Second Edition · Upcoming

GDI 2026

Driving innovation through digital twin.

7 and 8 December 2026OnlineOnline main conference, in-person Industry Chapter

Registration Call for Papers Add to Calendar

Five Themes, Twenty Sub-Themes

Themes and Topics

Regenerative and Climate-Positive Built Environments

4 sub-themes

1.1

Net-Zero and Beyond: Carbon-Positive Design and Construction

Whole-life carbon accounting and embodied carbon reduction strategies
Carbon-sequestering materials (mass timber, hempcrete, bio-composites)
Net-positive building certifications and policy frameworks
Carbon budgets at building, precinct and city scale
Carbon markets and offset mechanisms in construction

1.2

Regenerative Architecture and Biophilic Design

Regenerative design principles beyond sustainability
Living walls, green roofs and ecosystem-integrated architecture
Biophilic design for health, productivity and mental wellbeing
Nature-based solutions for urban heat, flooding and biodiversity
Rewilding the city: urban ecology and habitat corridors

1.3

Climate Adaptation and Extreme-Event Resilience

Designing for floods, wildfires, heatwaves and sea-level rise
Passive resilience: thermal mass, natural ventilation and flood-proofing
Climate risk assessment and scenario-based design
Community resilience and post-disaster reconstruction
Urban heat island mitigation and cool city strategies

1.4

Circular Economy and Post-Carbon Construction

Material passports, design for disassembly and end-of-life planning
Deconstruction, reuse and urban mining of construction materials
Bio-based and rapidly renewable building materials
Waste-to-resource construction value chains
Policy levers and regulatory frameworks for circular construction

Advanced Materials, Structures and Construction Innovation

4 sub-themes

2.1

Next-Generation Smart and Programmable Materials

Self-healing concrete, polymers and biological repair systems
Stimuli-responsive materials (thermochromic, piezoelectric, shape-memory)
Phase-change materials for passive thermal regulation
Nano-engineered construction materials and coatings
Multi-functional materials combining structure, sensing and energy generation

2.2

High-Performance and Adaptive Structural Systems

Ultra-high-performance concrete and fibre-reinforced composites
Seismic-resilient, base-isolated and rocking systems
Tensegrity, auxetic and morphing structural architectures
Design for extreme loads: tsunamis, blasts and Arctic conditions
Structural topology optimisation for material efficiency

2.3

3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing and Robotic Fabrication

Large-scale concrete and metal 3D printing for construction
Additive manufacturing of complex architectural geometries
Robotic on-site assembly and prefabrication
Multi-material printing for integrated structural-functional systems
Regulatory, quality and standardisation challenges in printed construction

2.4

Resilient Ground, Geotechnics and Underground Urbanism

Foundation design for subsidence, liquefaction and extreme climate
AI-assisted geohazard risk assessment and slope stability
Underground cities, networks and climate-adaptive subterranean spaces
Carbon sequestration and geothermal energy in urban geology
Geosynthetics and self-healing materials for ground reinforcement

Human-Centred Design, Health and Social Equity

4 sub-themes

3.1

Neuroarchitecture and Evidence-Based Design

Neuroscience of space: how the built environment shapes cognition and emotion
Sensory design: light, acoustics, texture and spatial experience
Designing for neurodivergent populations and cognitive accessibility
Stress reduction, creativity and productivity in designed environments
Psychologically informed design for hospitals, schools and workplaces

3.2

Housing Affordability, Equity and Social Infrastructure

Global housing crisis: policy, delivery and innovation responses
Community land trusts, co-housing and non-market housing models
Design of social infrastructure: schools, health centres and community hubs
Inclusive design for ageing populations and people with disabilities
Indigenous and culturally responsive housing design

3.3

Heritage, Cultural Identity and Adaptive Reuse

Heritage conservation in the age of climate change and digital disruption
Adaptive reuse strategies for embodied carbon retention
Indigenous design knowledge and place-based cultural identity
Post-conflict and post-disaster heritage reconstruction
Community memory, storytelling and participation in heritage design

3.4

Healthy and Productive Indoor Environments

Indoor air quality, ventilation and post-COVID design evolution
Circadian lighting design and its effects on occupant health
Thermal comfort, acoustic privacy and biophilic indoor environments
Workplace and school design for cognitive performance
Certification systems: WELL, Fitwel and health-based design standards

Construction Practice, Governance and the Future Workforce

4 sub-themes

4.1

Construction Management, Procurement and Project Delivery

Integrated project delivery, alliancing and relational contracting
Lean, agile and last-planner approaches in complex projects
Value-based and social-value procurement frameworks
Supply chain transparency, resilience and local industry development
Indigenous and SME supplier engagement and capacity building

4.2

Workforce Futures, Safety and Culture

Mental health, psychosocial safety and culture in construction
Gender equity, diversity and inclusion on the jobsite and in leadership
Future skills, trades transformation and workforce development
Smart wearables and real-time hazard detection for worker safety
Apprenticeship reform and vocational education for the green transition

4.3

Policy, Regulation and Built Environment Governance

Net-zero building codes, regulations and compliance frameworks
Planning system reform for climate-adaptive and inclusive cities
Cross-sector governance for infrastructure resilience
International policy benchmarking in sustainable construction
Financing mechanisms: green bonds, ESG in construction and public-private partnerships

4.4

Design Education, Research Practice and Knowledge Transfer

Pedagogical innovation in architecture, engineering and construction education
Practice-research integration and industry-embedded research models
Interdisciplinary design studios and collaborative knowledge production
Global South perspectives and decolonising built environment education
Open science, research reproducibility and knowledge equity in construction

Digital Futures and the Built Environment

4 sub-themes

5.1

Digital Equity, Access and the Right to the Connected Environment

Digital exclusion and its spatial consequences across urban, regional and rural communities
Connectivity infrastructure as essential public utility: access, affordability and governance
The digital divide in housing: who benefits from smart building technologies and who does not
Indigenous and remote community rights in the digitally connected built environment
Inclusive design principles for digitally integrated spaces across socioeconomic contexts

5.2

Living and Working in Digitally Transformed Environments

The human experience of sensor-rich, data-driven and algorithmically managed buildings
Occupant autonomy, privacy and agency in intelligent built environments
Remote work, hybrid space and the dissolution of building typologies
Digital wayfinding, ambient interfaces and the sensory experience of connected space
Psychosocial dimensions of living alongside AI-mediated building systems

5.3

Digital Infrastructure, Territory and the Physical Footprint of the Digital World

Spatial and environmental consequences of data centres and digital energy demand
Telecommunications infrastructure as a force on building and landscape design
Carbon, water and land impacts of the infrastructure behind digital built environments
Rural and regional territory in the age of satellite connectivity
Planning and design responses to the material demands of a digital civilisation

5.4

Governance, Culture and Community in the Digital Built Environment

Community rights, data sovereignty and democratic governance of instrumented places
Cultural identity and heritage in places mediated by digital overlays
Ethical frameworks for algorithmic decisions in planning, housing and infrastructure
Trust, transparency and public participation in the governance of smart places
Indigenous data sovereignty and culturally grounded approaches to digital place