Research and debate on our common urban and architectural future.
Among other pressing topics, the conference will critically examine 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 across 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” and computer-based design processes, and other innovative methodologies? We will explore and debate these and other issues of the urban future.
THEME: The professions and disciplines of the built environment are at a watershed moment of disruptive history, facing unprecedented challenges to meet the pressing needs of the urban future. At the same time, astonishing new findings from the sciences are providing remarkable insights into the human and biological factors of our urban world, and tools to harness them. Research in neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, environmental psychology, sociology, medicine, and other fields, are highlighting the inadequacies of conventional methods, and the fascinating and hopeful opportunities now emerging for cities, towns and suburbs.
WHAT IS THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE (LIVABLE) FUTURE? Debates are raging on the valid “architecture of our time” — but our focus will be on more concrete evidence for effective responses to the challenges of our time. What are successful strategies to frame and activate public space with building edges, and to connect the public to the private and semi-private? How can architecture promote health and well-being, both human and planetary? What are the lessons emerging from the sciences on cognitive architecture, neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, biophilia, nature-based solutions, evolutionary and self-organizing processes, cities as complex adaptive systems, and effective tools and strategies emerging from these findings?
Meanwhile, public demands are growing for a new architecture that integrates the richer qualities of history and nature, and the beauty of traditional designs. At the same time, proposals for “green” and futuristic” cities and buildings are facing new accusations of “greenwashing” and fantasy-based marketing. Built environment professionals — and city leaders as a whole — are called to engage in a “big rethink” about the architecture and urbanism of the future, and the assumptions that have guided, and perhaps limited, contemporary practice.
At this IMCL conference, we won’t just discuss these issues: we examine effective tools and strategies, presented in case studies by those who are using them, and backed up by research findings. Many of our speakers and attendees are “in the trenches” driving positive change for city livability, and they come to our conferences to share, learn, recharge, and get inspired for the challenging but fulfilling work ahead.
[Registration is strictly limited and will be made on a first-come, first-served basis.]