CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
The Call for Abstracts is now CLOSED for the 62nd International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) Conference in Potsdam, Germany, October 15-18, 2025. Please consider joining us as an attendee! The link is above. If you would like to contact the Executive Director to complete a previously-arranged late submission, you can email to Michael (dot) Mehaffy at the Gmail domain. Thank you!
“What Is the Architecture of the (Livable) Future?”
Research and Debate on Cities and Buildings in Time and Place ​
Call for Regular Presenters, and Discounted Student Poster Presenters
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BACKGROUND: The International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference series, a premier interdisciplinary, cross-border gathering of city leaders, researchers and practitioners established in 1985, invites you to submit an abstract for its upcoming 2025 conference - our 40th anniversary. Our last conference in Cortona, Italy in November 2024 included leading speakers 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.”
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: The conference will offer an opportunity to share your work, meet and discuss with others, and join in this unique international collaborative platform, at a critical time for cities and for scholarship. A major aim of the conference will be to serve as a “springboard” toward new research, new collaborative action, new practical knowledge on implementation, and new ways of communicating and driving the necessary transition ahead.
TOPICS:
- Public Space and its Architectural Edges
- Neuroscience, Cognition, and Environmental Psychology
- Health, Well-being and the Environment
- The Role of Aesthetics in Healthy Cities and Towns
- Climate-Responsive Cities
- Promoting Walkability, Mixed Use, and Compactness
- Rapid Urbanization: Implementing the New Urban Agenda
- Financial Tools and Externality Feedbacks: Making It Pay
- Sustainable Infrastructure: Complete Streets, Regenerative Utilities and Transit
- Access For Everyone: Bringing the Benefits of Livable Cites to ALL
- The Ecology of Place: Concepts, Metrics, Practices
- Learning from Nature, Culture, and History for Contemporary Challenges
2025 THEME: “What Is the Architecture of the Livable Future?” The professions and disciplines of the built environment are at a watershed moment – challenged as never before to meet the pressing needs of the urban future. At the same time, new findings from the sciences are discrediting old orthodoxies, and illuminating the unmet human factors of our urban world. Built environment professionals are called to engage in a "big rethink" about the architecture and urbanism of the future, and the assumptions that have guided, and limited, contemporary practice.
CITIES MATTER, NOW MORE THAN EVER. Our cities, towns and suburbs are where we interact, move about, consume resources, develop and deploy our technologies, and create most of the impacts we are having on Planet Earth, and on each other. In that sense, our settlements are major contributors to our challenges – but they also offer an important platform for joining up key issues of emissions and contamination, resource use and depletion, and ecological destruction, as well as opportunities for equitable human development, health, and well-being. Their character and configuration is profoundly important, for “we shape our buildings, and thereafter they shape us” – our opportunities, our quality of life, and the health of people and planet.
WE WILL GATHER TO SHARE PEER-TO-PEER KNOWLEDGE. The IMCL conference series is an opportunity to share the latest knowledge on effective tools and strategies to meet our pressing urban challenges. We gather in beautiful and instructive case studies, meeting with local leaders to gain first-hand knowledge on their successes and lessons learned. We also examine other case studies from around the world, as well as the latest research on urban challenges and successes.
OUR NEXT GATHERING IS IN POTSDAM, GERMANY. Our 62nd conference will be held at the MAXX Hotel at the gates of the beautiful Sanssouci Park, at a pivotal moment in European urban and political history. 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 leading up to the present day and its familiar urban challenges. 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.
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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 side trips to other parts of Germany and Europe.
ATTENDEE SPACE IS STRICTLY LIMITED by the intimate conference venue size, and 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, and no refunds after September 1.)
Abstracts will be reviewed by the Board of Stewards, including leading academics (https://www.imcl.online/about). You may present a paper, or only an oral presentation if desired. Papers will be published in the conference e-reader, to be shared with all attendees. They will then be published as 61st IMCL Proceedings on Academia.com, with a publication DOI number. There are also other options for subsequent publication in affiliated peer-reviewed journals following attendee comments and revisions – contact us for more details at michael.mehaffy@livablecities.org.
DEADLINES:
Abstracts are due no later than July 31, 2025
Notifications will occur by August 15, 2025
Speaker registration is required by September 1, 2025
Papers must be submitted for the e-reader by September 1, 2025
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REGISTRATION FEES:
Accepted speaker registration is $595.00 (approx. €550 EUR)
(Discounts and scholarships are available - contact us for details at michael.mehaffy@livablecities.org.)
Early Bird registration (non-speaker) is also $595.00 (through May 31)
Discount registration (non-speaker) is $695.00 (through July 30)
Full participant (non-speaker) registration is $795.00 (after August 1)
Student Poster Presenter registration is $295.00 (approx. €273 EUR, ID required)
Student (non-speaker) registration is $245.00 (approx. €226 EUR, ID required)
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SCHEDULE AT-A-GLANCE
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Wednesday, October 15, 2025
2PM Walking tour of Sanssouci Park
5PM Welcome Reception, Friedenskirche
Thursday, October 16
8AM Registration (MAXX Hotel)
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)
Friday, October 17
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)
Saturday, October 18
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
6PM Closing Reception
Sunday, October 19
10AM-3PM Walking tour of Potsdam
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For more information, please visit: https://www.imcl.online/potsdam-2025​​​​​