SAA 2024 Conference

We are excited to present the 2024 SAA Conference, Prompt Architecture_ A Symposium on Placemaking and Practice in the A.I. Era. This conference will serve as a dynamic platform for discourse amongst architects and industry peers, delving into the multifaceted opportunities that A.I. offers to the building industry, juxtaposed with the very human side of physical space and placemaking in our communities. As our world becomes increasingly digitized, the symposium underscores the pivotal role of physical spaces in anchoring human experience and fostering societal connections.

Attendees will engage in thought-provoking discussions, sharing insights, and envisioning pathways towards a harmonious integration of A.I. technologies with timeless principles of design, ultimately shaping the future of our built environment.

The international line up of speakers brings expertise from the Netherlands to across Europe and the USA in a diverse array of areas including resiliency, climate change, tectonics, programming, and how to make a city "sticky".

The program includes a public keynote address with Jorick Beijer on Thursday evening as part of the City Builders speaker series presented by the City of Regina and the Downtown and Warehouse BIDs, followed by an engaging day of presentations on Friday that will end with a panel session with all speakers to round out the day.

Saturday brings the morning member forum and AGM followed by a placemaking charette presented in partnership with the City of Regina where we will explore bold future possibilities for 3 distinct areas of Regina facilitated by Jorick Beijer.

We can't wait to see you there!

Thursday May 23rd

4 :00 - 7:00 pm: Conference Registration

6 :00 - 7:00 pm: Conference Delegate Reception (Includes light snacks and a cash bar)

7 :00 - 9:00 pm: Keynote Address: Jorick Beijer - Human After All: Nurturing Connectivity in Social Central Districts

• Keynote address open to the public

9 :00 pm - 12:00 am: Hospitality Suite

Friday May 24th

7 :30 - 8:30 am: Breakfast and Conference Registration

8 :30 - 9:00 am: Welcome and Opening Remarks

9 :00 - 10:30 am: Eric Cesal - Designing Through Uncertainty: A.I., Disaster, and the Search for Transcendence

1 0:30 - 11:00 am: Refreshment/Coffee Break

1 1:00 - 12:00 pm: Jeph Maystruck - Architects of Influence: How Influencers, Algorithms, and A.I. Have Changed the World Forever and What to Do About It

1 2:00 - 1:00 pm: Lunch

1 :00 - 2:00 pm: Matt Walker - Acclimating Architecture - Tectonism for Advanced Practice in the Novel Technological Era

2 :00 - 2:30 pm: Refreshment/Coffee Break

2 :30 - 4:00 pm: Daniel Bolojan - A(I)rchitecture: Design as a Latent Condition

4 :00 - 5:00 pm: Panel Discussion - Facilitated by Jeph Maystruck: Role of A.I. in the Design of the Human Environment

5 :00 - 5:30 pm: President's Wrap Up

7 :00 - 9:00 pm: Dine Around Downtown Social Night

• Optional: On your own. Reservations for four select locations to be made for delegates.

9 :00 pm - 12:00 am: Hospitality Suite

S aturday May 25th

8 :00 - 9:00 am: Breakfast and Conference Registration

9 :00 - 9:30 am: Member Forum Session 1

9 :30 - 10:00 am: Member Forum Session 2

10 :30 - 10:30 am: Refreshment/Coffee Break

10 :30 - 10:30 am: Member Forum Session 3

1 1:00 - 12:00 pm: SAA Annual General Meeting (AGM)

1 2:00 - 1:00 pm: Lunch

1 :00 - 4:00 pm: Design Charette, hosted by Jorick Beijer

6 :00 - 7:00 pm: Champagne Reception

7 :00 - 9:00 pm: President's Dinner

9 :00 pm - 12:00 am: Hospitality Suite

Jorick Beijer

Jorick Beijer is an urbanist and co-founder of BLOSSITY, an urban strategy consultancy specialised in campuses, innovation districts and corporate urbanism.

BLOSSITY has established an international identity with a wide range of projects for pioneering consumer brands, higher education institutions and city leaders.

Founded in 2013 by Beijer and social scientist Marije Blok, the award-winning Dutch practice aims to creatively connect human behavior and the built environment. Unlike traditional design firms, Blossity operates as a collective of doers with deep expertise in positioning, programming and partnership building.

Beijer has been responsible for projects such as the Active Cities strategy for Nike Inc, the global headquarters for Siemens Healthineers and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. He is currently working on the EMEA headquarters for Nike Inc, the positioning of Dublin Town and the ‘Kenniskwartier’ Innovation District Zuidas, in Amsterdam.

With a background in architecture and urban design, Beijer graduated cum laude in the Complex Cities program at Delft University of Technology and the Future Initiatives Studio at the Southern California Institute for Architecture. He is a teacher of professional practice at Delft University of Technology and is a global keynote speaker on the future of cities.

www.blossity.nl

Eric Cesal

Eric J. Cesal is a distinguished designer, educator, writer, and post-disaster expert, known for leading reconstruction programs after major disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, the Great East Japan Tsunami, and Superstorm Sandy. With expertise in architecture, international development, economics, and design futurism, Cesal has been dubbed "Architecture's First Responder" by The Daily Beast for his work with Architecture for Humanity from 2010 to 2014. He has been widely interviewed and has served as a juror for various design awards, frequently lecturing globally on disaster reconstruction, climate adaptation, and design futurism.

Cesal has taught at WashU, Berkeley and Harvard and is the author of "Down Detour Road, An Architect in Search of Practice" (MIT Press, 2010), which explores the connection between architecture's economic challenges and its failure to prioritize urgent social issues. He also served as the Special Projects Director for the Curry Stone Foundation, hosting the pioneering podcast Social Design Insights.

Currently, Cesal is working on several writing projects at the intersection of design, climate change, and artificial intelligence. He holds advanced degrees in Architecture and Construction Management, as well as an MBA.

Jeph Maystruck

Jeph has an utter disregard for the status quo. He gives keynotes regularly on marketing and social media, hands out lottery tickets daily, and runs a marketing company out of Regina called StratLab. Outside of "work" Jeph co-founded Big Idea Camp, co-founded The Honest Conference, and has taught Marketing at Saskatchewan Polytechnic and Social Media at the University of Regina. Jeph has published over 100 songs on Soundcloud (his DJ name is DJ Clumsy Vegetarian) but his greatest achievement in life so far has been fatherhood - he currently has a two and a five-year-old.

Matt Walker

Matt Walker is a Computational Designer at Zaha Hadid Architects’ Computation and Design group (ZHACODE) in London, UK, blending material applications with computational design and fabrication. With a background in practice-embedded research, he explores digital mass timber, parametric design, and AI-driven generative processes. Holding dual Master's degrees in Architecture and Environmental Design from the University of Calgary, he focuses on bridging design and fabrication. Matt’s expertise encompasses procedural modeling, geometry processing, robotic programming, and designing with AI, positioning him as an emerging leader in architectural technology. With a passion for innovation, he integrates theory and practice to deliver cutting-edge architectural solutions, pushing the boundaries of creation.

Daniel Bolojan

Daniel Bolojan is the Director of the Creative AI Lab and an Assistant Professor of AI and Computational Design at FAU, a Ph.D. candidate at Die Angewandte Vienna, and a Creative AI and Computational Design Specialist at CoopHimmelblau. Recognized as a leading voice in Creative AI, Deep Learning, and computational design within architectural realms, his research delves into the creation of deep learning strategies tailored for architectural design. This research addresses the complexities of shared-agency, designer creativity, and augmentation of design potency.

As a Creative AI and Computational Design Specialist at Coop Himmelb(l)au, Daniel pioneered the development of the award winning DeepHimmelblau Neural Network. This innovative project was developed with the aim of augmenting design processes and designers’ abilities.

In 2013, he founded his own research studio Nonstandardstudio, a research studio that operates at the confluence of several crucial domains, including creative AI, deep learning, computation, multi-agent systems, generative design, and algorithmic techniques. The studio endeavors to create highly autopoietic systems through the application of generative design strategies and algorithmic techniques. The result of these efforts aims to offer novel opportunities for the architectural organization, articulation, and signification of highly complex systems.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Hotel Saskatchewan, Autograph Collection, 2125 Victoria Avenue, Regina, Canada