RIXARCH 2026: IV International Architectural Design Conference
We are excited to announce that the IV International Architectural Design Conference – RIXARCH 2026 will take place on March 31 – April 1, 2026, bringing together leading researchers, practitioners, architects, designers, students, and policy-makers to explore the 2026 conference theme: LIV-IN.
About the Theme: LIV-IN
LIV-IN asks how we live-in cities today – and how we might live-in them better tomorrow.
The hyphen signals a shift from static “housing” toward processes of inhabitation embedded in infrastructures, economies, technologies, and cultures.
The theme opens through two conceptual lenses:
- LIV – life, livability, living infrastructures, living innovations. Cities as metabolic systems: energy, materials, ecosystems, climate adaptation, and social vitality.
- IN – in-place, in-common, in-between, inclusive, intergenerational, interoperable, intelligent. A focus on embeddedness: living in data and platforms (AI/smart systems), in finance and policy, in commons and cooperatives, in domestic rituals, and in public–private thresholds.
By bridging the continuum of home–house–housing, RIXARCH 2026 invites scholarship and practice that connect the scale of the room and household to the block, district, and region – testing how design, development, policy, and technology co-produce the conditions of dwelling.
Key questions include:
- When does a house become a home – and how do design, tenure, and policy enable or erode that transition?
- How do housing products (turnkey rental, co-living, micro-units) reshape social contracts and urban form?
- How might responsible design address affordability, climate risk, and inclusivity without sacrificing dignity and aesthetics?
2026 Topic Tracks
Urban Living: Philosophical Aspects & Urban Metaphors
Inhabitation as ethos; dwelling phenomenology; home–city metaphors; place-attachment; time–space relations.
Urban Typologies
Perimeter blocks, hybrid slabs, vertical communities, transit-based housing, adaptive reuse, interior–urban continuums.
Private Houses & Villas
Urban villas, townhouses, courtyard houses, guest houses, densification without high-rise, family/collective hybrids, thresholds between garden–street–home, heritage contexts.
Responsible Design (ESG)
Just transition; circular construction; social value; governance frameworks; design ethics.
Housing & Turnkey Rental Products
Built-to-rent, micro-living, dormitories; standardization vs. customization; lifecycle and quality.
Co-op Living & Commons
Co-housing, community land trusts, shared infrastructures, care networks, new governance models.
Innovations & Technologies
Industrialized construction (MMC), timber and bio-based materials, digital twins, AI-driven design and management, digital rental platforms.
Smart Cities & Domestic Data
Sensors and analytics, energy management, privacy, ethics, and their impact on everyday life.
Soft City (after David Sim)
Human-scale density, proximity services, walkability, mixed use – and translating these into policy.
Banking Sector & Finance Models
Mortgages, REITs, cooperative and ethical finance, risk management.
Real Estate & Development Perspectives
Viability, procurement, policy alignment, partnerships across public and private stakeholders.
To explore the full conference programme, visit www.rixarchconference.com