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.
We were particularly gratified that Henry and Suzanne Lennard were called out in the award -- something that we know they would have appreciated greatly. The Lennards founded the IMCL conferences 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, and the IMCL was praised for inspiring French architects, developers and citizens, and for fostering 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" project 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: 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.