SEA Annual Conference 2026
Saturday,
14 February 2026
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Architecture in Urban Archipelagoes
Much of our thinking about urbanisation and architecture still remains grounded in a strict urban/rural binary, where attention is mostly given to mega-cities, large cities, second cities, and, on the other side, to “villages.” Yet most urban growth has always been taking place in what are officially labeled “other cities,” “villages,” and “census towns,” based only on their demographics. These places are neither fully urban nor rural. They do not fit standard categories and have been developing through their own grammar and processes, shaped by expanding networks and flows of urbanisation across the country and even the planet.
These archipelagic spaces are now becoming central to new architectural practices and interventions. For example, Asia’s largest church is located not in a major city but in the small town of Zünheboto in Nagaland. While many projects by trained architects involve “second homes,” architectural practices are increasingly entering competitions and building in non/urban areas. Schools, cultural institutions, religious buildings, tourist infrastructures, community centers, and factories are now emerging across these regions as both state and private capital and infrastructures move through them. New homes are being built, not as second residences, but as homes for native residents who now live elsewhere, often in cities, with close ties to these places.
Practicing architecture here means working with new spatial logics, actors, and agencies, and rethinking terms such as “local,” “vernacular,” “traditional,” and even “modern,” which is often assumed to mean urban. In this context, the conference seeks to bring together practitioners working in these (non)urban archipelagoes to ask new architectural questions, explore new forms of practice, and develop new spatial concepts, while also extending familiar ones that have remained unchallenged and metrocentric. The larger aim is to understand what is happening in these regions, build a set of architectural references and sources grounded in their practices, and expand architectural theory beyond its metrocentric focus.
This event is free and open to public.
Much of our thinking about urbanisation and architecture still remains grounded in a strict urban/rural binary, where attention is mostly given to mega-cities, large cities, second cities, and, on the other side, to “villages.” Yet most urban growth has always been taking place in what are officially labeled “other cities,” “villages,” and “census towns,” based only on their demographics. These places are neither fully urban nor rural. They do not fit standard categories and have been developing through their own grammar and processes, shaped by expanding networks and flows of urbanisation across the country and even the planet.
These archipelagic spaces are now becoming central to new architectural practices and interventions. For example, Asia’s largest church is located not in a major city but in the small town of Zünheboto in Nagaland. While many projects by trained architects involve “second homes,” architectural practices are increasingly entering competitions and building in non/urban areas. Schools, cultural institutions, religious buildings, tourist infrastructures, community centers, and factories are now emerging across these regions as both state and private capital and infrastructures move through them. New homes are being built, not as second residences, but as homes for native residents who now live elsewhere, often in cities, with close ties to these places.
Practicing architecture here means working with new spatial logics, actors, and agencies, and rethinking terms such as “local,” “vernacular,” “traditional,” and even “modern,” which is often assumed to mean urban. In this context, the conference seeks to bring together practitioners working in these (non)urban archipelagoes to ask new architectural questions, explore new forms of practice, and develop new spatial concepts, while also extending familiar ones that have remained unchallenged and metrocentric. The larger aim is to understand what is happening in these regions, build a set of architectural references and sources grounded in their practices, and expand architectural theory beyond its metrocentric focus.
This event is free and open to public.
