EKA Arh Conference 2026: To Be Continued…
Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture
Põhja pst 7, Tallinn, Estonia
To Be Continued… invites research at the frontiers of planning and design – work that seeks to connect innovation with the lived realities of people and places. We are interested in methods and practices that address climate change, biodiversity loss, efficiency and affordability by bridging the gaps that slow progress. Where are the fault lines, the conflicts, the pressures, the unresolved questions? And how might architectural and urban research help carry these unfinished transitions forward as collective concerns rather than isolated technical tasks? The conference seeks contributions that make continuity possible where fragmentation dominates – not by delivering final answers, but by opening new alignments and directions. We welcome work that treats objective knowledge as a starting point and collective concern as the arena where it becomes actionable. To Be Continued… invites reflections and methods that support the ongoing negotiations through which meaningful transformations emerge.
EKA Arh conference is a biannual international peer-reviewed conference held as a satellite of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale. The previous iterations have been Space and Digital Reality in 2019, Innovation and Digital Reality in 2022, and Building Systems in 2024.
Important dates:
Abstract submission deadline March 31
Extended abstract notifications April 15
Extended abstract submission deadline May 31
Extended abstract review and acceptance to conference June 15
Full paper submission deadline August 15
Knowledge about climate change and the possible adaptations, mitigation strategies, and transformations of the built environment is more abundant than ever. Yet evidence alone does not create agreement. Meaningful transitions depend on whether this knowledge becomes a collective concern. Something shared, debated and shaped with those most affected by change – from residents and communities to public authorities and industry actors. Without participation and inclusion, even the most necessary transitions stall. Fragmentation persists: in expertise, in governance, in society. Change feels imminent yet never arrives. What is needed is not only pertinent facts, but a continuous negotiation of concerns that can sustain and steer positive transformations. The conference will look at these concerns in three scales: urban, building, and material.
Cities and regions are confronting a new reality in which established certainties no longer hold. Borders re-emerge; flows of energy, people and goods falter; long-standing networks must be reconfigured. New infrastructures appear even as political divisions sharpen. In this environment, collective concerns – security, autonomy, identity, resilience – shape decisions as powerfully as technical assessments. Memory, relationships and narrative can outweigh models and metrics in determining what is prioritised and what is resisted. Continuity itself becomes contested territory: borders are redrawn, priorities renegotiated, and new forms of connection gradually take shape.
The built environment reflects these tensions. Buildings leak energy, sit in the wrong places, or no longer serve contemporary needs, yet they are too valuable to abandon and too costly to replace. Working with what exists – adapting, densifying, transforming – becomes essential. Technical assessments meet the capacities and constraints of practitioners and industry, as well as the lived concerns of residents and communities, where identity, equity and belonging shape decisions as much as feasibility. The scale of the challenge calls for approaches that span systems rather than isolated sites and that support shared orientations amid competing priorities.
Material cycles tell a similar story. Landfills grow, demolition continues even in renovation, and markets still favour the extraction of virgin resources over reuse. Circularity is widely endorsed in principle yet structurally hindered in practice. Overcoming these barriers requires coordination across technology, policy, logistics and design – aligning standards, timelines and responsibilities so that reuse becomes viable rather than exceptional.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Aleksi Neuvonen, Demos Helsinki, Helsinki Finland
Aleksi Neuvonen is an acknowledged social entrepreneur and futures thinker, best known as the co-founder of the think tank Demos Helsinki. He is dedicated to analyzing how societies and organizations evolve, or resist change, and is recognized as an expert in this field. Holding a PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen and Tampere University, Aleksi has focused his career on transformative change methods, publishing over 30 reports, books, and academic articles. Aleksi has taught future studies at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University. He is a long-standing board member of CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation and the ecological retail chain Ruohonjuuri, and founder of the urban environmental NGO Dodo.
Hiroto Kobayashi, KMDW / Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
Hiroto Kobayashi is an architect and professor known for his community-based and participatory approach to architecture and urban design, working across scales from furniture to city districts. He studied architecture at Kyoto University (BA 1986, MA 1988) and later earned a Master in Design Studies (1992) and Doctor of Design (2003) from Harvard GSD as a Fulbright Scholar. After working at Nikken Sekkei and Foster and Partners, he co-founded Kobayashi Maki Design Workshop (KMDW) in Tokyo in 2003, which served as SOM’s Japan liaison office until 2022. Following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, he initiated the Veneer House project. He has been a professor at Keio University since 2003 and has held visiting positions at Harvard GSD, MIT, UC Berkeley, and Ljubljana University.