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EVENTS
How can we apply urban research more effectively to make better cities, towns and suburbs?
The 62nd International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference in Potsdam, Germany, October 15-18, will take up this important question,...
New Research By Cambridge-Led Team Shows How Building Façades Trigger Visual Stress
Cambridge researcher and IMCL speaker Cleo Valentine, along with her colleagues at Cambridge, The University of Essex and Universitat...
68 Excellent Abstracts Received for 62nd IMCL Conference on "The Architecture of the (LIVABLE) Future" in Potsdam, Germany, October 15-18, 2025
Submissions from Every Continent Except Antarctica Cover a Wide Range of Urgent and Timely Issues for Livable, Durable Cities and Towns;...
LAST CHANCE To Submit No-Obligation Abstract for the 40th Anniversary IMCL Conference in Beautiful Potsdam, Germany!
Join global leaders, urban researchers and practitioners exploring the most effective solutions to today's most pressing urban...
Why "A Building is Not a 'Tree'"
Christopher Alexander's classic 1965 paper applies to both the city scale and the building scale, with important new implications -- even...
Last Two Weeks to Submit No-Obligation Abstracts for 62nd IMCL, 15-18 Oct. in Beautiful Potsdam, Germany!
Join global leaders, urban researchers and practitioners exploring the most effective solutions to today's most pressing urban...
IMCL Partnering with INTBAU for Paired October Conferences; Discounts for Members to Each!
The IMCL conference will be in beautiful Potsdam, Oct. 15-18, immediately followed by the INTBAU World Congress in London, Oct. 22-24 ...
Join Global Leaders In Urban Research into ACTION, at Our 40th Anniversary International Making Cities Livable, October 15-18 in Beautiful Potsdam, Germany
Featured topics include cognitive architecture, neuroscience, complexity, public space, AI, climate action, urban and planetary health,...
Report from Potsdam, Site of the 62nd IMCL, October 15-18, 2025 - Our 40th Anniversary Year!
The beautiful city in the Berlin region is a fascinating laboratory of old and new lessons for livable cities ABOVE: Executive Director...
Do we love old places just because they’re old?
On the contrary, new research in neuroscience and other fields is beginning to tease out specific geometric properties that shape the...
The Many Spinoff Benefits of Urban Climate Action
Debates too often focus on narrow disaster preparedness or emissions reductions, overlooking the many other immediate quality-of-life...
What is the Architecture of the (Livable) Future?
The 62nd conference of the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) series will explore the research and lively debates, in the...
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...
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...
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...
Attendees are traveling to Cortona, Italy for the 61st International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) next week!
Good weather and great speakers await the participants, as Cortona Mayor Luciano Meoni and Cultural Attaché to the US Embassy in Rome...
61st IMCL Conference Will Focus on Implementation with Leaders of Top International Projects
The conference will bring together mayors, developers, researchers, practitioners, and NGO leaders to exchange peer-to-peer insights and...
"Deep Symmetry" (Not Just Mirror Symmetry) May Be Essential for Healthy Human Environments
New research suggests there might be a "symmetry deficit disorder" in today's built environments, with significant impacts on health,...
Why Geographic Diversity Is As Important As Other Kinds of Diversity for Cities
Cities, and the nations that contain them, generate benefits from concentrations of talent—but also from “spreading it around.” Striking...
Just Over One Month to the 61st IMCL Conference in Cortona IT, with a Terrific Mix of Speakers and Topics!
A rich program and optional events are announced; topics include markets, local economies, placemaking, walkability, small town...
How Our Built Environments Impact Our Health and Well-Being More Than We Knew
New research is providing startling evidence for the importance of livable, beautiful places for personal and planetary health -- as...
Wonders of the "Urban Connectome"
Cities are like brains—immense networks of connective tissue between people, places and events. Understanding this underlying connective...
Instead of Aiming for Sustainable Urbanism, Perhaps We Should Target its Opposite?
A new paper in the journal Sustainability suggests that while the term is vague and difficult to implement, we can take more effective...
61st IMCL Conference in Cortona, Italy Will Focus on Implementation Tools, International Partnerships
Conference will gather "doers" with leading researchers, city officials and NGO heads to exchange the latest research at a critical...
61st IMCL Shaping Up with Leading Speakers, Important Topics at Timely October Conference
A focus on effective implementation for livable cities and towns, with the theme of "The Ecology of Place: Learning from Nature, Culture...
US Presidential Election Raises New Questions About Policies for Livable Cities and their Public Spaces
A 2021 roundtable discussion with Vice President Kamala Harris and Professor Vikas Mehta - an invited speaker at the next International...
IMCL Call for Abstracts closes with 60 excellent entries; NEW student Call for Abstracts extended to August 31st
Topics include food quality and food equity, placemaking, walkability and bikability, transportation reform, public spaces, cities for...
DEADLINE REMINDER for the 61st IMCL Call for Abstracts - July 31st!
One week to go as student (poster) discount rates are added to regular presenter rates; Exciting program and speakers set for the...
Cortona, Italy welcomes 61st IMCL conference team with gracious hospitality, partnership
Our advance team makes final preparations as we also announce new student poster sessions and partner member discount rates The Mayor of...
How Neighborhood "Choice Architecture" Is Locking Us Into Unsustainable Living Patterns
Insights from cognitive psychology and behavioral economics reveal the hidden controls over our daily choices -- including our ability to...
New online archive catalogs the seminal work of architect Christopher Alexander over half a century
The collection includes over 29,000 items, with 6000 items that have been digitized and are now available from the website as downloads...
How Christopher Alexander's "Fifteen Properties" can guide us to create buildings and neighborhoods that are more alive
The legendary architect's later magnum opus The Nature of Order, not as well known as his earlier work, contains a hidden treasury of...
Wiki as Pattern Language (and Why Both Have More to Do with Livable Cities than You Might Think)
An increasingly factious, mentally disrupted, and confused age needs to find a path to clarity and hope -- and it may be right in front of...
Thinking Globally, Building Locally
The next IMCL conference, in Cortona, Italy, October 29-November 1, will bring together international allies to explore and learn from...
Plans are in place for a wonderful venue for the 61st International Making Cities Livable (IMCL)
Executive Director Michael Mehaffy provides a tour of the venue as well as travel and accommodation details; conference set for late...
UPDATE on the inspiring venue for the 61st International Making Cities Livable (IMCL)
Executive Director Michael Mehaffy provides a tour of the venue as well as travel and accommodation details; conference set for late...
61st IMCL Conference Call for Abstracts, Registration are OPEN!
Join us for a very special International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) gathering in beautiful and instructive Cortona, Italy, October...
60th IMCL wraps with enthusiasm, commitment to continue collaborations in Cortona and beyond
Participants celebrate progress in making cities, towns and suburbs more livable, but recognize global challenges, and much more work to...
How can we change the "operating system for growth" to create more livable cities and towns for all?
The answer is an evolving set of tools and strategies employed by municipal governments, non-profits, practitioners and citizens - ones...
How can we apply the latest research findings to drive crucial urban reforms?
Research has clearly demonstrated the critical impact of urban structure on our present and future well-being -- but there is also a...
Final speaker roster almost set for 60th International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference in April
The rich lineup of frontier urban topics will include new research and case studies, and new tools and strategies for public space,...
How livable cities (and towns, and suburbs) are key to the human future
The sciences are revealing to us the power of networks - notably including urban networks. As Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander and...
The vital importance of a "subsidiary urbanism"
The little-known concept of subsidiarity may actually address the core of our urban challenges. Here's why. EDITOR'S NOTE: This post is...
Early Bird registration for 60th IMCL in Newport ends TODAY (February 29th)
Topics will include coastal flooding, beach erosion, public space access, resilience, climate-friendly planning, housing affordability,...
46 IMCL Newport abstracts accepted, from researchers, city leaders, practitioners and NGO heads -- representing every continent except Antarctica
A rich variety of topics will include urban resilience, affordability, equity, walkability and transportation reform, placemaking and...
We humans are modern masters at economies of scale and standardization – but here’s why we also need economies of PLACE and DIFFERENTIATION
The human project may depend on getting this relationship back into balance. EDITOR'S NOTE: This post is one of a series meant to...
Deadline Approaching - Call for Abstracts, 60th IMCL in Newport RI USA
January 31 is the due date for "Making Cities Livable: From Research Into Communication, and ACTION" NEWPORT, RI: Friends and colleagues...
60th IMCL in Newport, RI: Sharing effective new tools and strategies for the front-line challenges of cities, towns and suburbs in 2024
IMCL Executive Director and venue hosts meet to make final preparations for a memorable conference in a beautiful venue Our executive...
Never mind NIMBY and YIMBY: Why we need "QUIMBY urbanism"
Addressing affordability, displacement and homelessness challenges will require innovative new approaches. “Quality In My Back Yard”...
IMCL 2023 conference e-reader, videos, overview report are now online
More videos and other resources will be added later, as we prepare for TWO big conferences in 2024! A slide from attendee Nancy...
The International Making Cities Livable conference series was begun in 1985 by Dr. Henry L. Lennard, a Viennese medical sociologist, and Dr. Suzanne C. Lennard, an architectural researcher. Both were committed to sharing knowledge to make healthier, more ecological, more equitable, more beautiful -- more livable -- cities, towns and suburbs. The conference series, study tours, and other events, bring together leaders from policy, practice and academia, to share effective tools and strategies, and to examine instructive case studies.
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