Continuing Education Symposium

What would happen to design if everyone was blind? Architects and Designers have become increasingly oculocentric. Where the way a design looks can become the dominant component. Yet new studies into Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuro Architecture are providing data-driven information regarding the critical importance of engaging all the senses. Wouldn’t you like your projects to produce stronger reactions, generate deeper memories and create richer experiences? See how integrating all the senses improves the lives of those with cognitive conditions. How multisensory design can make wayfinding safer and easier. How it can help students and employees learn better. And even how it can reduce anxiety and lower stress. Sight is just one of the senses. Join us to “see” what you can achieve when you design for Multi Senses!

Everyone knows the old adage “it all goes downhill after 40”. In fact, your visual acuity peaks in your 20’s. Light and human health have recently been at the forefront of many design discussions. This program will cover the characteristics of the human visual system, the impact aging has on our ability to see and how light (and color of light) impacts human health. This program will help shape your future lighting design decisions to ensure that users of all ages are positively impacted by lighting in your projects.

Join us to learn about ethics for design professionals through a series of ethical problems and potential resolutions. This course explores the standards and codes of professional responsibility as set forth in the ethical codes of AIA, ASID, IIDA as well as federal and state laws. The presentation also explores the analysis and evaluation of ethical dilemmas, the roles of professional organizations, and state agencies in the regulation of the behavior of design professionals, and their relationship with consumers.

Explore how classical and vernacular architectural traditions can inform healthier, more adaptable, and longer-lasting buildings. You will examine climate-responsive design, regional materials, craftsmanship, and classical principles through historical precedents and contemporary research. Using studies of embodied carbon, traditional-window retrofits, place attachment, and adaptive reuse, you will evaluate how design decisions influence occupant comfort, public welfare, maintenance, and the environmental consequences of replacement. You will also investigate why communities value and protect particular buildings. By the end, you will be able to apply lessons from inherited building knowledge to design and conservation decisions that support human well-being and responsible resource use.

In this dynamic 2-hour session, you’ll explore how to design buildings and spaces that prioritize both human wellbeing and climate resilience—without compromise. Through global case studies, practical frameworks, and interactive discussion, you’ll gain tools to create architecture that enhances occupant health, ensures environmental safety, and fosters long-term community welfare. You will gain a clear understanding of how to integrate human-centered and climate-centered design into your projects. This course empowers you to challenge false trade-offs, work more ethically, and design with care for both people and the planet, leading to an impact-driven and future-ready practice.

Have you ever thought about how buildings are like humans? For humans to function properly a complex set of body systems have to integrate and work together as a whole. Our bodies must be able to respond and adapt to changing internal and external conditions, produce and efficiently use onsite energy, be resilient and even age gracefully. The approach to Whole Building Design treats buildings as if they were bodies that require an integrated team approach to design and develop coordinated systems to achieve sustainability, energy efficiency and true universal accessibility. This course will look at some successful and not so successful design approaches to integrating and powering the body of a truly universal building to create healthy structures, happier clients and a better world for everyone.

How long do you (pre-covid) spend driving to work, school, grocery stores, shops, restaurants, doctors, hair salons, etc.? The impact of all of those cars, roads, parking lots and more is devastating to a sustainable planet, sustainable cities and to the health, safety and welfare of populations. Add in the impact of a pandemic and the growing awareness of ongoing social inequity and the idea of living in a community where the majority of your needs can be met withing a 15 minute walk or bicycle ride is generating a great deal of awareness right now. Join us as we explore what are the benefits and challenges to creating a Sustainable City that can lead to healthier, safer and more mindful communities.

This session will take you on a journey to get you closer to the community you work with and for by looking at the 5 E’s: Economics, Education, Energy, Environment, and Emotions. Imagine these 5 E’s as levers that you as an architect can control. Based on the community you are working with, you can decide the different permutations and combinations. You question how architecture functions and who it serves. You find new ways to tell the whole story of the architectural processes, the people who build, and the communities and individuals who are affected.

Sustainable development is possible through social responsibility. The long-term survival and profitability of your practice or system can be increased by implementing important social responsibility principles such as accountability and transparency in your supply chain.

Responsible sourcing is the practice of incorporating moral, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible values into sourcing, procurement, and supply chain management procedures. This method makes sure that a customer and its suppliers do business in a way that promotes health, safety, and welfare for all. This session will provide a different perspective and give you an overview of how you can assess your organization’s sourcing and emphasize socially responsible sourcing.

This two (2) hour course covers and highlights some of the significant changes and updates in the 2023 8th Edition Florida Building Code, as well as those for the Florida Residential Code and Florida Existing Building Code. Participants will progress through key sections of these codes and be provided with exact code text along with explanatory commentary for practical context. Also, participants will be informed about the relationship of key code changes to other related code sections. Upon completion of this course, participants will understand the changes made to the 2023 8th Edition Florida Building Codes and how such changes affect the built environment as it pertains to public safety and welfare.