AIA Conference on Architecture

Join us at the architecture and design event of the year! Explore architecture’s ability to drive new thinking in the design-forward city of Chicago. This year's Conference on Architecture will feature closing remarks by former Chicagoan and former President Barack Obama.

Check out our AIA '22 lineup: 

HDR Chicago Studio Tour

Friday, June 24, 6-8 p.m.
Inland Steel Building

*Advanced Registration Required*

Visit a curated collection of five AIA Chicago member firms including our own Chicago architecture studio in the historic Inland Steel building. Each Open Studio collection showcases a diverse range of practice types, firm sizes, and disciplines. 

All five firms in the collection are within a 20-minute walk of each other. You will learn about the firms' latest work, chat with staff, and enjoy drinks and snacks. Please feel free to visit firms in any order.

Regenerative Design Impacts on Mental Health & Ecology

Saturday, June 25th, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Room S100bc

What if buildings gave more than they take? HDR’s award-winning regenerative design framework centers around this fundamental question, offering a new design approach that changes our fundamental thinking about long-term building operations and their impact on the local community and ecology. 

Join this session to learn more about the framework, recognized by the 2020 Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards, and explore how it breaks existing design paradigms. You’ll explore how regenerative buildings can act as a "carbon bank," a healing space, and an equitable community resource to achieve net-positive impacts over its lifecycle, as well as guidance on putting the Regenerative Design Framework into practice, with case studies from Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Vancouver.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Develop a broader understanding of regenerative design and its implications for climate change, community resilience, social equity, mental and physical health, and architectural design.
2. Define global efforts that support the importance of the connection between human and planetary health.
3. Develop an understanding of design strategies for achieving net-zero embodied and operational carbon, as well as more equitable design practices.
4. Discover new tools and workflows used to achieve "whole community" projects that address planetary health, social justice, and human health, through examples such as HDR's Social Equity Toolkit, Regenerative KPI (used as a metric for carbon balance, net-zero energy, etc.), and the Health & Wellness Tool.

PRESENTERS

Colin Rohlfing, Director of Sustainable Development, HDR

Blaire Chisholm, Chief Operating Officer, Pooni Group