The AIA Conference on Architecture & Design

The AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2026

Nick and Paul are back from the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2026 (AIA26) in San Diego — and back in the new studio to talk through it. Between keynotes, the expo floor, a Kent State reception, and two building tours, it was a full week. A few themes kept surfacing: AI is no longer a side conversation, great design is really about experience, and the small firm has never been better positioned to compete.

Keynotes and Trends

Winning with AI

Strategist and bestselling author Charlene Li opened the conference with a grounded keynote on winning with AI. Her framing matched something we have said on the podcast for a while: AI is not a magic button, it is a leadership, culture, and decision-making challenge. The firms that win with it are the ones where adoption starts at the top, everyone is brought in, and results are actually measured — less like buying a tool, more like going to the gym. It enhances the work; it does not replace the architect.

Design Is an Experience

Author and television host Padma Lakshmi — in a keynote titled “What Food Knows About Architecture” — delivered one of the most surprising design lessons of the week, not from a building but from the worlds of food and television. The takeaway: great design is the careful curation of an experience for the specific people it is for. De-emphasize what does not matter, layer in what does, and shape how someone moves through a space. It is a lesson that maps directly onto how we think about homes, restaurants, and public spaces.

Build for the Next Century

The World Bank’s Sameh Wahba closed out the keynote slate — “Architects as Catalysts for Sustainable Development” — with a sobering, clarifying message: design for the climate we are heading into, not the one we have on paper. Hundred-year flood events are arriving on fifty- and twenty-year cycles. Resilient, sustainable building is not a premium add-on anymore — it is the responsible baseline, and life-cycle cost is the honest way to measure it.

The Small-Firm Edge

The session that stuck with us most was the Small Firm Exchange. The headline number: roughly three-quarters of all architecture firms are small firms. For most of the profession’s history, scale meant access — to talent, to tools, to the big projects. That equation is changing. The same technology and AI that the large firms use is now within reach of a two- or three-person studio, which means a small firm with the right systems can punch well above its size.

That is the bet we have been making at Arcfluence, so it was energizing to hear it said plainly on a national stage. It also came with a responsibility worth naming: getting involved, giving back, and helping bring the next generation into the profession.

Site Tours

Treehouse — Multifamily, Done Thoughtfully

The first tour was a multifamily development of just over a hundred units on a compact urban site — a clinic in fitting a lot of program onto a little land. A detail that stood out: built-in work-from-home desks in the units, a direct response to how people have actually lived since 2020. The amenities were planned as distinct experiences rather than a checklist — a rooftop and a pool that each do a different job — and smart touches like a dedicated package room solved real day-to-day friction.

Snapdragon Stadium — Experience at Scale

The second tour was Snapdragon Stadium, and it was a masterclass in tiered experience. Every level of seating and hospitality was designed to feel like a different event, all preserving the panoramic views that make the venue. The moment everyone remembered: a vantage point where the players run right past you on their way out — proximity engineered into the architecture. Stadiums are their own specialty, and this one showed why.

The hospitality spaces were a study in their own right — premium club and lounge areas designed so that each tier of the stadium feels like a distinct experience, not just a different price point.

The Expo Floor and a Local Find

The expo floor had the usual heavy hitters on the software side — the rendering, modeling, and AI tools the industry is consolidating around. The find we did not expect: a canopy and shade-structure company with a manufacturing facility right in Columbus. Sourcing locally, building relationships close to home — exactly the kind of connection a conference three time zones away is good for.

The Kent State Connection

The Kent State reception is always a highlight — and for Paul, a bit of a homecoming, since he got his architecture start at Kent before a master’s at the University of Cincinnati. Arcfluence leans heavily on Kent State talent, so reconnecting with Dean Mark Mistur (we sat down with him on the podcast not long ago — our conversation here) and a roomful of CAED alumni doing strong work across the country felt a little like family. One alum’s firm even took home a national award. It is a program that consistently ranks among the most-hired-from in the country, and you feel that everywhere at a conference like this. The sessions are the draw, but it is the people you build with who keep you coming back.

What We’re Taking Home

• Use the tools well. AI has a real place in the work now — sharpening ideas early, taking the busywork off people’s plates, and freeing us to focus on design, judgment, and the relationship. It enhances the work; it does not replace the architect.
• Design for the long view. The best projects account for more than the moment — resilience, sustainability, and how a building performs over its whole life. Those are conversations we would rather have early and together than leave for later.
• Design the experience. Whether it is a kitchen, a home, or a stadium, what matters is how it feels to move through the space — for the specific people it is for.