Four of the featured speakers at the 2026 AIA Arizona State Conference have authored five books that are now available for pre-order. Scroll below to see the five books by Winka Dubbeldam, Jing Liu, Alan Ricks, and Julia Watson.
All individuals registered for the conference received an email soon after 9 am on October 7 from AIA Arizona from the sender <noreply@event.eventbrite.com> with the subject line “Books + Dine-Around Sign Up for AIA Arizona 2026 State Conference.” Refer to that email for links to preorder author books and to sign up for a Dine-Around!
Books by 2026 AIA Arizona State Conference Featured Speakers
Monsters & Mutants by Winka Dubbeldam
Monsters and Mutants spotlights novel architectural taxonomies by the firm Archi-Tectonics that were implemented in the firm’s award-winning master plan from the 2023 Asian Games. New York-based design firm Archi-Tectonics’ recent research on climate change opened up a field unknown to architecture so far. By emulating organic intelligence, Winka Dubbeldam and her team created a series of new architectural taxonomies: Hybrids and Earth Buildings, part nature, part architecture. Appropriating organic intelligence, these structures are at once resilient, resource-efficient, and beneficial for humans and non-humans, capable of healing our ecosystem. See inside the book here!
Seeking Abundance by Alan Ricks, Sierra Bainbridge, et al.
This groundbreaking new book, co-edited by Alan Ricks and Sierra Bainbridge of MASS, examines how the power of multidisciplinary collaboration, regenerative practices, and community engagement can actively contribute to a healthier, more harmonious world. Over the last decade, the nonprofit design practice MASS has proven that we can yield positive social, environmental, and economic results through a series of projects in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Seeking Abundance argues for reducing the harm our building activities wage in our environments and that we can—and must—help people and the planet thrive together. The proof? MASS’ projects represent a coherent and replicable philosophy that responds to local ecologies and transforms lives. See inside the book here!
Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism by Julia Watson
In Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism, with four chapters spanning Mountains, Forests, Deserts, and Wetlands, Julia Watson explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from 18 countries including Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, India, and Indonesia. We rediscover an ancient mythology in a contemporary context, radicalizing the spirit of human nature. Lo—TEK, derived from Traditional Ecological Knowledge, is a cumulative body of multigenerational knowledge, practices, and beliefs, countering the idea that indigenous innovation is primitive and exists isolated from technology. It is sophisticated and designed to sustainably work with complex ecosystems. See inside the book here!
Lo―TEK. Water. A Field Guide for TEKnology by Julia Watson
Plunge into the ancestral water wisdom that could reshape all our futures. This spell-binding book reveals how Indigenous innovations—like floating farms, tidal fish traps, and aquifer recharge systems—have sustained civilizations for millennia by working with nature, not against it. Far from relics, these systems offer dynamic, adaptable solutions for the climate crisis of today.Structured to bridge past and future, the author Julia Watson dissolves the divide between technology and ecology, between ancestral wisdom and digital innovation. The TEKnological Renaissance it celebrates redefines water as an intelligent force that can shape resilient cities and landscapes. Aquatic infrastructure is reframed—from extractive and industrial into regenerative and evolving—designed to sustain life for generations. Co-authored with Indigenous knowledge-keepers and with a foreword by Dr. Lyla June Johnson, this captivating read investigates traditional hydrological technologies across diverse ecosystems, from salty coastal reefs to freshwater wetlands. See inside the book here!
SO-IL: In Depth: Urban Domesticities Today by Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg
The award-winning Brooklyn-based architecture firm SO–IL challenges the status quo of urban housing. For more than a decade, the firm led by Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg has been envisioning houses and other projects in between and adjacent to domestic spaces. Reflecting on the state of housing design today, often constrained by pressures of production, SO–IL approaches these projects with generous experimentation. They adapt and adjust the architectural and physical “body languages” of domesticity while operating through the framing and occupation of liminal spaces. The projects featured in In Depth represent SO-IL’s attempt to “hack” the codes, cores, courts and corridors; to stretch and inhabit “inefficiencies”; to turn the old stones and bring fragments of buried treasures from the past into the present; to question if housing for all should be the yardstick for the shelters of our souls; and to ask the future generations what kind of home we should design for them. See inside the book here!
Dine Arounds are ready for signup now at the following restaurants:
- Chelsea’s Kitchen
- Fellow Osteria & Pizzeria
- Hecho Libre
- Ocotillo
- Oliver’s
- Soi 4 Bangkok Eatery
- Weft & Warp
- Pinyon
Again, all individuals registered for the conference received an email soon after 9 am on October 7 from AIA Arizona from the sender <noreply@event.eventbrite.com> with the subject line “Books + Dine-Around Sign Up for AIA Arizona 2026 State Conference.” Refer to that email for links to preorder author books and to sign up for a Dine-Around!
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10/07/2026