Within the context of global challenges on sustainable access to and deployment of advanced technology, FABRICATE 2020 will address the design and making of resilient architecture. The event has been rescheduled from its original plan to run in early April 2020 at Here East, University College London. Now entirely online, global, and spanning four days instead of two, the event will broadcast twice daily to cater for audiences across hemispheres East and West, North and South.

FABRICATE 2020 will be hosted by Cornell on Zoom with interactive access for all existing ticket holders, presenters, partners and hosts. And as tickets are no longer available, the event will also be live streamed via Cornell’s Video On Demand platform to all guests who register through Eventbrite here.

Established at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL in 2011, and after tours to ETH Zurich in 2014 and ICD/ITKE Stuttgart in 2017, the fourth triennial FABRICATE conference is being held online from 09–12 September 2020. For its 2020 iteration, two UCL Faculties, The Bartlett and UCL Engineering, are hosting the conference and have joined forces with two co-organizers: Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Ithaca, New York; and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. FABRICATE 2020 is co-chaired by two world-leading experts in the fields of architecture and design; Professor Jenny Sabin of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning; and Professor Jane Burry, Dean, Design, Swinburne University of Technology.

Held over four days, the online conference will explore the overarching theme of Making Resilient Architecture across twenty presentations preceded by four keynote addresses from Julia Barfield (Marks Barfield Architects) and Kai Strehlke (Blumer Lehmann), Cristiano Ceccato (Zaha Hadid Architects), Philippe Block (ETH, Switzerland) and Meejin Yoon (Cornell University), each of which speaks to a critical and resonant theme:

– Bio-Materiality
– Synthesising design and production
– Optimisation for a Changing World
– Polemical Performative Practice

The conference is bringing together expertise from across the world, with speakers from 10 countries, including researchers from UCL, ETH Zurich, ICD/ITKE Stuttgart, CITA, IaaC, AAP and practitioners from AKT II, Foster and Partners, Heatherwick Studio, SHoP Architects, Matsys, Design-to-production, with industry partners AUTODESK, Arup, Happold Foundation, Perkins & Will, Boston Dynamics, to name a few.

Commenting about the global reach and impact of the conference, Professor Bob Sheil, co-founder of Fabricate, and Jenny Sabin, co-chair of Fabricate 2020 said:

“In the course of the past two decades’ digital technologies have been embraced by the mainstream as core processes and assets. What FABRICATE 2020 seeks to address is how this abundance of potential and prowess can be deployed to facilitate a more egalitarian and resilient built environment for people and our planet”. – Bob Sheil

“In an era where we are witnessing one of the biggest paradigm shifts in the conceptualization, making, and construction of buildings, FABRICATE celebrates and debates the most cutting-edge innovations in digital fabrication to impact architectural pedagogy, trans-disciplinary research, and applied professional practice in a changing world.” – Jenny Sabin