The globalized, interconnected, and rapidly changing nature of contemporary societies is expressed in the ways in which spaces are produced, experienced, understood, and transformed. Large-scale societal shifts—such as globalization, digitalization, migration, and climate change—have led to the refiguration of spaces into heterogeneous, overlapping, and often conflicting spatial orders.
Over the past seven years, the CRC “Refiguration of Spaces” has played a leading role in researching these dynamics. This conference aims to examine how spatial refiguration is designed, how it influences design, and how design can foster innovative rethinking that addresses the growing complexity of social change and its spatial implications.
At the conference, we will present the latest studies on the changing design of different spatial figures and figurations. We will relate them to innovative spatial design around the world. Refiguration challenges our everyday lives as well as traditional design paradigms by highlighting the coexistence of diverse and often conflicting spatial logics. Polycontexturality becomes ubiquitous. This challenge involves the need to create polyvalent spaces that cater to varied cultural practices and user perspectives, often through participatory processes that engage marginalized communities.
We therefore ask, is refiguration is designable? And what kind of design might be able to integrate physical, digital, and symbolic dimensions while addressing fluid boundaries and interconnections? What kind of design can navigate spatial conflicts? The concept of refiguration embraces the insight that social change is multi-scalar. To what extent can design respond through multi-scalar, intersectional, and entangled spatial constitutions? Could speculative and adaptive design thinking be critical in addressing the uncertainties of spatial change, enabling us to envision alternative futures and flexible solutions that respond to complex societal shifts?
