Deane Madsen

Sixty architectural thought leaders looked ahead to strategize new models of practice

With so much of the world in flux, through changes to climate, technologies, and construction techniques, how will architects adapt ways of practicing to advance the profession? That was the question put to a group of 60 professionals—architects, designers, and practitioners from related fields—at the Practice Innovation Lab, held in mid-October and hosted by the AIA’s Young Architects Forum.

Over the course of the program, attendees heard experiences and examples from innovators before forming smaller teams and brainstorming ideas to evolve architectural practice. Interspersed between these discussions, addresses on the topic of innovation demonstrated means of breaking new ground in fields such as interaction design and public interest design. The smaller teams later reconvened to pitch their proposals to each other before voting on the best practice models.

The Practice Innovation Lab crammed an intense level of consensus-building into a short timeframe, and was designed to get architects out from behind their desks to strategize rather than theorize. Organizers Evelyn Lee, AIA, and Milan Jordan, Assoc. AIA, and moderator Laura Weiss, Assoc. AIA, kicked off the event with a challenge to elevate and propel the profession through the development of new practice models that “make inspiration actionable,” according to Weiss. “[We’re] laying the framework to elevate the profession and move it forward,” she said. Lee called upon emerging professionals to be the vanguard of practice by “pushing boundaries to see values that we bring as architects to the broader community.”