RECORD Announces 2026 Sustainability in Practice at IIT Conference Speakers
On September 23, Architectural Record returns to Mies van der Rohe’s Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to host its Sustainability in Practice conference. This is the second time that RECORD has partnered with IIT for the event, which, once again, coincides with RECORD’s Women in Architecture Awards ceremony and reception. (Meet this year’s awardees here.) In addition to last fall’s edition at IIT that featured Jeanne Gang among others, RECORD has also held Sustainability in Practice summits at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2023.
Joining RECORD for the fall 2026 Chicago event as featured speakers are architect and IIT School of Architecture professor John Ronan, Paris-based Austrian architect Dietmar Feichtinger, Brooklyn-based architect Brent Buck, and Mae-Ling Lokko, an architectural scientist, designer, and educator who serves as assistant professor at the Yale School of Architecture.
These featured presenters are likely familiar names to RECORD readers. Ronan, Feichtinger, and Buck all lead namesake architectural firms that have had multiple projects published in the magazine. Ronan was in the inaugural 2000 class of RECORD Design Vanguards and Buck in the 2026 cohort. Lokko is a 2026 Women in Architecture honoree. Earlier this year, RECORD editor in chief Josephine Minutillo interviewed Feichtinger for a video that appeared as part of a sprawling exhibition of his work at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.
This year’s half-day conference at Crown Hall will kick off at 1 p.m. with opening remarks from Minutillo and Reed Kroloff, dean of IIT’s School of Architecture. Following will be roughly one-hour sessions from Ronan and Feichtinger. In a presentation titled “Architecture of Connection,” the latter speaker will share how his practice combines precise engineering with poetic lightness to create spaces that encourage movement, interaction, and shared experience. After a break, Lokko will present her investigations into biogenic materials, followed by Buck, who will explore how working with wood has influenced his approach to architecture, craft, and construction. Says Buck, “Through early projects, experiments, salvaged material, and things made by hand, wood taught us about economy, reuse, craft, durability, and the value of working with what is already there, lessons that continue to shape the practice today.”
Although Sustainability in Practice officially concludes at 5 p.m., the day isn’t over yet: beginning at 5:30 at Crown Hall is a cocktail gathering for the 2026 Women in Architecture Awards followed by an awards presentation and reception in which Lokko and her fellow honorees— Marlene Imirzian, Clare Miflin, Anne Schopf, and AIA executive vice president and chief executive officer Carole Wedge—will be recognized.
Registration for Sustainability in Practice is complementary, and attendees can earn 3.5 continuing credits, including AIA LU/HSW. Registration information for Women in Architecture can be found here.
We hope to see you in Chicago on September 23!
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