Practice Innovation Lab

For the 25^th anniversary of the AIA’s Young Architects Forum (YAF), 60 emerging architects and designers were invited to develop new models of working within the profession at the Practice Innovation Lab, a three-day intensive summit held at startup incubator 1776 in Arlington, VA, from October 14 to 16, 2017.

Recurring themes that emerged from the 10 teams’ proposals were those of networking, data, and philanthropic architecture. Teams envisioned networks of smaller firms banding together to compete with larger, multinational firms through shared resources. Other proposals envisioned smart architecture, with embedded sensors that would inform future projects as well as allow real-time building status analysis. And many of the teams incorporated not-for-profit ventures that would allow greater access to architecture for underserved populations.

Below you can access two resources from the event:

• The onsite program, where you can view the flow of the event, speaker bios, keynote descriptions, and attendees who participated
• The findings document, where you will learn the themes and high-level ideas generated by teams on site