Belonging

to place, time, and practice

The Conference
2 and 3 July 2026

UD26 is an in-person doctoral-student conference for Design PhD researchers worldwide. We welcome empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions, as well as studio-based and research-through-design works in progress. Submissions should clearly state methods, evidence, and contributions to design knowledge.

UD26 invites Design PhD researchers to explore Belonging across 3 axis: space, time and practice. We seek to create a meeting place where young researchers share contributions that advance how design understands, shapes and supports the feeling of Belonging.

Thematic Axis

Axis I — Belonging to Space

Investigate how design negotiates territory, situated identity, and culture (material and immaterial) at the seams of borders and rootedness in a world of mobility and asymmetry.

Context & problematisation

Place is more than a coordinate: it is living memory, symbolic dispute, and political ecology. Between small communities and networked cities, belonging cuts across community participation, local action, and international collaborations — but also displacement (migration), colonial legacies, and institutional limits. Design both documents and transforms these relations — at times reinforcing asymmetries, at times widening voices.

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

• Space-Place-Memory/History; heritage and materialities.
• Small communities (e.g., villages) and community action.
• Migration, borders, and identities in transit.
• International design and cross-border partnerships (ethics, reciprocity).
• Heritage, culture (material/immaterial), and contested representation.

Guiding questions

1. What maps of belonging emerge when communities map their own place?
2. How can design act upon borders (visible and invisible) without exoticising or fixing them?
3. Which participatory devices redistribute local voice and authority?
4. In international collaborations, what mechanisms ensure reciprocity and non-extraction?
5. Which material evidences (prototypes, artefacts, usages) signal territorial change?

Keywords

#PlaceBasedDesign #Communities #Participation #MaterialCulture #IntangibleHeritage #Migration #Borders #InternationalCollaborations #Heritage #SpatialJustice

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Axis II — Belonging to Time

Explore heritages and possible futures as a field of contention where sustainability, regeneration, and the post-digital reshape what endures, what changes, and who owns technologies.

Context & problematisation

Time layers unresolved memories, forgotten pasts and colonial histories with promises of the future. Ecological transition coexists with technological acceleration and systemic mutation. Design must operate between continuity and rupture, questioning the ownership/control of digital and material infrastructures. To “belong to time” is to decide what to conserve, what to discard, what to repair, and what to re-imagine — with nature recognised as a stakeholder.

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

• Heritage, memory/history, and the politics of time.
• Regeneration and sustainability.
• Post-digital: between the archive and the living prototype.
• Temporal boundaries (urgency, waiting, latency) within design processes.
• Technology and power: who decides futures, and with which infrastructures?

Guiding questions

1. Which methods make unresolved pasts visible in a project — and with what effects in the present?
2. How do rhythms (seasons, use cycles, maintenance) inform design decisions?
3. Where is technological ownership located (data, algorithms, platforms), and who is included/excluded?
4. Which indicators evidence change over time (before/during/after)?
5. How do prototypes function as archives of the future (legacies, transferability)?

Keywords

#Futures #LivingHistory #Regeneration #Sustainability #Transformation #PostDigital #TechnologyAndPower #TemporalJustice #Memory #Infrastructures

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Axis III — Belonging to Practice

Examine ways of making, learning, caring, and producing — from workshop practices and 21st-century craft to pedagogies and co-creation — as engines of situated change.

Context & problematisation

Practices are not neutral: they carry knowledge, gestures, affects, and economies. Across studios/workshops, classrooms, healthcare settings and living labs, design builds belonging through operational empathy, circular economy, transculture, and sustainability as practice. The challenge is to document how we do (methods, devices, mediators) and what changes when we do with.

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

• Workshop practice and 21st-century craft: materials, techniques, dignity of making.
• Pedagogies and studios: assessing learning and community impact.
• Co-creation and facilitation: devices, mediations, care, health-supporting practices.
• Circular economy and regeneration as transformative practices.
• Design and transculture: translation, mediation, ethics.

Guiding questions

1. Which practice devices (games, kits, scripts) redistribute participation and knowledge?
2. How is learning evidenced (cohort, organisation, community)?
3. Which material indicators (use cycles, repair, waste avoided) substantiate change?
4. How is empathy operationalised (listening, feedback loops, consent) beyond rhetoric?
5. Which tensions/failures occurred, and what practice adjustments did they generate?

Keywords

#WorkshopPractice #Craft21 #DesignPedagogies #CoCreation #OperationalEmpathy #CircularEconomy #Transculture #SustainabilityInAction #Regeneration #DesignMethods

Read more

Open Axis — Belonging Otherwise

Not every contribution sits neatly within the three axes. If your work explores belonging from a different angle — theoretical, methodological, critical, experimental, cross- or transdisciplinary — you still belong.

Important Dates

28 November 2025
Call for abstracts

18 January 2026
Abstract submission deadline

1 February 2026
Abstract submission deadline: Extended

16 February 2026
Abstract approval notification

15 April 2026
Full-paper submission deadline

4 May 2026
Full-paper approval notification

18 May 2026
Fully revised paper submission

2 and 3 July 2026
Conference dates

Submissions

Authors with accepted abstracts are invited to submit a full paper by 15 April. In the CMT Author Console, click on “Edit Submission” and upload your full paper in .docx or .pdf format, following the UD26 template, which is now available in the guidelines below.

CMT Platform

Guidelines

Language: all submissions should be in clear, grammatically correct English (American or British, but consistent); all presentations are also expected to be in English.

Templates: Full paper submissions will be expected to be between 2500~4000 words (including title, abstract, keywords, main text, footnotes, captions and references).
Full Paper Template

Originality & Ethics: submissions for abstracts and full-papers must be original; declare consent/anonymisation when involving people or data.

Attendance expectation: At least one of the authors of each work must register, participate, and present their work in-person at the conference. If not presented in-person, the full-paper will not be included in the book of proceedings.

How to Submit

A CMT account is required to submit a paper. Please head over to the links below for help on how to create an account, or on how to submit a paper. Any queries or doubts, please contact us.

How to set up a CMT account

How to submit a paper in CMT

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Registration

Author Registration

Early Bird

Standard

Late Bird

Author

100€

150€

200€

Author (ODA)

50€

75€

100€

Author (ID+ member)

free

50€

100€

Opens on 4 May 2026, after full paper approval notification.


Audience Registration

Early Bird

Standard

Late Bird

Audience

25€

30€

50€

Audience (ODA)

20€

25€

30€

Audience (ID+ member)

free

25€

30€
Register
We kindly inform participants that registration fees for the conference are non-refundable. Once registration is completed and payment is confirmed, we are unable to offer refunds in the event of cancellation, non-attendance, or other unforeseen circumstances.

Venue

University of Aveiro
Departamento de Comunicação e Arte (DeCA)
Campus Universitário de Santiago,
3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

Google Maps

Organizing Committee

Ângelo Gonçalves

Catarina Freitas

David Figueiredo

Filipe Souza

Fábio Silva

João Monge Coutinho

João Laureano

Joana Alves dos Santos

Mariana Almeida

Rute Harada

Helena Barbosa (Coord.)

Cláudia Albino (Coord.)

Scientific Committe

Afonso Borges

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Álvaro Sousa

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Amélia Paes

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Ana Filomena Curralo

Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo

Ana Margarida Ferreira

Universidade da Beira Interior

Ana Rita Coelho

ESMAD Politécnico de Porto, ID+

Anders V. Munch

University of Southern Denmark

António Lacerda

Universidade do Algarve

Aurora Brochado

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Bruno Giesteira

Universidade do Porto, ID+

Carla Cadete

Universidade Lusófona

Carla Paoliello

Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa

Carlos Duarte

IADE Universidade Europeia

Catarina Moura

Universidade da Beira Interior

Cláudia Albino

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Clice Mazzili

Universidade de São Paulo

Cristiana Serejo

Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, ID+

Cristina Soares

ESMAD Politécnico do Porto, ID+

Daniel Raposo

Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco

Demétrio Matos

Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, ID+

Deniz Hasirci

Izmir University of Economics

Dirk Loyens

ESMAD Politécnico do Porto, ID+

Eduardo Corte-Real

IADE Universidade Europeia

Eduardo Noronha

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Emanuela Bonini Lessing

Università IUAV di Venezia

Emília Duarte

IADE Universidade Europeia

Emre Yildiz

İzmir University of Economics

Fátima Pombo

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Fedja Vukic

Universidade de Zagreb

Fernando Moreira da Silva

Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa

Frederico Duarte

Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa

Gonçalo Falcão

Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa

Gonçalo Gomes

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Graça Magalhães

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Heitor Alvelos

Universidade do Porto, ID+

Helena Barbosa

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Igor Ramos

Universidade Lusófona

Ivo Fonseca

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Jade Piaia

Universidade Estadual Paulista, São Paulo

Joana Casteleiro

Universidade da Beira Interior

Joana Quental

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

João Sampaio

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

João Vilnei

Universidade Federal do Ceará

Jonathan Woodham

University of Brighton

Jorge Brandão Pereira

Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, ID+

Jorge dos Reis

Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa

José Carneiro

Universidade do Porto, ID+

Júlio Dolbeth

Universidade do Porto, ID+

Lígia Afreixo

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Luís Ferreira

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Luísa do Valle

ID+

Luísa Ribas

Universidade de Lisboa, ID+

Lurdes Gomes

ESMAD Politécnico de Porto, ID+

Marcelo Ribeiro

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Maria Cecília Loschiavo

Universidade de São Paulo

Maria João Felix

Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, ID+

Marlene Ribeiro

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Marta Fernandes

ESMAD Politécnico de Porto, ID+

Miriam Reis

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Nina Costa

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Olinda Martins

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Paula Tavares

Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, ID+

Paulo Bernardino

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Paulo Silva

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Pedro Carvalho de Almeida

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Pekka Korvenmaa

Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Priscila Farias

Universidade de São Paulo

Rafaela Norogrando

Universidade da Beira Interior, ID+

Renato Bispo

ESAD Caldas da Rainha, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria

Rita Branco

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Rita Filipe

Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa

Rui Costa

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Rui Miguel

Universidade da Beira Interior

Sara Goldchmit

Universidade de São Paulo

Sarah Teasley

RMIT University

Saurabh Tewari

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Silvina Félix

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Soraia Ala

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Susana Barreto

Universidade do Porto, ID+

Susana Gonzaga

Universidade da Madeira

Suzana Dias

Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, ID+

Vasco Branco

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Violeta Clemente

Universidade de Aveiro, ID+

Vítor Quelhas

Instituto Politécnico do Porto, ID+