International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments - IASTE

Last call for IASTE 2026 in Shanghai! Abstract submissions are due Tomorrow, September 15, 2025.

IASTE 2026- Shanghai
We’re thrilled to announce that the next IASTE conference will take place in Shanghai, China, in June 2026, under the theme:

Translating Traditions

As cities around the world grapple with the balance between heritage and transformation, IASTE 2026 invites scholars, professionals, practitioners, and students to explore how architectural and urban traditions are interpreted, adapted, and challenged across different geographies and contexts.

Submit an abstract at: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/79416/submitter

📍 Shanghai, China – where history and modernity intersect in bold and dynamic ways.

📣 The Call for Abstracts will be launched today. For submission details, key dates, and how to get involved, visit www.iaste.org

Join us as we engage in timely global conversations about space, identity, memory, and the built environment.

IASTE 2025 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

We are thrilled to announce the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE) 2025 conference, which will take place in the vibrant city of Alexandria, Egypt.

Conference Details: https://iaste.org/iaste-2025-alexandria/
Submit an Abstract: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/3721/submitter
For more information: [email protected]

IASTE 2024 Featured Speaker : Yasmeen Lari

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced that Professor Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first female architect, will receive the 2023 Royal Gold Medal for architecture. The award, one of the highest honors for architecture and the first to be personally approved by King Charles III, recognizes Yasmeen Lari’s work in championing zero-carbon self-build concepts for displaced populations.

IASTE 2024-RIYADH KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

RESILIENT URBANISM AND DYNAMIC COMMUNITIES:

NAVIGATING PUBLIC HEALTH IN CITIES OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Mohammad Gharipour,
Professor and Director of the Architecture Program, University of Maryland, College Park, USA
Gharipour has published nearly many journal papers and books including The Bazaar in the Islamic City, The City in the Muslim World: Depictions by Western Travelers, Urban Landscapes of the Middle East, Social Housing in the Middle East and Epidemic Urbanism: Contagious Diseases in Global Cities, Historiography of Persian Architecture, Gardens of Renaissance in Europe and the Islamic Empires, and Islamic Architecture Today and Tomorrow.

IASTE 2024-RIYADH KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

EXPERIMENTAL PRESERVATION AND THE POLITICS OF DUST

Jorge Otero-Pailos
Professor and Director of the Historic Preservation, Columbia University, New York, U.S.A
He is an architect and theorist specializing in the changing forms of preservation. He is the founder and editor of the journal Future Anterior, co-editor of Experimental Preservation and author of Architecture’s Historical Turn. He is also an artist whose work has been commissioned and exhibited at major heritage sites, museums, foundations, and biennials around the world.

IASTE 2024- RIYADH

"PARALLEL HERITAGE" AND DYNAMIC TRADITIONS: NEW VISION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARAB ARCHITECTURE

Mashary Al-Naim
Professor of Architectural Criticism, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Al-Naim is an architect and urban planner, who established the National Built Heritage Center at the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. During the last two decades, he worked as a consultant on many of the architectural and planning major projects in Saudi Arabia and the region, He is a writer who specialized in the architecture and urbanism of the Arab world and has published hundreds of articles in the fields of architecture in both Arabic and English.

IASTE 2024-RIYADH KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
ON THE DYNAMICS OF PLACE IN ANCIENT CULTURES

Elena Isayev
Professor of Ancient History and Place, Departments of History and Classics, University of Exeter, U.K
Isayev coordinates the 'Routes: Migration, Mobility, Displacement' Centre at the University of Exeter where she integrates her research about ancient communities in relation to place and migration and applies it to modern contexts. She is an expert on migration, hospitality and displacement, particularly in ancient Mediterranean contexts, and has held many fellowships and research posts around the world. She has published the book Migration, Mobility and Place in Ancient Italy.

IASTE 2024- RIYADH KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

A DYNAMIC TRADITION: CONTINUITY & CHANGE IN THE MUSLIM BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Salah AlHathloul
Professor of Architecture & Urban Design at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
AlHathloul is an educator and a critic in the field of architecture, and he is the author of numerous books and articles on planning and architecture in Arabic among them The Arab Muslim City. For two decades, AlHathloul has served as the deputy minister for town planning, in the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and he was the chairman of the board of Al-Umran (the Saudi Arabian Society for Architects and Planners) from its inception in 1989 until 1993.

IASTE 2024- RIYADH KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

IME TO FASHION AN ECOLOGY DRIVEN HUMANISTIC WORLD TO PROVIDES SOCIAL AND ECO-JUSTICE FOR ALL!

Yasmeen Lari
Director, Heritage Foundation, Karachi, Pakistan
Lari is an Architectural Historian, Heritage Conservationist, Humanitarian , and one of Pakistan’s most prominent architects. She has not only built several landmarks buildings, but also founded the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan and has been involved in the preservation and conservation of historical building. Since establishing the Foundation, she has protected many historical buildings and places of cultural significance. For her creative activities in cultural heritage preservation, Lari has been awarded the Fukuoka Prize.