Roberto Cavallo 

EAAE President 
Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment   
TU Delft (Netherlands)  

On behalf of the European Association for Architectural Education, I am pleased to welcome you to the EAAE Annual Conference and General Meeting 2026, hosted in the inspiring setting of Cagliari, Sardinia. 

As we look ahead to this gathering, environmental challenges, social transformations, and deep geopolitical tensions continue to redefine the contexts in which architecture operates. In response, architectural education has an important role to play: not only in preparing future professionals, but also in fostering critical thinking, experimentation, and new ways of imagining how we inhabit the world. 

The conference theme, XS–S–M: Architecture of the Fitting, invites us to reconsider questions of scale, relevance, and appropriateness in architecture. At a moment when resources are limited and many territories, especially peripheral and fragile ones, are undergoing profound transformation, the idea of fitting becomes increasingly important. It encourages us to think of architecture not in terms of size or spectacle, but as a practice of careful calibration, attentive to place, responsive to communities, and mindful of ecological limits. 

For the EAAE community, this theme resonates strongly with the evolving mission of architectural education. Across Europe and beyond, schools are developing new pedagogies, research agendas, and collaborations that respond to the complex realities of our time. The conference will offer an opportunity to share these experiences, learn from one another, and strengthen the networks that sustain our academic community. 

I warmly invite colleagues, researchers, educators, and students to join us in Cagliari for what promises to be an engaging exchange of ideas and perspectives. Together, we will reflect on how architectural education can contribute to thoughtful, responsible, and context-aware practices for the future. 

With kindest regards, 

Roberto Cavallo 
EAAE President