Shift2020 International Architecture Conference

Today, the relationship between “architecture” and “community” is inextricably complex, paradoxical and evolving. On one hand, the impact of technology such as social media has enabled virtual communal space resulting in formation of global communities across borders and continents. Conversely, the impacts of globalization, migration and climate change have resulted in concepts of local communities, displaced communities, resilient and contested communities. These circumstances have opened up a contemporary discourse on the role of architecture in building communities. How is the notion of “community” defined and re-imagined through architecture? Through this inquiry, the challenge that architecture faces in these circumstances is two folds: how do we begin to define a commonality and differences that is necessary to forge a community, and in what way can architecture enact this through its physical space and built form.