2025 IMCL Conference Plans Firmed Up!

Potsdam (Germany) Venue is Confirmed, While Portugal Is Postponed; Conference Set for October 15-18, 2025

ABOVE: Views of beautiful Potsdam (Berlin), Germany, easily accessible from the Berlin airport on the local S-Bahn train, and with many spectacular old and new buildings.

BERLIN - the 62nd International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference is set to be held here in the historic city of Potsdam, within the Berlin metropolitan region, October 15-18, 2025.

While the original planned date was September, scheduling conflicts required a shift of dates. The new date is one week before the INTBAU World Congress in London (October 22-24). This will allow attendees to come to both events, with study tours in between. INTBAU will be a partner in the IMCL conference, as will INTBAU-Germany and other chapters. We are also firming up other partnerships with the Congress for the New Urbanism, UN-Habitat, the King's Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, and other tentative partners.

A planned conference in Figueira da Foz, Portugal is still in the works but has been postponed. We hope to have news about a new date for this conference in the near future.

The theme of the Potsdam conference is, “What Is the Architecture of our Time – And Who Gets to Say?” This is a watershed moment in urban history, when the professions of the built environment are challenged as never before to meet the pressing needs of the urban future. The architecture profession in particular is confronted by demands to be more relevant to contemporary challenges and needs. One manifestation is a growing movement of citizens unsatisfied by “modern” business-as-usual building designs, and demanding an architecture that integrates the richer qualities of history and nature. At the same time, new findings from the sciences are discrediting old orthodoxies, and illuminating the unmet human factors of our urban world.

Therefore, a key topic of the conference (among others) will be a critical examination of the long-standing prohibition of “revival” architectures and their patterns, and their continued replacement with aggressively “modern” buildings and cities. What have been the consequences of the last century of this practice for human well-being, for ecology, and for the likely durability and sustainability of cities and towns into the future? Why are citizens of many countries -- across remarkably diverse political and demographic categories -- rising up to demand professional reforms? What are the alternatives ahead, including new vernacular architectures, traditional and Classical approaches, “generative” processes, and other innovative methodologies? We will explore and debate these and other issues of the urban future.

Potsdam is an especially fitting venue for this discussion, with a number of reconstruction projects under way, as well as new traditional and Classical projects, amid lively public debates on the issues. What is the appropriateness of these projects, beyond claimed (and disputed) symbolic associations -- for needs such as activating the edges of public spaces, supporting walkability, improving well-being and health, and supporting more ecological lifestyles?

We will explore the evidence for these and other topics, and debate the long-standing theories behind them. We will also explore (as we always do) walkability and multi-modal transportation, affordability and opportunity for all, climate-friendly planning approaches, global trends in urbanization, financial tools and strategies, and many other frontier challenges for today's cities, towns and suburbs.

As always, we will gather to share peer-to-peer knowledge in a range of beautiful, convivial settings, both formal and informal. We will not just discuss the challenges, but explore case studies of those who have made impressive progress, and their specific tools and strategies. We also examine other case studies from around the world, as well as the latest research on urban challenges and successes.

Our last conference in Cortona, Italy in November 2024 included city leaders from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Attendee comments included “Truly a great conference,” “Fabulous sessions… Wow!,” “It was terrific,” “Thank you for hosting this magnificent event!” and “Thank you for the great conference sessions… [and] the knowledge sharing and inspired messages from people from around the world.”

MAXX Hotel Sanssouci in Potsdam

Our 62nd conference venue will be the MAXX Hotel Sanssouci, at the gates of the beautiful Sanssouci Park, and within walking distance of much of Potsdam's rich urban and architectural history -- including fascinating new projects now under way. In addition to the conference, we will also have opportunities for study tours and exploration of the rich history of the city and its region – not only its 20th century upheavals, but many centuries of architectural and urban history.

The location is easily accessible from the Berlin Brandenburg Airport via the S-Bahn train and other modes, and the neighborhood offers many excellent hotel choices at a range of prices. October is an excellent time to travel in Germany, with lower-cost travel, fewer crowds, and generally beautiful crisp autumn weather. There are excellent opportunities for convenient side trips to other parts of Germany and Europe.

ATTENDEE SPACE IS STRICTLY LIMITED by the conference venue size, and attendees will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register as soon as you are able. (Full refunds without cost are available until May 31st, after which there is a $100 cancellation fee through September 1.)

We will be opening the registration and Call for Abstracts shortly. For more information meanwhile, please visit https://www.imcl.online/potsdam-2025, or email to the IMCL Executive Director, Michael Mehaffy, at michael.mehaffy at the gmail domain.

We hope you can join us in the beautiful Berlin and Potsdam region!

Big news about upcoming IMCL conference plans!

Our team is currently working to finalize four exciting invitations to organize upcoming conferences for 2025 and 2026 in inspiring case study locales in Portugal, Germany, Latvia and France, on front-line topics for livable cities

ABOVE, our team meets with Gonçalo Cornelio da Silva, Head of the Multidisciplinary Team for Urban Projects in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, in their beautiful covered market building. L-R: Jim Brainard, IMCL board member; Gonçalo Cornelio da Silva; Leslie Barrett, IMCL manager; and AIden Chanter, IMCL tech specialist.

LE PLESSIS-ROBINSON, FRANCE - The IMCL was honored with an award here, the "Prix Courtois de la Renaissance Urbaine" (Courtois Prize for the Urban Renaissance), as part of a major French conference of mayors, planners and architects organized by the City and other allies.

L-R conference organizer Guy Courtois, IMCL Executive Director Michael Mehaffy, and Le Plessis-Robinson Mayor Philippe Pemezec.

We were particularly gratified that Henry and Suzanne Lennard were called out in the award -- a recognition we know they would have found gratifying. The Lennards founded the IMCL conference series in 1985, and our last conference in Cortona, Italy was the 61st in the long-running and venerable series. Our 58th conference was in Le Plessis-Robinson in 2022. At the award ceremony, the IMCL was praised for inspiring French architects, developers and citizens, and for fostering ongoing international collaborations.

The IMCL was also invited by the Mayor and co-organizers to organize another conference here in October of 2026, and we are working on the details of that conference now. The town of Le Plessis-Robinson is a fantastic example of "suburban retrofit," offering many practical lessons of what to do and how to do it, for those who want to see real reforms toward an "urban renaissance". The town offers an active "laboratory" of projects whose transformation can be studied in real time.

Following our 2022 conference, Ruben Hanssen of The Aesthetic City made a short video documentary about the impressive achievements of that city -- and the video promptly got almost three million views on YouTube:

ABOVE: The Aesthetic City's excellent documentary report on Le Plessis-Robinson's achievements.

Following our participation in the French conference, we traveled to Porto, Portugal and then to Figueira da Foz, a nearby coastal resort town with familiar urban challenges. We were invited there by Gonçalo Cornelio da Silva, Head of the Multidisciplinary Team for Urban Projects for the City, and also a representative of INTBAU-Portugal. He introduced us to Mayor Pedro Santana Lopes (also former Prime Minister of Portugal, and former Mayor of Lisbon). They are keen to hold an IMCL conference there in September of this year, immediately following a planned conference in Potsdam (Berlin), Germany. The two conferences would be "back-to-back," offering time between for tours and other travel arrangements. (HOLD THE DATE! September 11-14 in Potsdam, and September 18-21 in Portugal!)

Figueira da Foz is easily accessible from Porto or Lisbon, with touring opportunities in both major cities. Travel from either city to Berlin is convenient (as we found on our planning trip), with many airline and train connections.

ABOVE, the meeting in Figueira da Foz, Portugal. L-R Gonçalo Cornelio da Silva, Michael Mehaffy, Jim Brainard, Mayor Pedro Santana Lopes, Margarida Perrolas (Manager of the CAE Conference Center), Leslie Barrett, and Aiden Chanter.

The Portugal conference is likely to center on how a city addresses its challenges by exploiting its natural and historic resources, and how it can retrofit some of the more destructive post-war patterns of auto-dominant sprawl. The City is now in the midst of several dynamic projects around the area, and conference attendees will have the opportunity to see how these projects are developing, and to interact with project participants. The conference will also present the results of new research on effective tools and strategies in making cities livable, a feature of all the IMCL conferences.

To follow up on plans for the Potsdam conference, we traveled there and met with Bertram Barthel, chair of INTBAU-Germany (and a colleague of Ruben Hanssen). That city is currently going through major reconstructions following the devastating destruction of World War II, and there are major debates asking "what is the appropriate architecture 'of our time'?" (And who gets to say?) We will pick up on that topic for the conference, examining the role of citizens in determining their preferences for their own built environments, and the research on the roots of those preferences.

We are considering several venues in the Potsdam area, including one in the beautiful Sanssouci Park. That conference will also provide opportunities to tour other sites in Berlin and nearby areas. Potsdam is easily accessible from the Berlin airport in the S-Bahn train.

Lastly, we traveled to Riga, Latvia, and the nearby town of Jelgava, a historic locale with a tragic history of occupation and destruction. Once again, there are challenges of how to rebuild in the wake of wartime destruction -- unfortunately a timely issue in many parts of the world just now. We are in talks with the Mayor of Jelgava and the City Architect of Riga on plans for a conference that would include both cities, most likely in July of 2026.

We will have more news and Calls for Abstracts very soon!

ABOVE: IMCL manager Leslie Barrett and tech specialist Aiden Chanter on a tour of Le Plessis-Robinson, France.

ABOVE: A new article about Le Plessis-Robinson in a major French newspaper, Le Parisien, coming as a result of the recent conference here. Until now, French media have tended to ignore trends in traditional urbanism and architecture. (Photo courtesy of Guy Courtois.)

ABOVE: A beautiful hotel building restoration in Figueira da Foz, designed by INTBAU-Portugal Chair Jose Baghaña.

ABOVE, some of the impressive reconstruction in Potsdam.

ABOVE, a venue in the Sanssouci Park area.

ABOVE, Leslie and Aiden in front of a possible reception site in Riga, Latvia.

ABOVE, the beautiful Jelgava Palace, the potential venue for our July, 2026 conference.

ABOVE, meeting with Mayor Andris Rāviņš of Jelgava, (center) and his staff to discuss plans for a portion of the conference there.

And That's a Wrap - For Number 61!

The 2024 IMCL Cortona conference just concluded four intense days of thought-provoking content and great companionship in the beautiful Tuscan city of Cortona, and its stunning 17th century conference venue

ABOVE - Researcher David Brain of the University of Notre Dame and Civic Design Strategies presents on the complex "civic ecology" of the City of Cortona, with its networks of evolving places.

CORTONA, ITALY - Attendees left here tired but thoughtful after a jam-packed conference of topics on frontier urban livability challenges and their solutions, including timeless lessons from great cities and towns. Over 100 attendees from every continent except Antarctica represented governments, practitioners, NGO heads and researchers, sharing the latest knowledge on current challenges for livable and sustainable cities, towns and suburbs around the world.

Attendees took time out to acknowledge several honorees as well, including Simon Conibear, long-time development manager of King Charles' iconic Poundbury development in the UK, and Yves Bovero, a key development executive for the equally iconic Le Plessis-Robinbson, a landmark suburban retrofit project in the Paris region. Both were honored with the 2024 IMCL Achievement Award. The 2024 IMCL Mayors' Vision Award went to Rod Roberson of the City of Elkhart, Indiana, for his visionary leadership in the transformation of that midwest industrial city.

Attendees also had ample opportunities to rub elbows, form new friendships and develop new collaborations -- a key goal for the IMCL from its beginning in 1985. The series was begun by Suzanne Lennard, a British architectural and urban scholar, and Henry Lennard, a Viennese medical sociologist. The Lennards were passionate about sharing the best evidence-based lessons of great cities and towns to improve the quality of life for all, and to promote personal and planetary health. To do it, they brought together many of the world’s most innovative and successful mayors, planners, economic development specialists, designers, developers, NGO officials, and researchers and scholars.

In the years since its founding, the IMCL has become a unique peer-to-peer gathering of city leaders and researchers, typically hosted in beautiful, intimate and instructive case-study locales (like Cortona). While we recognize that online education is an increasingly important professional development component, the IMCL believes there is no substitute for a component of face-to-face and on-the-ground immersive learning, personally sharing effective tools and strategies to drive positive change.

Following are some photos from the 61st conference. Videos of the plenary presentations will be available in the near future!

Above: Cortona Mayor Luciano Meoni welcomes attendees.

Above: US Embassy to Rome Cultural Attaché Karen Schinnerer is welcomed by officers of the City of Cortona, while (left) IMCL Board Member Jim Brainard looks on.

ABOVE: The conference brought together over 100 attendees from every continent except Antarctica, including government officials, practitioners, NGO heads, and researchers across a range of disciplines.

ABOVE: Catered hors d'oeuvres and an exhibition of beautiful projects await conference attendees in the cloister of the venue, a stunning 17th century former monastery.

ABOVE: Attendees discuss the proceedings. L-R Roland Larivier of Paris, Ayanda Roji of Johannesburg, and Guy Courtois of Paris.

ABOVE: Attendees gather at a reception and dinner on the second night of the conference.

ABOVE: The volunteer "Red Shirt Brigade" handles technical and other issues with a smile.

ABOVE: Yves Bovero wins the 2024 IMCL Achievement Award for his work at Le Plessis-Robinson, a stunningly successful suburban retrofit in the Paris region.

ABOVE: Conference manager Leslie Barrett tends to the book table.

ABOVE: George Ferguson, Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects and former Mayor of Bristol, UK, describes a new book at the book signing session.

ABOVE: Guests arrive for the awards dinner on the third night of the conference.

ABOVE: The awards dinner gets under way.

ABOVE: Attendees gather in the beautiful cloister to discuss the conference topics.

ABOVE: Liz Moule, co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and partner of legendary firm Moule & Polyzoides, presents their extensive research on Italian hill towns.

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