MDA Conference 2024: 4rd International Conference on Environmental Design Ginosa, Italy, May 9-11, 2024

One of the most fascinating characteristics of design is its lack of clear and defined boundaries, which has led to profound changes in its approaches, aims, scopes, objects, methodologies, and tools. Likewise, the ecosystems and our societies are going through processes of rapid and systemic modifications and transformations, which contribute to an increase in the level of complexity and interconnectedness of the world we live in.

In this scenario, transdisciplinary, a unity of knowledge beyond the individual disciplines involved in the processes, should become the foremost approach to tackle and address wicked, complex, and systemic problems. A wicked problem presents various characteristics, firstly highlighted by Rittel and Webber (1973), such as their undefined formulation, their “no stopping rule”, and the impossibility of having “true-false” solutions and testing these. Wicked problems are consequential; they do not have a describable set of solutions, and they are unique. Every wicked problem is strongly linked to the others, and it can be explained in multiple ways that influence how the wicked problem will be approached and solved. Finally, wicked problems pose different difficulties for those who aim to solve them (Lawrence et al., 2022), and they are often accompanied by significant pressure due to their urgency (Bremer, 2013). Nowadays, there are uncountable wicked problems, such as climate change, the growth of digital technologies, sustainable development, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of these arguments, we are looking for contributions that explore the concept of transdisciplinary to be found in design processes, approaches, methodologies, and research and shifting the paradigm that shows how integrating design into different fields of knowledge can contribute to the establishment of a transdisciplinary approach and to address wicked and complex issues.

1. RESEARCH PAPER

The full papers should not exceed 5000 words, excluding abstracts and references, and should adhere to the conference paper submission guidelines and template. Authors of accepted papers must register and present their work at the conference. All accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings and available for authors at the beginning of the conference.

2. INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTION

The full papers should not exceed 2000 words, excluding abstracts and references, and should adhere to the conference paper submission guidelines and template. Authors of accepted papers must register and present their work at the conference. All accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings and available for authors at the beginning of the conference.

3. POSITION PAPERS - WHITE PAPERS

The “Challenges” format consists of roundtables that explore a challenge related to the Conference Tracks and are proposed by one or more companies. The proposition should not exceed 500 words; it should highlight the traits of the challenge to be tackled and propose a set of questions related to the challenge itself. The round tables are going to be moderated by academics. The Proceedings of this session will be published after the conference as an annex to the general Conference Proceedings.

4. DOCTORATE SYMPOSIUM

PhD candidates can present their PhD research during the Panel session, representing a moment of peer review and dialogue. The contributions should not exceed 1000 words and adhere to the conference paper submission guidelines and template. Accepted authors are required to register and present their work at the conference. All accepted contributions will be published in the Conference Proceedings and available for authors at the beginning of the conference.

PhD candidates will have the possibility to organize workshops as part of their research plan. To present the application, the Ph.D. candidates should submit a short abstract (not exceeding 200 words) in which they have to highlight the structure and the aim of the WS and what they need to fulfill the activities. The Proceedings of the workshop session will be published after the conference as an annex to the general Conference Proceedings.

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. 

• Deadline for paper titles, abstracts, and authors: December 31, 2023

You can download the editorial guidelines from here.

Please summarize the main content, objective, and key findings of your work in a brief abstract of no more than 250 words.

• Final deadline for full papers: February 29, 2024
• Acceptance notification: March 15, 2024
• Final deadline for submitting revised papers and author payments: March 30, 2024
• Conference: May 9-11, 2024

• Single author: €400,00 In case of papers written by more than one author, the fee for the publication of the article (€400,00) will be increased by 50,00 € for each author in addition to the first, (e.g.: three authors: €400,00+€50,00+€50,00)
• PhD Student: €150,00
• Corporate Research Center: €800,00

All questions about submissions should be emailed to info@mda.center