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.”

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!