Mission

The mission of the Forum for Architecture, Culture and Spirituality is to support the development and dissemination of architectural and interdisciplinary scholarship, research, practice, and education on the significance, experience and meaning of the built environment. ACS main objectives are to (1) support a community of Scholars, Educators and Practitioners, (2) organize conferences and symposia, and (3) initiate scholarly peer-reviewed publication(s).

Current Activities

• 1. Community Support
  Web-based Information Resources: the ACS website provides information on conferences, publications, ongoing activities, and related groups in its subject area. The ACS listserv provides the means for announcing upcoming events and opportunities.
  Discussion Board: The ACS forum offers a real-time blog for on-going discussions regarding the wide variety of aspects of this subject. This service fosters not only communication and networking among members but also potential collaboration.
  
  
• 2. Symposia and Conference Organization
  Goal: The goal of Symposia is to provide a multidisciplinary forum for sharing and critically assessing research efforts and outcomes regarding architecture, culture and spirituality. Papers from the conference form the basis for scholarly peer-reviewed proceedings and/or an edited volume.
  Frequency: Conferences held annually provide our organization, its members, but also others the opportunity to share their work in timely manner. When appropriate, ACS seeks strategic alliances with other organizations to offer special focus sessions within their venues.
  Theme: Each Symposium is organized around two focus areas along with two or three open-ended sessions. Since ACS is a relative new organization, our effort is to support the growth of work in this area. We want to be inclusive and not exclusive. The range of work cover qualitative and quantitative methods, scholarship and professional contributions, and sometimes (if appropriate) workshops and art installations. It goes without saying that ACS upholds high levels of academic and professional standards checked by strict peer-review methods.
  Location: Symposia are held at inspiring places due to their beauty, history, spiritual practices, need of transformation, and other relevant criteria.
  
  
•  3. Scholarly Peer-Review Publication(s)
  E-published conference proceedings following strict peer-reviewing methods is the initial way to disseminate scholarly activities and findings. However, ACS has been successful in seeking other venues of publications such as international journals/magazines as well as edited books.