The School Of Architecture and Community Development (SACD)at University Of Detroit Mercy is conducting a Call for Abstracts for the 30th edition of Dichotomy: ELEVATE.

Theme of the issue:

ELEVATE is a call to rise–of spirit, mind, and purpose, collectively and individually. It is an act of recentering toward an ethical horizon, where the spirit of design, creation, and thought coalesce to invite a better today. ELEVATE is not only to ascend, but to transcend beyond the state of comfortability and complacency. It is an awakening to recognize unseen potential, pursue improvement, and to uplift the world through ingenuity and imagination.

Dichotomy 30 invites submissions of writing, research, design, community engagement and artistic work that explore ways in which we rise conceptually, materially, and ethically in architecture and beyond. How can we ELEVATE conceptually to challenge the frameworks of thought, and reimagine how we perceive and shape narratives of the built environment? How can we ELEVATE materially to engage the physical world with innovation through craft and transform matter into vessels of meaning? How can we ELEVATE ethically to act with integrity and responsibility, confronting the moral dimension of design as it shapes the grand ecosystem we inhabit?

We recognize that true elevation emerges through a diversity of voices which offer new perspectives. It is fostered through investigations into disciplines that push the limits of our understanding and through experiences which shape the growth of our collective understanding. Dichotomy 30: ELEVATE is situated at the intersection of architecture, philosophical investigation, artistic explorations, design visions, community led activism, and inter- and transdisciplinary scholarly work which forges a discourse that is vibrant with rigor and creativity.

Dichotomy 30 challenges us to confront the urgency of our moment, to participate in the raising of standards, the recentering around the value of life, and the ushering towards the fulfilment of our potential. With ELEVATE we pay homage to the forces that shape change. We reaffirm architecture’s potential to inspire, to transform, and ELEVATE us.