The International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM) is pleased to announce that its 23rd Biennial Conference will be hosted by Salt and will take place between October 20–23, 2026 at Salt Galata, Istanbul. Held in a different city for each edition, the ICAM Biennial Conference combines thematic sessions with expert-led encounters with local architectural heritage, collections, and institutions. In 2026, the program will unfold across Istanbul’s layered architectural and archival landscape, offering opportunities to discuss urgent issues in the field and to engage with new initiatives in archival and curatorial practice.

This year’s program will address five thematic sessions that examine critical questions surrounding loss, pedagogy, digital transformation, curatorial practice, and the construction of responsive architectural repositories. Each session will be chaired by a different convenor, to be announced with the call for papers, inviting researchers, curators, archivists, educators, and practitioners working across architecture, archives, museums, and related cultural fields to apply with contributions aligned with its specific focus. The first session will focus on how loss, erasure, and archival silence shape architectural memory and how alternative archival practices can reframe what is remembered or excluded. The second session will examine pedagogical practices that activate archives and museums as tools for learning and public engagement with the built environment. The third session will address the tensions between digitized and born-digital architectures and their implications for preservation, authorship, and institutional care. The fourth session will explore curatorial negotiations and experimental approaches to activating architectural collections, with attention to conservation, reproduction, and equitable collaboration. The fifth session will focus on building responsive architectural repositories across Africa, West and Central Asia, and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, foregrounding local knowledge and regional histories.