Upcoming live courses
The Architect’s Edge: Smarter Specification Workflows with AI
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 | 3-4pm ET
Specifications are essential, yet they often lag behind modern design workflows—siloed, text-heavy, and difficult to coordinate. By digitizing resources like AIA MasterSpec within a Common Data Environment, firms can unlock specification data as a foundation for AI-driven workflows. This session shares practical examples of how GenAI improves accuracy, reduces errors, and strengthens collaboration—helping architects transform specifications from a late-stage task into a connected, future-ready practice that accelerates delivery and elevates project outcomes.
COP30: The Paris Agreement After 10 Years
Thursday, June 25, 2026 | 2-2:30pm ET
The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) marked the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement and a critical shift from global dialogue toward concrete climate action. COP30 represents a moment of progress where the world is moving from talk to action, but also of significant political setbacks. This program explores the key components of the Belem Political Package while addressing significant challenges, such as the impacts of countries failing to submit their Nationally Determined Contributions. It further highlights how initiatives like the Buildings Breakthrough Agenda are driving essential policy and market changes for those in the built environment. Ultimately, the session is designed to provide vital insights for architects interested in advancing decarbonization, resilience, and international policy.
Back to the Future: Combining Historic Strategies with Modern Technology for Maximized Passive Survivability
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 | 2-3pm ET
In this joint partnership between the Building Performance Knowledge Community (BPKC) and the Resilience and Disaster Response Community (RADR), panelists will review historic cooling, heating, and resilience strategies and discuss how they can be used to amplify and expand the effectiveness of emerging technology for passive survivability and energy efficiency. By designing for aesthetics first, and then using modern HVAC and other solutions to overcome any inefficiencies second, we are doing ourselves, our clients, and our communities a grave disservice.
In the 1999 essay by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien called ‘On Slowness,’ there is a quote from Milan Kundara: “There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.”
The speed with which we develop new technologies to enhance our building performance increases our forgetting of the basic principles that helped people survive for hundreds of years without air conditioning and ducted heat. Building science and technology continue to evolve and advance in both possibilities for improved outcomes and complexity. The more we learn about vented rainscreens, smart vapor barriers, all in one water resistive barriers and insulation products, the more intricate our detailing becomes. High performance envelopes are exciting and full of promise even with the challenges of coordination and installation execution. Join us for a 60 minute discussion of getting back to basics as a way to further progress in building resilience and passive survivability.
Economic Update Q3 2026 ABI Insights
Friday, July 24, 2026 | 2-3pm ET
Join AIA Chief Economist Richard Branch for a quarterly conversation about the AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index (ABI). The ABI is a leading monthly economic indicator that uses proprietary AIA data to predict nonresidential construction activity 9–12 months ahead. Get ahead of emerging challenges and opportunities and inform your strategic planning with key insights into the industry’s latest economic data and trends.
New on demand courses
Economic Update Q2 2026 ABI Insights
Join AIA Chief Economist Richard Branch for a quarterly conversation about the AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index (ABI). The ABI is a leading monthly economic indicator that uses proprietary AIA data to predict nonresidential construction activity 9–12 months ahead. Get ahead of emerging challenges and opportunities and inform your strategic planning with key insights into the industry’s latest economic data and trends.
This session was recorded live on May 22, 2026.
Design-Build Project Delivery: Risks & Rewards for Architects
As owners, constructors, and architects, all parties share professional, legal, and financial interests in the success of a project. This course explores how architects can transition from a potentially subordinate position to a principal or shared role with co-managing authority within Design-Build (DB) delivery. A panel of industry expert architects from the design and construction sector within the federal, state and local government will present and explore focused remarks about architects' roles in design-build project delivery. Participants will gain insights into navigating the technical and financial risks inherent in DB agreements, such as managing contingencies and ensuring cost transparency. By focusing on early engagement and clear project criteria, architects can better advocate for design excellence while mitigating professional liability and contractual gaps. Based on the article, The Role of Architects in Design-Build Project Delivery: A Crucial Conversation about Opportunities and Risks, published in 2025 by the Project Delivery Knowledge Community (PDKC).
This session was recorded live on March 31, 2026.
A Designer’s Guide to Holistic Material Selection
This certificate series prepares architects to evaluate, select, and implement building materials that support improved human and environmental health across projects and firm practice. Material choices influence occupant exposure, emissions, ecosystem conditions, and supply chain practices, yet these impacts are often difficult to assess using conventional design and procurement processes.
Across five courses, you will learn how to apply the AIA Materials Pledge impact categories—Human Health, Social Health & Equity, Ecosystem Health, Climate Health, and Circular Economy—along with lifecycle thinking to evaluate material options and inform project decisions. The series explores how ingredient transparency, disclosure about material contents, and lifecycle documentation can support more informed material selection.
You’ll examine how procurement practices, supplier relationships, and firm-level planning influence installed material outcomes. The courses address common implementation challenges and introduce strategies for integrating material priorities into specifications, workflows, and firm policies.
After completing the series, you’ll be equipped to apply structured evaluation methods, use available documentation during selection and procurement, and support firmwide implementation of healthier materials strategies.
Overcoming Barriers to Adopting Lower-Impact Materials
Efforts to advance materials with lower human and environmental impacts often encounter technical, procedural, or organizational barriers during project delivery. Concerns about cost, performance, liability, or documentation can limit consistent adoption across teams and project types.
This course explores practical strategies for overcoming these challenges and supporting the use of lower-impact materials in architectural practice. You’ll learn how to incorporate material impact criteria into project specifications and quality assurance processes, and how to apply verification strategies during construction administration. You’ll also examine the ethical, legal, and insurance considerations related to material selection, along with the role of policy and regulation in shaping building material markets.
After completing this course, you’ll be able to support consistent implementation of lower-impact materials and identify opportunities to engage in policy and advocacy efforts.