IAPEX ARCHITECTURAL FORUM 2025
Urban Horizons:
Architecture and the Future of Urban Precincts
Rapid increase in population and urbanization, on an unprecedented scale, across the world,
underlines the imperative need for innovative and inclusive strategies in designing and
managing urban precincts. This year’s IAPEX 2025 theme, Urban Horizons, explores the
transformative role of architecture in shaping sustainable, resilient, and equitable urban
environments. The forum will examine pressing challenges and opportunities arising from land
development and urban growth while emphasizing the multidisciplinary and participatory
nature of cities. It calls upon architects, planners, urbanists, and community leaders to rethink
a future that is truly inclusive, adaptive, and forward-looking.
As Pakistan’s cities are expanding rapidly, addressing the complexities of cities and the
architects’ position in this cosmos has become a pressing concern for 2025 and beyond.
Islamabad, a city laid out with careful planning, now struggles with pressures of urban sprawl,
environmental degradation, and socio-economic disparity. Urban Horizons is dedicated to
exploring the transformative potential of architecture.
The dialogue will also examine the architects’ evolving role in urban scenarios. As spatial
justice stewards, they hold a privileged position where the gap between policy, design, and
community needs can be mediated. Their contribution to the development of cities extends
beyond aesthetics, encompassing environmental stewardship, socio-cultural integration, and
economic vitality. Through collaboration with allied disciplines, architects can play a pivotal
role in forging holistic urban solutions while impacting design, governance and building control
initiatives.
Recognizing the multidisciplinary nature of the subject, Urban Horizons emphasizes the
importance of participatory and collaborative approaches towards solutions. The problems
faced by Pakistan’s cities range from informal settlements and inequitable resource
distribution to environmental vulnerabilities that call for responses rooted in sociology,
ecology, engineering, and governance. This will be a platform for encouraging cross
disciplinary collaboration, showing how diverse and varied expertise can come together to
create holistic and inclusive urban solutions.
Urban Horizons offers a platform to critically interrogate and reconceptualize the future of
urban precincts. It seeks to catalyze actionable frameworks toward the creation of inclusive,
vibrant, and sustainable urban environments while reaffirming architecture’s critical role in
shaping the cities of tomorrow.
It is with this foresight in mind that Urban Horizons aspires to encourage dialogue, forge
partnerships, and create actionable ideas toward reshaping urban precincts in Pakistan, while
placing Islamabad as the vortex of discourse on an exemplary model city: poised for balanced,
inclusive, and future-readied urban development. The conference will thus set a roadmap
toward Sustainable Urbanism in Pakistan and beyond.
IAP welcome papers and presentations addressing the following questions
The Architect’s Role in Urban Transformation
How can architects redefine their role in shaping sustainable and equitable urban precincts,
addressing the gaps between policy, design, and community needs in rapidly urbanizing cities
like Islamabad?
Multidisciplinary Collaboration for Holistic Urban Design
What models of cross-disciplinary collaboration can be developed to tackle the multifaceted
challenges of urban growth, such as informal settlements, environmental degradation, and
socio-economic disparity?
Participatory Urban Design and Spatial Justice
How can participatory design practices empower communities, particularly marginalized
groups, to contribute to spatial justice and inclusivity in urban precincts?
Urban Futures and Sustainable Urbanism
What strategies can architects adopt to envision future-ready cities that address the pressures
of urban sprawl, climate change, and resource constraints while ensuring socio-cultural and
economic vitality?
Contextual Responses to Urban Challenges
How can Pakistani cities like Islamabad develop innovative yet context-sensitive responses to
urbanization, drawing upon local socio-cultural, ecological, and economic realities?
Architecture’s Role in Governance and Policy Advocacy
What actionable frameworks can architects and urban designers develop to influence
governance, building control, and policy initiatives toward creating more resilient and
adaptive urban environments?
SUBMISSION TIMELINE FOR THE CALL FOR PAPER
Abstract Submission Deadline: 8 January 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 12 January 2025
Full Paper Submission Deadline: 20 January 2025
Conference Dates: 8 & 9 February 2025
Submissions should specify the chosen domain.
For full detail, please click HERE.