A blind spot, or punctum caecum, is the point of entry of the optic nerve on the retina insensitive to light. Most of the time we don’t notice our blind spot because each eye supplies information to the brain, filling in what’s missing; or, sometimes the brain filling in the missing information with what it thinks should be there. It is also a certain psychological tendency to fail to see the impact of biases on one's judgment and think of their perceptions and judgments as accurate and free of bias.

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Recent architectural thinking has a tendency to acknowledge blind spots and biases. In transitioning to a more green, digital, and socially inclusive architecture, we have been trying to shed light on our blind spots. Scholars embrace the built environment democratically; historians write the past in vulnerable and honest ways; engineers rethink buildings in socially conscious ways. Pedagogy has become increasingly flexible and is trying to place itself in the education, research, and business triangle. Our urban policies consciously challenge long-standing issues of destruction, earthquake, floods, pandemic, gentrification, overpopulation, and pollution. Architecture, urbanism, and design professions provide more opportunities and gender-equal conditions. Designers nowadays are well aware of their role as difference-makers beyond technical achievements, iconic forms, and functional fulfillment.

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However, did we manage to create a difference? Looking back at our history and our own blind spots, one can notice incredible difference-makers, such as the Latvian woman architect and educator Astra Zarina, who still haven’t received the recognition they deserve. Zarina (1929- 2008), who taught architecture for decades, influenced countless architects, including Steven Holl and Tom Kundig.  She was born in Riga, Latvia, but emigrated to Seattle and earned her B.Arch from the University of Washington (UW) in 1953. She later obtained her M.Arch from MIT and worked in the Detroit-area office of Minoru Yamasaki. In 1960, Zarina became the first female recipient of the American Academy in Rome Fellowship for Architecture. Zarina consistently advocated for public spaces and the urban communities they fostered. Her restoration works, such as Civita di Bagnoregio, a dramatic hilltop, or urban perspectives, such as the Rooftops of Rome, express the care and generosity in her architectural thinking. Her teachings influenced a generation of architects, and she has been an inspiration for Latvian designers and women architects all around the world. 

Inspired by Astra Zarina's lifelong achievements, we invite you to face our blind spots and celebrate the difference-making efforts in architecture.

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RIXARCH 2024 / II. International Architectural Design Conference will be held on April 12-13, 2024, in Riga, Latvia. RISEBA University Faculty of Architecture organizes the conference at the RISEBA Architecture and Media Centre H2O 6 Quarters.

The conference aims to bring together distinguished and emerging local scholars and host an international forum to facilitate discussions on current issues in architecture. The conference will cover various topics in architecture with a contemporary edge and from a multidisciplinary perspective. 

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We invite you to join us at the event and would like to emphasize that proposals from different parts of the world are welcomed. All submitted abstracts will be selected according to double-blind peer reviews, and accepted submissions will be published in extended abstract form in the conference proceedings book with an ISBN given to you on the conference day. You can submit your full papers for post-conference publication in a special section of RISEBA University’s ADAMarts journal’s 2024 issue.