26-29 agosto 2026
Cagliari
Deadline: 19 aprile 2026

Thirty years after the proclamation of Bigness as a scalar device of urban power, it is now possible to reassess its ambitions and limits. That phase, grounded in confidence in growth and large-scale interventions, has fractured under the pressure of the intertwined crises shaping the present, revealing widespread conditions of vulnerability and precarity. As Denis Cosgrove anticipated in 2011, globalization has appeared not only as a network of connections but also as a system of shared fragilities. In this context, architecture has progressively distanced itself from the lived realities of places, contributing to the marginalization of territories facing depopulation, deindustrialization, and the reduction of services.

This condition calls for a reconsideration of architecture’s role: peripheral territories become key observatories of transformation, where small- and medium-scale approaches emerge as strategies of adaptation and regeneration through precise, context-sensitive interventions. In an era characterized by what Anna Tsing (2005) defines as an economy of appearances, the principle of fitting proposes the search for the “right measure” as a design response. This perspective informs the conceptual framework of EAAE AC/GA 2026, hosted by the School of Architecture of Cagliari, which positions Sardinia as a node within a broader constellation of shrinking territories. The interplay between Architecture and Fitting frames a reflection on design practices capable of engaging with contemporary limits, resources, and transformations.

The initiative was supported by SIRA – the Italian Society for the Restoration of Architecture.

EAAE Conference website: https://eaaecagliari2026.it/