Where will SIGRADI 2026 take place?

SIGRADI 2026 will be held in Santiago, CHL.

What is the primary focus of the SIGRADI 2026 conference?

The conference focuses on digital design, bringing together researchers and practitioners to discuss advancements and challenges in the field.

SIGRADI 2026

Name: SIGRADI 2026
Start: 2026-11-18T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-11-20T00:00:00Z
Location: Santiago

Nov 18–20, 2026Santiago, ChileIn-person

Registration open

SIGRADI 2026 is an international conference focused on digital design, taking place in Santiago, Chile. This event brings together researchers, academics, and practitioners to explore the latest advancements and challenges in the field of digital design, with a particular emphasis on its application and impact within Latin America and beyond. The conference serves as a crucial platform for sharing knowledge, fostering collaboration, and discussing the future trajectory of digital design technologies and methodologies.

Committees & topics

Topics
Design Reasoning: Computation, Cognition, and Generative Logics · Digital Fabrication and Automated Construction · Bioarchitecture and Bio-Inspired Computing · Extended Reality and Immersive Interfaces in Architecture and Design · Smart Cities, Digital Cartographies, Territory, and Computational Urbanism · Artistic Practices and Media Design · Design Education in the Age of AI · Environmental and Ethical Costs of Computational Architecture

Why it matters

The conference is significant for its role in advancing the discourse around digital design, especially within the context of Latin American innovation and global technological trends. By convening in Santiago, CHL, SIGRADI 2026 highlights the region's growing contributions to and engagement with digital design. This event provides a unique opportunity for participants to engage with cutting-edge research and practical applications, contributing to the evolution of design practices and their societal implications. The discussions and presentations at SIGRADI 2026 are expected to influence academic curricula, industry standards, and policy considerations related to digital design.

Furthermore, the conference's focus on digital design encompasses a broad spectrum of topics, from theoretical frameworks to practical implementations. This interdisciplinary approach ensures that a wide range of perspectives are considered, fostering a holistic understanding of the field. The exchange of ideas among diverse participants is vital for identifying emerging trends, addressing critical challenges, and promoting innovative solutions in digital design.

How to prepare

To maximize engagement and benefit from SIGRADI 2026, prospective attendees should familiarize themselves with current trends in digital design, particularly those relevant to Latin American contexts. While specific themes for the conference are yet to be fully detailed, a general understanding of the interplay between technology, design, and culture will be beneficial. Participants should consider how their own work or interests align with the broader objectives of advancing digital design knowledge and practice.

Given the international nature of the conference, preparing to engage with diverse viewpoints and methodologies is crucial. Attendees should be ready to contribute to discussions that bridge theoretical concepts with practical applications, and to explore how digital design can address contemporary global challenges. Reviewing past SIGRADI proceedings can also offer insights into recurring themes and areas of emphasis, helping to frame individual contributions and questions effectively.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 6 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Chile

Host nation and a significant contributor to digital design innovation in South America.

Role in topic

As the host country, CHL plays a central role in facilitating the exchange of ideas and showcasing regional advancements in digital design. Its academic institutions and design communities are key participants in the conference, contributing research and practical insights.

Brazil

Major player in Latin American digital design research and application.

Role in topic

BRA consistently contributes a substantial body of research and innovative projects to the field of digital design, often presenting diverse perspectives on technology integration and cultural impact within the region.

Argentina

Active participant in digital design discourse, particularly in architectural and urban design.

Role in topic

ARG's design community is known for its contributions to digital tools in architecture and urban planning, bringing a unique perspective on how technology shapes built environments and public spaces.

Mexico

Emerging hub for digital design, especially in creative industries and human-computer interaction.

Role in topic

MEX is increasingly recognized for its innovative approaches to digital design, particularly in areas like user experience and interactive media, reflecting a dynamic and growing creative sector.

Spain

Historical and cultural ties influence digital design trends in Latin America.

Role in topic

ESP's influence on Latin American design is significant, and its participation in SIGRADI often highlights cross-cultural collaborations and shared academic traditions in digital design.

United States

Global leader in technology and design innovation, influencing international trends.

Role in topic

The USA's advanced technological landscape and extensive research in digital design provide a global benchmark and often introduce new methodologies and tools that impact the field worldwide, including in Latin America.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Design Reasoning: Computation, Cognition, and Generative Logics

Design reasoning as a field of inquiry emerged from the convergence of cognitive science, architectural theory, and computer-aided design research in the 1960s and 1970s, with foundational work by Herbert Simon on the 'sciences of the artificial' and Horst Rittel on wicked problems. In Latin America, SIGraDi has hosted debates on how designers structure problems, generate alternatives, and justify decisions since its founding in 1997, increasingly framed around shape grammars, parametric logics, and computational creativity. The discipline has long oscillated between rationalist models of design as problem-solving and more situated, reflective accounts inspired by Donald Schön. The contemporary debate has been reshaped by machine learning, large language models, and diffusion-based image generation, which externalize parts of the reasoning process that were previously tacit. Researchers now ask whether generative systems constitute genuine design reasoning or merely statistical pattern completion, and how human intentionality, critique, and iteration remain central. Questions of explainability, traceability of design decisions, and the epistemic status of computational outputs are now core methodological concerns. Today, design reasoning sits at the intersection of HCI, architectural computing, and AI ethics. SIGraDi 2026 frames the topic around how Ibero-American schools and practices articulate hybrid human–machine workflows, formalize design knowledge, and preserve cultural specificity in increasingly automated pipelines.

Key players

Digital Fabrication and Automated Construction

Digital fabrication entered architecture in the 1990s through CNC milling, laser cutting, and early robotic arms adapted from manufacturing, with pioneering academic labs at ETH Zurich, MIT, and Harvard. Latin American schools began integrating fab labs in the 2000s, often under constraints that pushed innovation toward low-cost tooling, local materials such as earth and timber, and informal construction contexts. The field expanded with the maturation of additive manufacturing, including large-scale 3D printing of concrete and earthen structures, and the deployment of collaborative robots on construction sites. The core dispute concerns how automation reshapes labor, cost, and material ecologies in construction—an industry that remains one of the least digitized and most carbon-intensive globally. Proponents emphasize productivity gains, waste reduction, and the ability to realize geometrically complex, performance-optimized structures. Critics highlight displacement of skilled trades, dependency on proprietary platforms, and the embodied energy of robotic infrastructure, particularly in regions where construction is a major source of formal and informal employment. Current debates focus on hybrid workflows that combine craft and automation, on-site versus off-site fabrication, regulatory frameworks for printed structures, and the role of open-source toolchains. SIGraDi 2026 examines how Ibero-American contexts can shape a distinctive agenda for automated construction grounded in local materials, housing deficits, and circular economies.

Key players

Bioarchitecture and Bio-Inspired Computing

Bioarchitecture and bio-inspired computing draw on a long lineage connecting D'Arcy Thompson's morphology, Frei Otto's form-finding experiments, and the cybernetic biology of the late twentieth century. The fields gained computational traction with the rise of evolutionary algorithms, agent-based modeling, and cellular automata in the 1990s, followed by the integration of synthetic biology, mycelium-based composites, and bacterial cellulose into experimental architecture in the 2010s. Latin American researchers have contributed through work on biomaterials derived from regional ecosystems and on biomimetic responses to tropical climates. The central debate concerns whether biological metaphors translate into genuinely sustainable practice or remain largely formal exercises. Critics warn against 'biomorphism' that mimics natural shapes without engaging ecological function, while proponents argue that living materials, growth-based fabrication, and biologically informed simulation can reduce embodied carbon and integrate buildings into metabolic cycles. Regulatory uncertainty around living materials and biosafety adds further complexity. Today the field is moving from speculative pavilions toward measurable performance, with research on carbon-sequestering materials, computational ecology, and bio-digital twins. SIGraDi 2026 considers how Ibero-American biodiversity, traditional knowledge, and computational tools can converge on architectures that are not merely inspired by life but participate in living systems.

Key players

Extended Reality and Immersive Interfaces in Architecture and Design

Extended reality (XR), encompassing virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, has roots in Ivan Sutherland's 1968 head-mounted display and Myron Krueger's responsive environments. Architectural applications matured through the 1990s with CAVE systems and walkthrough visualizations, and accelerated in the 2010s with consumer VR headsets, photogrammetry, and game engines such as Unreal and Unity becoming standard in design practice. SIGraDi communities have long explored immersive interfaces both as design tools and as objects of design themselves. The core questions concern how immersive technologies alter spatial cognition, participatory design, heritage preservation, and the experience of architecture before and after construction. Debates address the accessibility of XR hardware, the durability and standards of digital heritage models, the cognitive and health effects of prolonged immersion, and the implications of platform consolidation around a handful of corporate ecosystems. Latin American practitioners face additional constraints around hardware cost and bandwidth. Current work focuses on real-time collaborative XR, digital twins of cities and buildings, immersive documentation of endangered heritage, and the integration of generative AI with spatial interfaces. SIGraDi 2026 examines how the region can develop sovereign, culturally grounded XR practices rather than purely consuming imported toolchains.

Key players

Smart Cities, Digital Cartographies, Territory, and Computational Urbanism

Computational urbanism emerged from the GIS revolution of the 1980s and the smart city discourse of the 2000s, when IBM, Cisco, and Songdo-style master plans popularized sensor-driven urban management. In Latin America, Rio de Janeiro's Operations Center, Medellín's data-driven mobility reforms, and Buenos Aires's open-data initiatives became reference points, alongside extensive academic work on informal settlements, peripheries, and territorial inequality. Digital cartographies, including OpenStreetMap, citizen mapping, and remote sensing, have reframed who produces urban knowledge. The central disputes concern surveillance, data sovereignty, and the political economy of urban platforms. Critics question whether 'smart' technologies depoliticize urban governance and entrench corporate control over public infrastructure, while proponents emphasize gains in mobility, environmental monitoring, and service delivery. Climate adaptation, displacement, and the governance of platform mobility services such as ride-hailing and short-term rentals have moved to the center of debate. Today the field is shifting from smart-city branding toward territorial approaches that integrate rural-urban continuums, climate risk, and Indigenous geographies. SIGraDi 2026 addresses how computational urbanism can serve democratic territorial planning in contexts marked by inequality, informality, and ecological pressure.

Key players

Artistic Practices and Media Design

The lineage of computational and media art runs from early experiments by Vera Molnár, Waldemar Cordeiro, and the Brazilian concrete and neoconcrete movements through the 1960s, to video art, net.art, and software art in subsequent decades. Latin America has a distinctive trajectory linking computational poetics with political resistance, kinetic art, and tropicalist experimentation. SIGraDi has historically provided a space for hybrid practices that resist the separation between art, architecture, and design. Contemporary debates revolve around the relationship between artistic autonomy and platform infrastructures, the ethics of training data for generative models, the commodification of digital art through NFTs and speculative markets, and the role of media art in contesting algorithmic culture. Questions of authorship, archiving, and the preservation of obsolescing media works remain unresolved, particularly for institutions with limited resources. Current practice extends into bio-art, AI-driven installations, sound and data-driven performance, and critical interfaces that interrogate surveillance and extractivism. SIGraDi 2026 considers how artistic practices and media design can articulate distinctly Ibero-American positions within a globalized computational culture.

Key players

Design Education in the Age of AI

Design education has periodically been restructured by technological shifts, from the Bauhaus integration of industrial methods to the introduction of CAD in studios during the 1980s and 1990s, and the embedding of parametric and BIM workflows in the 2000s. Latin American schools, often working with constrained resources, developed pedagogies that combined digital tools with making, fieldwork, and social engagement. The release of accessible generative AI systems from 2022 onward has produced the most rapid pedagogical disruption in decades. The central debates concern what foundational skills remain essential when image generation, code synthesis, and text production are partially automated, and how to assess learning when AI mediates student work. Issues of academic integrity, intellectual property of training data, equity of access to paid tools, and the cultural bias of dominant models are particularly acute for Spanish- and Portuguese-language educational contexts. Faculty face simultaneous pressure to integrate AI literacy and to defend disciplinary knowledge. Current responses range from outright restriction to full integration, with growing interest in critical AI literacy, open-source pedagogy, and studio formats that foreground reflection on tool use. SIGraDi 2026 examines how Ibero-American design schools can develop coherent, equitable, and culturally grounded responses rather than reactive ones.

Key players

Environmental and Ethical Costs of Computational Architecture

Computational architecture has historically been framed as a tool for efficiency and sustainability, from energy simulation in the 1970s to performance-driven design in the 2000s. Yet the infrastructures sustaining computational practice—data centers, GPU manufacturing, rare-earth extraction, and global cloud services—have grown into significant sources of energy use, water consumption, and carbon emissions. The rapid expansion of large AI models since the early 2020s has intensified scrutiny of these material footprints. The core dispute concerns whether the productivity and optimization gains of computational architecture offset its embodied and operational environmental costs, and who bears those costs. Data center siting frequently affects regions with constrained water and energy resources, including parts of Latin America. Ethical questions extend to labor in data annotation, biases encoded in training datasets, the concentration of computational power in a few corporations, and the displacement of local knowledge by globally trained models. Current debates push toward measurable accountability: lifecycle assessment of computational tools, transparency about model training costs, regulation of data center water and energy use, and the development of frugal or appropriate computing approaches. SIGraDi 2026 frames these concerns as central rather than peripheral to the discipline's future.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for SIGRADI 2026.

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Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Media & Press Relations

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

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Country dossier

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By committee

Frequently asked questions

SIGRADI 2026

Nov 18–20, 2026Santiago, ChileIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Design Reasoning: Computation, Cognition, and Generative Logics · Digital Fabrication and Automated Construction · Bioarchitecture and Bio-Inspired Computing · Extended Reality and Immersive Interfaces in Architecture and Design · Smart Cities, Digital Cartographies, Territory, and Computational Urbanism · Artistic Practices and Media Design · Design Education in the Age of AI · Environmental and Ethical Costs of Computational Architecture

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 6 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Chile

Host nation and a significant contributor to digital design innovation in South America.

Role in topic

Brazil

Major player in Latin American digital design research and application.

Role in topic

Argentina

Active participant in digital design discourse, particularly in architectural and urban design.

Role in topic

ARG's design community is known for its contributions to digital tools in architecture and urban planning, bringing a unique perspective on how technology shapes built environments and public spaces.

Mexico

Emerging hub for digital design, especially in creative industries and human-computer interaction.

Role in topic

MEX is increasingly recognized for its innovative approaches to digital design, particularly in areas like user experience and interactive media, reflecting a dynamic and growing creative sector.

Spain

Historical and cultural ties influence digital design trends in Latin America.

Role in topic

ESP's influence on Latin American design is significant, and its participation in SIGRADI often highlights cross-cultural collaborations and shared academic traditions in digital design.

United States

Global leader in technology and design innovation, influencing international trends.

Role in topic