Join Global Leaders In Urban Research into ACTION, at Our 40th Annual International Making Cities Livable (IMCL), October 15-18 in Beautiful Potsdam, Germany

Featured topics include cognitive architecture, neuroscience, complexity, public space, AI, climate action, urban and planetary health, and the latest effective tools and strategies for making livable cities, towns and suburbs

ABOVE - Potsdam offers many new and old lessons for livable cities, as well as a beautiful and convivial venue to gather for a peer-to-peer exchange of the latest research findings, tools and strategies in livable urbanism.

POTSDAM, GERMANY - 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 "business as usual," 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, since “we shape our buildings, and thereafter they shape us” – our opportunities, our quality of life, and the health of people and planet.

PLEASE JOIN US for a very special 40th annual conference as we gather global leaders in urban research, policy and practice, to share frontier knowledge on how to build a new generation of more livable cities, towns and suburbs. Our speakers will include:

GLOBAL LEADERS IN URBAN RESEARCH:

Bin Jiang is doing frontier research in complexity, AI, the mathematics of beauty, and the work of Christopher Alexander. Alexandros Lavdas is a leading researcher in complexity, eye-tracking and VR to understand the cognitive and mathematical basis of user preferences. Setha Low is an acclaimed scholar in public space, its benefits, challenges and threats.

GLOBAL URBAN NGO LEADERS:

Mallory Baches co-leads the Congress for the New Urbanism, one of the world's most influential bodies of urban practitioners, researchers, city leaders and NGO heads. Ben Bolgar co-leads The King's Foundation, the highly influential charity of HM King Charles, active in many countries across the Commonwealth. Jose Chong is director of the Global Public Space Programme for UN-Habitat, focused on implementing the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Harriet Wennberg leads INTBAU, a global network of 43 chapters active in practicing, teaching and advancing knowledge in traditional building and architecture practices around the world.

GLOBAL CITY LEADERS:

Jim Brainard is the long-time mayor of Carmel, Indiana USA, an acclaimed example of "suburban retrofit" of a sprawling bedroom community into a walkable, mixed, compact town. George Ferguson is the former mayor of Bristol, UK, where he introduced many transportation innovations. Robert Krasser is a planner for the Salzburg Institute of Regional Planning and Housing, and a leader of The Pattern Institute, dedicated to advancing and promoting the work of architect Christopher Alexander. Ayanda Roji is head of research for the Johannesburg Parks Department, and leader of the Centre on African Public Spaces.

THANKS TO OUR LOCAL HOSTS:

Thomas Albrecht and Markus Tubbesing are both distinguished Berlin-area architects as well as professors of architecture at the University of Notre Dame's Rome Campus. Ruben Hanssen and Bart Urban work with The Aesthetic City, a media channel promoting the importance of beauty in the built environment, and both are active in the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU), a global network of chapters promoting traditional ways of building, designing and making cities.

And other noted scholars, practitioners and city leaders!

Join other scholars from a range of disciplines, prominent practitioners, NGO heads, and other urban leaders, for an international, interdisciplinary, peer-to-peer exchange of the latest findings, tools and strategies to meet our urban challenges. Potsdam is a beautiful and instructive locale for this 40th anniversary conference, and we hope you can join us!

PLEASE CONSIDER SUBMITTING A NO-OBLIGATION ABSTRACT: https://www.imcl.online/cfa2025

For more information: https://www.imcl.online/potsdam-2025

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The International Making Cities Livable conference series was begun in 1985 by a Viennese medical sociologist and a British architectural scholar, and it is hosted by the Lennard Institute for Livable Cities, a US-based 501(c)3 educational foundation. Our conferences are peer-to-peer gatherings held in beautiful and inspiring locales in Europe and elsewhere. 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,” "“I left the conference encouraged - there are many challenges ahead of us, but I am so invigorated by the tenacity of those stepping up to face them,” and “This is the best conference I've ever attended. There was much to take in; so many people with exceptional experience." More information: https://www.imcl.online/

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 Michael Mehaffy reports from the annual Wine Market festival in the beautiful Luisenplatz square of Potsdam, adjacent to our October 2025 conference venue. A full video report with travel practicalities is below.

POTSDAM, GERMANY - What can we learn from European cities and towns about making a more livable future? What can we learn from each other?

The International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) was founded on the belief that there are enormous effective lessons to share about what works -- as well as what does not. In many ways, Europeans are world leaders in livability innovations, from bike infrastructure to street design to public transportation, and much more. Other countries also have their lessons to share on livable innovations, development trends and financial mechanisms. The United States, for example, is a leader in tax increment finance and other financial implementation tools, and Canada is a leader in negotiated development for public-realm benefits.

A 'cycle track" next to a sidewalk in Potsdam. Bike lanes added to street lanes can be dangerous, effectively widening the street and encouraging speeding.

All of us have much to learn from the emerging research in planning, architecture, environmental psychology, sociology, and other fields. Too often, these lessons remain in "silos", behind academic walls or national borders. That's why the IMCL has always been an international, cross-sector, interdisciplinary, peer-to-peer gathering of researchers, practitioners, city leaders and other "doers", sharing the latest research, practices and case studies, and to drive forward effective changes.

This last week we traveled to Potsdam to prepare the next conference, October 15-18, 2025. We're checking the conference spaces, reception venue, hotel availability and quality, and travel logistics. We want to ensure that this IMCL conference -- the 62nd in the series -- provides the rich immersive lessons that have characterized all these gatherings.

This year marks an especially timely moment for the IMCL series that began in 1985 - making this our 40-year anniversary. Founders Henry Lennard, a Viennese medical sociologist, and Suzanne Lennard, a British architectural scholar, were passionate about sharing the best lessons from Europe and around the world to drive progress toward more livable cities and towns. The conferences have brought together many of the world's urban leaders in research, policy and practice, and we have seen participants come back to their home cities and towns to make real and inspiring progress. Our last conference brought together speakers from every continent except Antarctica.

This year, we will gather with urban leaders from Berlin and Potsdam, and others from Europe and the world. In addition to learning about frontier research, policy and practice, we will have an opportunity to explore Potsdam's rich history up to its dynamic present, with in-depth presentations and tours.

With Christian Zedler, custodian of the Friedenskirche in Potsdam.

Our conference in Potsdam will begin with an evening reception on the 15th of October at the beautiful Friedenskirche, a historic church complex at the gateway of the spectacular Sanssouci Park, before moving to the nearby MAXX Hotel Sanssouci, adjacent to the beautiful Luisenplatz square and Potsdam's Brandenburg Gate. There are also many other nearby hotels and B&Bs, as well as restaurants, cafes and bars. Indeed, the city has transformed in recent years into a model of livability.

Meeting with Marie-Sophie Schildt, Group and Convention Manager for the MAXX Hotel Sanssouci

The MAXX Hotel Sanssouci offers us an ideal venue location, and very comfortable facilities. For those who want to stay there, the hotel has 136 rooms in a variety of sizes, configurations and prices. Marie-Sophie Schildt, Group and Convention Manager for the hotel, has confirmed all the details of our stay. The main conference room adjoins a garden, and other breakout rooms are next to an outdoor terrace and indoor bar and cafe.

ABOVE (L-R): The exterior of the MAXX Hotel, and the terrace adjoining one of the breakout rooms in the historic building to the left, and the restaurant and bar in the new building to the right. The garden is in the rear.

The Hotel am Luisenplatz and Wiener Cafe, adjacent to the MAXX Hotel Sanssouci.

Travel practicalities. Potsdam is easily accessible from the Berlin airport on the S-Bahn and local tram, or from other parts of Europe by train. In addition to Potsdam's inspiring lessons and delights, there are also many nearby sights in Berlin and the region. We are working to arrange walking tours of Potsdam and the region.

A video report with travel logistics is above, and additional photos from our prep trip are below! For more information, please visit https://www.imcl.online/potsdam-2025.

ABOVE, the Friedenskirch, adjacent to our hotel venue and site of our opening reception.

Cloister of the Friedenskirche.

Another view of the Friedenskirche.

The MAXX Hotel Sanssouci (at center) and the lively street with cafes and other nearby hotels.

The main street of Potsdam, Brandenburgerstrasse.

A pavilion at the spectacular Sanssouci Park.

Roman Baths at Sanssouci, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

The Chinese Pavilion at Sanssouci.

An example of a Potsdam "parklet" made into an urban room.

The Roman Baths by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, currently under renovation and due for completion in the next few months. That means this remarkable building should (fingers crossed) be open by the time of our conference.

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 richness of the past – and too often, the poverties of the present

ABOVE, Two environments not far from one another in London. Left: Seven Dials, dating from the late 17th century. Right: a typical office complex from the 20th century. These environments can be better understood as geometric structures manifesting specific measurable properties. Image credits: Left, John Sutton via Wikimedia Commons. Right: Michael Mehaffy.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of a series of discussion posts contributing to the 62nd International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference in Potsdam, Germany, 15-18 October, 2025.

POTSDAM, GERMANY - Walk through almost any historic city center in the world, and a curious phenomenon plays out. People slow down, look up, smile. They take photos, sit in plazas, lean against old walls, meet friends under cornices and clocks. Something about these older places seems to resonate. “Charm,” we often say, or “character.” We chalk it up to nostalgia, or cultural memory, or maybe the warm glow of patina and time.

But new research suggests there’s something more going on—rooted not in sentimentality, but in human perception, cognition, and biology.

Recent research in neuroscience, environmental psychology, and architectural theory suggests that the architecture of the past isn’t appealing simply because it’s old. Instead, it may be more fundamentally aligned with the way human beings experience and interpret the built environment. Traditional buildings—whether Chinese courtyard houses, Moroccan riads, European townhouses, or Japanese machiya—share certain underlying spatial patterns and visual properties that modern buildings, particularly those built after around 1930, often lack.

This discovery invites us to reframe a familiar question: Are we drawn to old buildings just because they’re old? Or are we responding to something more intrinsic—something these buildings do, cognitively and emotionally?

A Different Kind of Sophistication

To some, traditional architecture may seem “quaint,” “simple,” or even “primitive”—a leftover from a time before modern materials and methods gave us glass towers and sculptural forms. But that view misses something essential. These older forms of architecture are in fact highly sophisticated—not in terms of high-tech materials, but in how they engage the human mind and body.

One key example comes from the field of cognitive psychology. In the 1950s, George A. Miller introduced the concept of “chunking,” which describes how humans process information in manageable groups. Traditional buildings do something similar: they organize elements like windows, arches, and ornament into visual clusters and sub-clusters that are easy to read. In contrast, many modern buildings feature vast blank walls, stark uniformity, or abstract forms that are harder to “chunk.” The result? A cognitive load that is heavier, and less pleasurable.

Then there’s fractal geometry. Traditional environments often show repeating patterns at different scales—a doorway with panels, a courtyard with layered edges, a street that reveals itself gradually through smaller openings. These patterns mirror those found in nature, and studies in neuroscience have shown that people respond positively—even physiologically—to such patterns. Blood pressure decreases, attention improves, and feelings of well-being increase when people view environments rich in natural or fractal forms.

Many modernist buildings, by contrast, intentionally avoided these characteristics. Architects of the 20th century sought to break with the past—to strip away ornament, reject symmetry, and embrace pure abstraction. But in doing so, they also stripped away some of the very elements that connect buildings to the human organism.

Symmetry, Scale, and Sense

Christopher Alexander, the architect and design theorist, spent decades studying what makes certain buildings and spaces feel “alive.” In his four-volume work The Nature of Order, he identified fifteen structural properties that occur repeatedly in environments that people find beautiful, comforting, and coherent. These include features like:

• Levels of scale – patterns and forms that repeat across different sizes

• Local symmetries – balance that is centered and relational, rather than rigidly imposed

• Positive space – forms that define and enliven the spaces around them

• Gradients – gentle transitions in size, density, or intensity

• Roughness – minor imperfections that contribute to an overall sense of harmony

Some of Alexander's "Fifteen Properties" as they arose spontaneously in traditional buildings.

Traditional architecture embodies these properties almost universally—not because of any ideological or symbolic intent (which can vary enormously, of course), but because these patterns emerged naturally, through generations of trial and error. Builders intuitively created forms that fit the body, the climate, the materials, and the culture. And they did so in ways that supported orientation, comprehension, social interaction, and well-being.

By contrast, many modern buildings are dominated by singular ideas or visual effects, often with few layers of structure or scale. The result can be buildings that are visually striking—but also confusing, alienating, or difficult to inhabit.

But Weren’t Traditional Buildings Political Symbols?

Some critics argue that traditional architecture is tied to outdated ideologies, or worse, oppressive regimes of the past -- but that’s a misconception. It’s true that fascist or authoritarian governments have sometimes co-opted classical architecture—but so have democracies, religious communities, indigenous cultures, and peasants. The forms themselves are not ideological—they are structural, spatial, and human.

Claiming an ideological association is like saying that the alphabet is ideological because it was used by dictators and slaveholders. Of course, no one seriously argues that because of this association, we should stop using words or language. The same is true for traditional forms of design—they are tools, developed over time, to meet human needs.

And indeed, traditional architecture is not one thing—it is a vast, diverse family of approaches shaped by different materials, climates, and cultures. What unites them is not a single style, but a set of structural principles that respond to human perception and bodily experience.

What This Means Today

None of this is an argument for going back in time or rejecting modern technology. Rather, it’s an invitation to bring forward what was best in traditional architecture—those patterns that support human well-being—and to combine them with contemporary insights and capabilities.

This is already happening. New urbanist developments are borrowing traditional forms to create walkable, sociable, human-scaled places - often very successfully, as new research shows. Neuroscientists are working with architects to design environments that reduce stress and enhance cognitive function. Planners are rediscovering the importance of local identity and complexity in urban design.

These efforts aren’t about copying the past. They’re about recovering lost knowledge—about how the built environment can support our health, our understanding, and our happiness.

The Timeless in the Familiar

That makes it clear that we don'e love old buildings just because they’re old. We love them because they speak to us—visually, physically, emotionally—in a language we’ve always understood, even if we don’t always know why.

Thanks to new research, we’re beginning to understand the why. And that gives us a chance to do better—not by idolizing the past, but by learning from it. Because a building isn’t just a machine, or a sculpture, or a manifesto. It’s a place for life. And when it’s shaped with care, coherence, and human meaning, we feel it—sometimes without even knowing it.

That’s not primitive. That’s profound.

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Founded in 1985, the IMCL is a unique peer-to-peer gathering of city leaders, researchers and practitioners, sharing the latest knowledge and research into action on making cities livable. For more information: https://www.imcl.online/