'Beyond Codes & Pixles' is the title of CAADRIA 2012, the 17th International Annual CAADRIA Conference hosted by School of Architecture, Hindustan University at Chennai, India during 25-28 April 2012.

From “brick and mortar” to “nuts and bolts”, and on to “codes and pixels”, the scope of architectural design technology, research and education is characterised by continuous expansion. On this journey of enrichment, digitally enabled thinkers help to rethink and to recast the building blocks, perceptive lenses, expressive features and analytical frames of architectural design in particular and of how humans perceive and make choices in general. Acknowledging that the possibilities of current digital processes and tools are far from exhausted, this conference seeks new thoughts, fresh approaches and a surge forward: What comes next?

Digital tools for seeing the new and for choosing what is best are deployed no longer just in the design studio and on the construction site. They mediate performances and experiences of the spaces and constraints of not only the creatively expressible and of the physically inhabitable, but increasingly also of the socially desirable. The organizers of this conference set out to investigate the future role of computer-aided architectural design (CAAD) research in this context.

CAADRIA 2012 invites submissions of original research papers, posters and exhibitions on topics in computational architectural design research, including but not limited to the following areas and aspects:

    Design intelligence and automation
    Design cognition and analysis
    Digital fabrication and construction
    Generative, parametric, and evolutionary design
    Digital documentation and design documentation
    Simulation and visualisation
    Animation and virtualisation
    Human-computer interaction
    Collaborative design
    Education in CAAD
    Ubiquitous and mobile design computing
    Practice-based and interdisciplinary CAAD
    Theory, philosophy, and methodology of CAAD

Young researchers currently involved in postgraduate studies are invited to apply for the Young CAADRIA Award and to submit their research-in-progress to the CAADRIA 2012 Postgraduate Student Consortium.