NEW YORK — On Wednesday, the architectural community converged both physically and virtually to examine the evolving boundaries of design, urbanism, and the built environment. Approximately 200 people gathered at the French Institute/Alliance Française in Manhattan, while over a thousand more tuned in remotely, to participate in Architectural Record’s annual Innovation Conference. Held in person for the first time since 2019, the prominent industry event centered around the timely and provocative theme “Architecture and Its Alternatives.”
The day’s presentations offered a sweeping global tour of radical practices, ecological preservation, community-driven urban planning, and the expanding societal responsibilities of the modern architect. From remote rural villages in Burkina Faso to dense metropolitan centers like Beijing, Chicago, and New York, the speakers collectively challenged conventional design paradigms and urged the profession to think expansively about the future.
Radical Practice and Contextual Roots
Kicking off the day’s events was architect Marlon Blackwell, whose talk, titled “Radical Practice,” emphasized that a deep consideration of place and lived experience has always been fundamental to his design philosophy. Since founding his practice, Marlon Blackwell Architects, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1992, his portfolio has earned widespread recognition for dramatic forms that draw direct inspiration in color and materiality from their surrounding environments across a variety of scales and budgets.
During his presentation, Blackwell highlighted several of his recent and notable projects, including the Thaden School in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the Marygrove Early Education Center in Detroit, illustrating how thoughtful architecture can actively engage with and elevate local communities.
Following this exploration of regional context, Huang Wenjing of Beijing-based OPEN Architecture focused her talk on site ecology and the early stages of the firm’s design process. Emphasizing an ethos that fosters harmony between the built and natural worlds, Wenjing discussed the challenges of working within fragile landscapes. For the UCCA Dune Art Museum on China’s eastern coast, she and her partner Li Hu grappled with a delicate sand dunescape by embedding 3,000 square feet of galleries entirely underground, thereby preserving the natural topography.
Wenjing also shared insights on the Chapel of Sound, located in a mountainous region of Hebei Province and featured as RECORD’s December 2021 cover story, as well as a proposed scheme for the Shenzhen Maritime Museum. She concluded her remarks by invoking a timeless piece of wisdom from Confucius: “What we do not want to happen to ourselves, we should not inflict on others.”
Rethinking Public Space and Adaptive Reuse
The conversation then shifted toward adaptive reuse, community infrastructure, and urban work-life dynamics. Paloma Strelitz, co-founder of the Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble, discussed how her background in adaptive reuse, temporary installations, and urban design has informed her current work as Creative Director at Patch. The startup aims to facilitate coworking and create dedicated spaces for communities to gather and convene.
Strelitz detailed Assemble’s diverse past projects, which range from transforming an old gas station into a neighborhood movie house to establishing the collective’s home base, Sugarhouse Studios, which provides affordable workspaces in east London. With her new venture at Patch, Strelitz and her colleagues plan to prototype coworking and community spaces to help towns and neighborhoods improve work-life balance and reduce long commutes.
Public infrastructure took center stage with Carol Ross Barney, winner of the 2022 Architectural Record Women in Architecture Award, who is widely celebrated for her civic projects in her beloved hometown of Chicago, most notably the renowned Chicago Riverwalk. Barney used her platform to argue for the enduring value of cities as beacons of efficiency and underscored the critical need for healthy, equitable, and sustainable infrastructure within them.
Referencing her designs for Chicago’s Morgan Street transit station—which utilizes durable polycarbonate and glass—and the steel perforated, shingle-tube Cermak-McCormick station, Barney demonstrated how the best solutions are seamlessly integrated. She also stressed the vital importance of active community engagement throughout the design process for public infrastructure.
Global Visions and the Preservation of Culture
Appearing as the conference’s sole virtual presenter, architect Bjarke Ingels of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) addressed the audience on a truly global scale. He spoke candidly about a myriad of pressing environmental pressures, ranging from carbon emissions and solar energy integration to pipeline infrastructure and resource extraction. Utilizing lively graphics to illustrate his points, Ingels acknowledged that some observers might view his firm’s sweeping approach to environmental concepts as megalomaniacal, but countered firmly by asserting that the profession cannot find viable solutions without thinking big first.
As tangible examples of architecture born from this expansive vision, Ingels presented the recently completed Google Bay View Campus in California and a cross-shaped furniture factory nestled in the Norwegian forest, designed to generate 55 percent less carbon emissions than a traditional manufacturing facility. He closed his presentation by urging audience members to visit the firm’s website to explore its “Plan for the Planet,” which aspires to serve as an open-source “Wikipedia” of sustainability knowledge for designers worldwide.
The dialogue on cultural continuity and preservation was further enriched by Monica Rhodes, a former Loeb Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and currently a fellow in historic preservation and conservation at the American Academy in Rome. With more than 15 years of experience operating at the intersection of community engagement, public lands, cultural preservation, and philanthropy, Rhodes addressed the urgent need to diversify and democratize the preservation field, noting that fewer than 15 BIPOC women currently work professionally in the discipline in the United States.
“What is preserved depends on who is at the table,” Rhodes told the audience. By actively expanding the involvement of diverse groups, she challenged preservationists to think more expansively about what society chooses to preserve and to deeply engage with the past while shaping a desired future.
Spatial Equity and the Expanding Role of the Architect
Brooklyn-based architects Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu, co-founders of SO – IL, brought a “Berlin-style” philosophy of urbanism to the stage, advocating for greater spatial equity and more porous boundaries between private and public enterprises. Their recent work, 450 Warren in Brooklyn, served as a prime example. The six-story, 18-unit residential complex features common and private outdoor spaces distributed throughout the building, with units connected by flexible cable-net-wrapped concrete walkways. The project offers a refreshing alternative to the blocky, uniform condominiums currently proliferating across Brooklyn. The partners also highlighted the porosity and functional openness of their design for the Amant Arts Campus, another notable Brooklyn project.
Shifting the discussion from physical design to broader ideological concerns, Tomas Rossant of Ennead Architects explored the changing societal role of the modern architect. Drawing a playful comparison between two Renaissance-era Italian architects—Filippo Brunelleschi, whom he nicknamed "Bruno," and Leon Battista Alberti, whom he called "Al"—Rossant traced how the profession has progressively restricted itself to the narrower realms of form, theory, and design.
He humorously argued that contemporary architects should reclaim a more expanded, proactive societal role akin to Brunelleschi’s historic influence. To illustrate how architects can successfully broaden their scope to benefit both professional practice and the wider community, Rossant pointed to Ennead’s foray into affordable housing and its strategic partnership with the startup Juno to develop innovative off-site fabricated apartments.
A Historic Appearance by the 2022 Pritzker Laureate
The conference reached a poignant climax with the appearance of the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, DDiébédo Francis Kéré, marking his only public speaking engagement in the Americas this year. Kéré shared reflections on his childhood in Burkina Faso and his initial journey into architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. As a university student, he earned the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for designing the Gando Primary School in his home village, a project that united the local community through collaborative construction methods.
That foundational project, along with recent endeavors like the Startup Lions Campus in Kenya, exemplifies Kéré’s distinctive practice of vernacular architecture. By utilizing accessible local materials—such as mud bricks, teak, and eucalyptus—alongside traditional construction techniques, his work has achieved global acclaim and paved the way for larger international commissions, including the design for the national parliament of Benin, which draws its inspiration from the traditional West African practice of convening to debate beneath the shade of a large tree.
At the conclusion of the day’s panels, Record Editor-in-Chief Cathleen McGuigan asked Kéré how winning the Pritzker Prize had transformed his life.
“The phone is ringing non-stop,” he replied with a smile. Visibly emotional, Kéré looked out at the audience and added, “I wish this for all of you.”
When McGuigan inquired whether Kéré had any upcoming projects planned for the United States, the architect offered a teasing, affirmative nod without disclosing specific details.
For those who were unable to attend the conference in person, on-demand video recordings of all speakers will be made available online by November 14th.
