The TAP Symposium, formerly known as Building Connections Congress (BCC), is the annual event of the AIA TAP knowledge community exploring how technology is changing architecture—in both design and the people impacted by it.
2025 TAP at AIA25
Stay tuned for updates! Make sure you are a member of the TAP community, and sign up for AIA25 updates at conferenceonarchitecture.com . You won't want to miss what we bring to the next AIA Conference on Architecture and Design!
2024 TAP Symposium at AIA24
Following on the success of last year, the TAP Symposium was in-person and co-located with the AIA Conference on Architecture, June 5 in Washington, DC. The theme was Practice in the Age of AI - while content is not available online, you can see the full agenda and speaker bios here >. TAP also hosted a fantastic TAP Forum - it was great to have so many of our community members join in the conversation onsite.
2023 TAP Symposium at AIA23
For 2023, TAP was back in-person for the first time since the pandemic, and was co-located with the AIA Conference on Architecture 2023! As AIA23 was held June 7-10 in San Francisco, the TAP event took place all day on Wednesday, followed by the TAP Open Forum on Friday.
2022 TAP BCC
TAP BCC continued online this year - content is not available.
2021 TAP BCC
In the ever-changing whirlwind of modern technology, there is certainly no shortage of options to choose from. We are constantly presented with the latest tools for innovation—each with a specific purpose. However, at the core of design practice and managing the built environment, how can industry leaders distinguish which of these tools are transformative and which are simply hype? From changing workflows and driving innovation, to improving productivity and increasing profits, the technologies we utilize have the capacity to create waves of change within our industries and beyond.
TAP BCC moved online this year, hosted by AIAU - you may view the courses here.
2020 TAP BCC
Perspectives: Practice and the future of computational design technologies
In the ever-changing whirlwind of modern technology, there is certainly no shortage of options to choose from. We are constantly presented with the latest tools for innovation—each with a specific purpose. However, at the core of design practice and managing the built environment, how can industry leaders distinguish which of these tools are transformative and which are simply hype? From changing workflows and driving innovation to improving productivity and increasing profits, the technologies we utilize have the capacity to create waves of change within our industries and beyond.
You can review the materials from the hybrid event in our library here.
Addtionally, two courses from hybrid event were converted to online courses - you may view them here.
2019 TAP BCC
Your buildings are talking, are you listening?
Each day our buildings and our firms produce volumes of data that can be leveraged to improve our buildings and our firms. At the heart of this year’s Building Connections discussion with industry leaders will be how these leaders obtain insight from data to advance design and move their companies into the next wave of the economy. Core much of the disruption and move into this new economy, dubbed the “experience economy,” is a deep understanding and regard for data that exposes previously undetected or undervalued insights. Join your colleagues and industry leaders in a high-level discussion about how a data-driven mindset will lead to new ways of thinking about buildings and the practice of architecture.
You can review the materials from the in-person event in our library here.
2018 TAP BCC
The Future of Design
As we consider the landscape of our built environment today, the future of architectural design is entering yet another paradigm shift. Artificial intelligent systems, machine learning automation have already transformed a number of industries and are making their way into the design and construction of buildings today. Our design community is dealing with the repercussions of this technology, both good and bad. We fear this may mean the end of the “designer” and are simultaneously encouraged by the possibilities this sort of technology opens up for us. So let’s talk about how this intelligence can and will help us. Building Connections 2018 will explore how the industry is evolving to address this surfeit of information, how design should address these changes to our social fabric and quite simply the idea of what the possibilities are for the future of design.
You can review the materials from the in-person event in our library here.