I am very pleased and honoured that we realize the fifth season of the International Academic Conference on Places and Technologies this April, thus extending the cycle of this important event. The 2018 Conference had four precedents: the first conference was held in 2014 in Belgrade at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture with the aim of finding ways to improve places, the second was held in 2015 in Slovenia in collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, with the main topic concerning healthy cities, the third was held in 2016 in Belgrade and dedicated to the technologies for the creation of a cognitive city, and the fourth was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Architecture and was devoted to urban and rural synergy. In addition to very reputable scientific conference proceedings, it is important to point out some other valuable results. Two notable results of the 2014 Conference include valuable publications Keeping up with technologies to improve places published by Cambridge Scholar Publishing and Elsevier’s Energy and Buildings Special Issue on Places and Technologies. Regarding the results of the Conference in 2016, we point out to the special issue of Elsevier’s Energy and Buildings International Journal and Facta Universitatis, Series Architecture and Civil Engineering Special Issue, while the book Keeping up with technologies to create a cognitive city by highlighting its safety, sustainability, efficiency, imageability and liveability are in the process of publication by Cambridge Scholar Publishing. All these publications were based upon the evaluation of the most outstanding submitted papers from our conferences. This has proven to be a strong incentive and motivation for all professors from the Organising Committee of “Places and Technologies”, as well as for the members of the International Scientific Committee and all participants.
The fifth conference is held at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture. The focus of the “Places and Technologies 2018” conference is to present and identify new knowledge in the field of high technologies, which can be applied in the creation of adaptable cities. “Keeping up with technologies to adapt cities for future challenges” is the leading idea-motive of the conference. The stated objective points to the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to this matter, identification and establishment of relationships between issues of technological development, environmental protection, economic and social change. Consequently, the conference program and research are based on the knowledge of several academic disciplines: engineering and technical sciences, humanities, natural and social sciences. In this regard, the conference emphasizes the importance of networking with the specifics of a given environment, social, economic, technological and institutional realities of urban centres and their surroundings. The conference examines the formation and presentation of knowledge on technologies and the environment, as well as ethical considerations and potential risks, developing solutions, expertise and discussions with respect to one of the future development concepts – a city adaptable to future challenges. Different problems in the domains of urban design and planning, architectural design, building technologies, urban sociology, ICT, transport and traffic studies, the resilience of place, climate change, adaptive reuse, cities and health, landscape architecture etc. are presented and discussed in more than 100 conference papers made by professors, researchers and PhD students from all over Europe and the world.
Based on my experience as a researcher and professor at the international level, I recognize the success and importance of the development of this conference at the regional level and beyond. Of particular importance are the lectures of eminent keynote speakers who are professors at well-known universities in Europe, but also at universities on other continents. We are very proud of our session moderators, who are notable experts in their fields, in the region and abroad. They are also the members of our International Scientific Committee. The best papers will be published in post-conference monograph – Keeping up with technologies to adapt cities for future challenges and international scientific journals.
Since the founding conference in Belgrade, there is a visible growing interest in the Places and Technologies Conference encountering support in the region and beyond. All this has qualified the conference as a traditional event. We are committed to our initial goal to support and contribute to the improvement of the level of scientific status in Serbia and the region. Our conference has provided an opportunity for our researchers to advance their positions in the academic hierarchy. Through a commitment to specific topics and the quality, we have the ambition to keep its importance among many European conferences.