Keynote: David Zach

“The built environment is at a crossroads.” Experts like to say that, but the reality might be closer to you standing in the middle of the crossroads and there’s not a qualified crossing guard in sight. In this provocative keynote, Futurist David Zach challenges architects, planners, engineers, pundits, and anyone else who just happens to be walking by to think better about the built environment through humor, insight, solid questions, and sure, even a bit more love. 

Automation: What parts of your work truly can’t—and shouldn’t—be automated? Are you using AI as a crutch, a catalyst, or a crutch disguised as a catalyst? If you love solving problems, then this AI era was meant for you. Oddly, you really are part of the problem too.

Curiosity: How do you develop “divergent curiosity”—the ability to think not just outside your rather comfortable (and, sometimes boring) box, and into entirely different boxes? Who’s in those other boxes who can help teach what else you need to learn?

Connection: Your ability to have meaningful conversations with so-called strangers will help determine whether the future of our built environment is intelligent or just more artificial.

Enchantment: Cameron Sinclair once said, “The most sustainable building is a building that is loved.” Will anyone love in 20 years what you’re designing today? In 100 years? If not, what are you really building? And, how do we rebuild for enchantment?

This isn’t just another “adapt or die” talk about technology. It’s a call to reclaim the human intelligence that makes our work irreplaceable—and to make designs for a future that deserves to be loved.

David Zach is a Futurist. No really. He earned a Master’s Degree in Futures Research from the University of Houston. That’s a real degree from a real university. Then again, he got that degree way back in 1981, so it’s pretty much history at this point. 

Since then, he’s given over 1500 keynote presentations, with over 50 of them to AIA and AIAS audiences. He served two terms on the AIA-WI board and from 2010 to 2013 he was a public director on the AIA National Board. In 2012, he received an AIAS Presidential Citation for his work with emerging professionals. He lives in Milwaukee.

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