This October, Azure’s inaugural Human/Nature Conference landed in downtown Toronto, bringing together over 250 design practitioners, climate leaders and policy-makers from across Canada and around the world. Two months later, the learnings and reflections are continuing to resonate and shape our thinking — from interiors that promote human health to resilient landscapes and culturally responsive low-carbon building solutions. The best ideas? Many of them came from our community, with some of the most inspiring sessions drawn via our Call for Proposals, which is now open for the 2025 edition of Human/Nature!

Set to take place in the fall of 2025, the second edition of our annual Human/Nature Conference will include a series of one-hour, CEU-accredited sessions, which span from talks and panels to interactive workshops. Open until January 24, 2025, our Call for Proposals welcomes any practitioner or multi-disciplinary group with proven results and viable approaches to mitigating climate change through design to share their expertise. We’re interested in learning about projects ranging from — but not limited to — product lines and manufacturing processes that are carbon neutral (or even carbon negative) and engage a circular economy, residential and commercial projects — and interiors — that are both inclusive and sustainable, as well as resilient, climate-adaptive landscapes.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT CONFERENCE PROPOSAL?

Solutions: We’re particularly excited about sessions that share proven, replicable solutions — and how they were achieved. Sessions should also be geared toward presenting evolving approaches to future challenges that will arise from global climate change.

Diverse perspectives: Panel sessions should be as multidisciplinary as possible and include the voices of practitioners (architects, urban planners, designers and more) alongside those of clients, community members, artists, activists, policy-makers and other relevant points of view.

Engagement: Sessions should engage attendees in meaningful ways, whether they are shaped as talks with opportunities for audience input, or more hands-on workshops. The sessions should also present tangible learnings that — ideally — can be applied across a range of design professions.

Want to learn more? Our Human/Nature website features our full 2024 agenda, as well as descriptions of every talk and panel discussion from this year’s conference. You can also download the 2025 Human/Nature Call for Proposals at this link. Have questions? Get in touch at conference@azureonline.com.