The AIA International Region developed and hosted a very successful facade conference at the WinExpo trade show in Guangzhou, China from March 4-5, 2019. The theme of the conference was ‘Facade Design and the Impact of Technology”. The IR were brought in by Informa who were the organisers of the trade show. The facade conference drew nearly 300 attendees.
The 2-day facade conference consisted of 12 presentations by architects, facade engineers, and facade contractors. There was a good mix of topics between design and technical. Speakers included Carl Knutson; Design Director - Perkins & Will; Bernard Chang, Partner - KPF; Keith Boswell, Technical Director -SOM ; Byeonghee Yun , Associate Director; BuroHappold (Facade) Engineering; Zhang Zheng - Institute of Architectural Design and Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd.; and Ken Y. Luo; Chief Engineer of Façade Design & Consulting - Center of China Architectural Design Research Institute.
The AIA IR reached out to the Architectural Society of China (ASC) and the Architectural Society of Shanghai China (ASSC) and both organisations sent conference speakers, thereby building on the ties between our respective organisations.
The International Region was represented by past-president Dr Christine Bruckner, FAIA who also chaired a panel discussion on emerging technologies.
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Lester Korzilius; FAIA, RIBA
Conference organiser
AIA IR Vice-President
