the world faces the collapse of shared meaning and the erosion of collective hope, natural and human catastrophes, the rise of military and oppressive regimes, the annihilation of communities, and the violent seizure of land. In this context, writing reasserts itself as an act of resistance, a means of giving voices to those who remain unheard.
Where architecture is professionally compromised by its dependence on power, architectural criticism has the potential to be a space of resistance and commitment within the discipline, capable of uncovering the hidden structures of power, meaning, and social formation.
Abstracts
Abstracts (max. 500 words) should propose one case study that has been visited by the author that will serve as a paradigm for the conference topic.
Conference
The selection to the conference is in two stages: first, acceptance of abstracts; second, development of abstracts into draft papers. Based on these, authors will be invited to one of the four sessions together with the keynote lecturers of the hybrid conference 10–11, 17–18 October 2026.
Publication
The proceedings will be published in 2027 by Park Books of Zurich.
Keynote Lecturers
Patti Anahory
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf
Valerio Paolo Mosco
Joan Ockman
Organization
Ana Tostões (Chair), Pedro Baía, Nuno Grande, Carlos Machado e Moura, João Belo Rodeia, Luís Santiago Baptista, Marta Sequeira and Susana Ventura
Partnership
Casa da Arquitectura – Portuguese Centre for Architecture
CICA International Committee of Architectural Critics
Conference Format
The hybrid format of the conference allows for active de-bate between the audience and lecturers. Presentations are succinct to allow for ample discussion time. Besides the four keynote lectures, there will be up to 16 short papers; depending on the availability of funds, authors of short papers will be invited to the Casa da Arquitectura – Portuguese Centre for Architecture. The conference will be recorded and placed on YouTube. The conference language will be in English. Attendance is open and free of charge.
Dates
Call for Abstracts: 3 March 2026
Deadline for Abstracts: 30 April 2026
Notification of Acceptance: 29 May 2026
Submission of Draft Papers: 26 June 2026
Return of Edited Papers: 28 August 2026
Conference Sessions: 10–11, 17–18 October 2026
Organizing Committee
Ana Tostões, IST University of Lisbon; Nuno Sampaio, Ana Pinto, Carla Barros, Casa da Arquitectura – Portuguese Centre for Architecture, Matosinhos; Pedro Baía, Nuno Grande, Carlos Machado e Moura, Luís Santiago Baptista, Marta Sequeira and Susana Ventura.
Scientific Committee
Juan Calatrava, University of Granada
Carlos Eduardo Comas, UFRGS, Porto Alegre
Elias Constantopoulos, Hellenic Institute of Architecture
Pierre-Alain Croset, Polytechnic School of Milan
Fernando Diez, Di Tella University, Buenos Aires
Alejandra Celedón Foster, University Diego Portales, S. de Chile
Jasna Galjer, University of Zagreb
Berna Göl, Yeditepe University, Istanbul
Morten Birk Jørgensen, Royal Academy, Copenhagen
Li Xiangning, Tongji University, Shanghai
Robert McCarter, Washington University, St. Louis
Kaiwan Mehta, Balwant Sheth School of Architecture, Mumbai
Valerio Paolo Mosco, IUAV, Venice
João Navarrete, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Louise Noelle Gras, UNAM, Ciudad de Mexico
Şengül Öymen Gür, Beykent Üniversitesi, Istanbul
José Manuel Pozo Municio, ETSAUN, Pamplona
Jaime Solares Carmona, Yale University, New Haven
Teresa Stoppani, Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich
Ana Tostões, CiTUA-Instituto Técnico, Lisbon
Kostas Tsiambaos, National Technical University of Athens, Athens
Wilfried Wang, CICA President, Tongji University
Mariana Wilderom, Universidade São Judas Tadeu
