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 children, nature-based solutions, lessons of Italian hill towns, and much more!

Our host venue, beautiful Cortona, Italy -- also offering its own important lessons for livability, food quality and food equity, small town viability, public space, walkablity, and much more.

CORTONA, ITALY, AUGUST 1 - We are thrilled to announce that we have received 60 excellent abstracts for the 61st International Making Cities Livable conference to be held here, October 29th to November 1st. The proposers include city officials, researchers, practitioners, NGO heads, and students -- a new category we have just opened.

While we closed the regular Call for Abstracts, the Student Call for Abstracts will remain open until August 31st. Proposers are under no obligation, but if accepted, they will be invited to register at a significantly discounted student presenter rate. Accepted students will be asked to prepare A1 or 24" x 36" posters, and to make short oral presentations on their work. Students are encouraged to submit their abstracts here: https://www.imcl.online/cfa-cortona

The 60 presenters cover a diverse range of topics around livable cities and towns, drawing from every continent except Antarctica. There is a particular focus on Italy and its lessons, as well as smaller towns and their challenges and opportunities. Among the topics:

• Food Systems and Cities

• The Nurturing City: Food and Place

• The Realities of Sustainability

• Street Design for Livability: New Insights

• The Livability Asset of Heritage

• Livable Lessons from Small College Towns

• Case Study of Successes and Failures of Car-Free Design

• Place Networks by Design: Building a Civic Ecology of Place

• Olympic Cities Afterwards

• The Work of Christopher Alexander, from Pattern Languages to the Nature of Order

• Pattern Languages in Practice

• Lessons from Italian Hilltowns

• Hilltowns in the USA: A New Model of Livability and Sustainability?

• Agrihoods: Learning from Italy, and Elsewhere

• Back Streets and their Regeneration

• Reconstituting the (Broken) Public Realm

• Regeneration in Buffalo: Case Study of Reconnecting a Museum

• Greening the City: Cost-Effective Techniques for Beauty and Livability

• Smart Cities Reconsidered

• A Pattern Language for Bicycle Infrastructure

• Future-Proofing Today’s Constructions

• Cognitive Architecture, User Experience and the Secrets of Eye-Tracking

• Comparison of Christopher Alexander’s work  

• Learning from the Shared Building Traditions of the World

• Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order: A Clearer Vision of Nature and Spirit?

• First-Hand Case Studies of Christopher Alexander’s Campus Master Planning

• Transportation Reform and the Problem of Parking: New Solutions

• Financial Tools for Development Reform: Tax Increment Financing and Related Tools

• Design Patterns for Enlivening Public Space with Playful Encounters

• Nature-Based Solutions for City Livability in Europe: A Systematic Review

• The Circular City: A Biological Cycle for Local Places in a Global Context

• Outdoor Rooms as a Critical Ecology of the City

• Case Study of a School Design Using Montessori Methods

• Understanding the Powerful Lessons of Hill Towns

• Collective Spaces for Assimilating Immigrants: Case Studies

• Street Life and Hyper-Local Economies

• Inclusive Placemaking: Not Just Physical

• A Language of “Universal Pragmatics” for Inclusionary Placemaking

• The Patterns and Methodologies that Generate Timeless and Human Places (Film Screening)

• The Italian Townscape as Livable Drama and Comedy: Learning from de Wolfe and Cullen

• Understanding Industrial Revolutions and their Impacts on Urbanism: The Processes of Renewal

• Healing the Community and Healing the Landscape: Learning from Post-Earthquake Italy

• Designing for Kids: Why a Child-Friendly City is Livable for Everyone

• The Logic of Italian Hilltown Settlements

• The Ecology of Place: Concepts. Metrics, Practices

• Getting More (and More Affordable) Housing: Gentle Densification and “Soft Assembly”

• Case Study of Place-Based Planning

• Reviving the Countryside, Revitalizing the Smaller City

• The Key Elements of Walkability: Form and Space

• Right-Sizing Parks: Getting Not Just Quantity, but Quality

• Revitalizing Railway Corridors

• The Architecture of Place: Historical, Modern, and Post-Modern Elements

• Learning from Himalayan Small Towns

• Building a School for Traditional Building Arts and Crafts in Uganda: A Path to Sustainability?

The 60 submitted abstracts are currently undergoing a peer review process by our Board of Stewards, and proposers will be notified of acceptance by August 15th. They will have until September 15th to register and be included in the program. Student proposals will be reviewed after September 1st; proposers will be notified by September 7th, and will have until September 15th to register.

A HUGE thank you to our partners and sponsors, including the City of Cortona!

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 beautiful venue in Cortona, Italy, October 29-November 1

TOP ROW (L-R): The beautiful venue, a state-of-the-art conference center in a former monastery; the plenary hall with poster exhibition panels; the palazzo where we will have our opening reception, featuring Etruscan caves and Roman baths. BOTTOM ROW (L-R): A breakout space in the conference center; a beautiful street near the conference center; and a wedding being held at City Hall, above the main square in Cortona.

CORTONA, ITALY, July 24th - One week remains until the deadline for the 61st International Making Cities Livable conference here, October 29-November 1st. Interested proposers can submit abstracts for regular presentations, and students can submit abstracts for more affordable poster presentations. The portal for submissions is here: https://www.imcl.online/cfa-cortona

Topics for the conference will include resilient and climate-friendly cities, walkability and public space, food quality, food equity and food security, markets, local products and regional territories, small-town and rural challenges, livability and beauty, neuroscience and health, affordability and opportunity for ALL, and much more.

Partners in the conference will include the City of Cortona, the King's Foundation, UN-Habitat, the Congress for the New Urbanism, INTBAU, HealthBridge, Seaside Institute, the World Farmers' Market Coalition, and others to be announced.

Speakers will include global leaders in urban research, government, NGOs, education and practice. Don't miss it!

The full Call for Abstracts is below. There is no obligation, but accepted proposers will have until September 15th to register in order to be included in the program.

If you know of colleagues who might be interested, please feel free to copy, paste and send the text below. Please contact us if you have any questions.

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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS (DEADLINE JULY 31st)

61ST INTERNATIONAL MAKING CITIES LIVABLE

“The Ecology of Place: Learning from Nature, Culture, and History”

A Research Symposium on Frontier Challenges for the Urban Future

29th October to 1st November, 2024, Cortona, Italy

Call for Regular Presenters and Student Poster Presenters (Discount)

Join us in beautiful Cortona, Italy, for a very special gathering of the

International Making Cities Livable (IMCL), a premier peer-to-peer

international gathering of built environment researchers, professionals,

municipal leaders, NGO heads, and other thought leaders, founded in 1985.

This conference will follow our most recent successful conference in April

2024, including over 50 leading speakers from the Americas, Europe, Africa,

Asia, and Australia. The conference garnered an attendee evaluation of 4.81

out of 5, with comments including “A wonderful conference,” “This is the

best conference I've ever attended,” “Arguably one of the more interesting

- and memorable - conferences I've ever attended,” An excellent

conference,” and “A fabulous conference!”

Partners in the Cortona conference will include The King's Foundation (UK),

UN-Habitat, the Congress for the New Urbanism, INTBAU, Seaside Institute,

HealthBridge, PlacemakingX, and several universities, as well as others to

be announced.

THEME: As humanity confronts multiple historic challenges, our settlements

and their characteristics are set to play a central role – especially so in

a time of historic rapid urbanization. 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.

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.

The International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) invites you to share your

work, meet and discuss with others, and join in this collaborative platform

for “learning from nature, culture, and history.” We will gather

internationally prominent policy leaders, practitioners, community leaders

and top scholars, to share lessons and discuss potential collaborations. A

major aim of the conference will be to serve as a “springboard” toward new

research, new collaborative action, and new ways of communicating and

driving the necessary transition ahead.

ABOUT THE VENUE:

The historic hill town of Cortona has a rich history going back to Etruscan

times, with splendid and instructive examples of urban space and place. The

city and the region offer many lessons about contemporary challenges of

health, economic well-being, agriculture, food, climate adaptation, viable

small-town and rural life amid rapid urbanization, and new models of

economic diversity and resilience. Cortona is approximately 1.5 hours from

Florence and 2.5 hours from Rome, accessible by train, bus or car, with an

assortment of historic hotels, inns and home rentals. The city is famous

as the setting of Frances Mayes' autobiographical 1996 book Under the

Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy. Cortona is the Sister City of our 2021

venue, Carmel, Indiana.

The venue is the City of Cortona’s Conference and Event Centre, located in

the historic convent of Sant'Agostino in the city center. There are many

small hotels and rental homes nearby. Late October is an excellent time to

travel affordably and find ample accommodation in central Italy, with

generally very good weather.

TOPICS: You may contribute an abstract describing your work (to be

presented at the conference, and also developed into a full conference

paper if you wish) on any one or a combination of the following topics:

• Great Public Spaces for ALL: Learning from Italy, and Elsewhere

• Cities on Foot: The Power of Urban Walkability and Public

Transportation

• The Place of Beauty: Neuroscience, Health and Sustainability in

Placemaking

• Slow Food, Slow Cities: Food Quality, Health, and Urban Well-being

• Markets and Marketable Local Products: Viable Small-Town Businesses

• The Next Renaissance? Rebuilding Homes, Neighborhoods and Towns

• Zoom Towns, Left Behind Places, and Opportunity for All

• Jane Jacobs and the Power of Diversity, Equity, and Web-Networks

• Christopher Alexander and the Power of Patterns, and Timeless Ways of

Building

• Building Better: Tools, Strategies, and Design Ideas

• Rapid Urbanization: Implementing the New Urban Agenda

• Climate Change and Urban Form: Mitigation, Adaptation, Resilience

• 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

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 the email

given below.

DEADLINES:

*Abstracts are due July 31, 2024*

Notifications will occur by August 15, 2024

Speaker registration is required by September 15, 2024

Papers must be submitted for the e-reader by October 1, 2024

REGISTRATION FEES:

Accepted speaker registration is $595.00 (approx. €547 EUR)

Early Bird registration (non-speaker) is also $595.00 (through July 31)

Discount registration (non-speaker) is $695.00 (Through September 30)

Full participant (non-speaker) registration is $795.00 (after October 1)

Student Poster Presenter registration is $295.00 (approx. €271 EUR, ID

required)

Student (non-speaker) registration is $245.00 (approx. €271 EUR, ID

required)

SCHEDULE AT-A-GLANCE

Tuesday, October 29

9AM Optional Tours

5PM Welcome Reception

Wednesday, October 30

8AM Registration

9AM-5:30PM Conference

7PM Evening Activity (TBC)

Thursday, October 31

8AM Registration

9AM-5:30PM Conference

7PM Evening Activity (TBC)

Friday, November 1

8AM Registration

9AM-5:30PM Conference

7PM Evening Activity (TBC)

Saturday, November 2

9AM Optional Tours TBA (including Pienza, Italy with Seaside Institute)

For more information, or to submit abstracts or register:

https://www.imcl.online/2024-cortona

We hope you will join us for a wonderful conference!

On behalf of our terrific Board of Stewards,

Michael W Mehaffy, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Lennard Institute for Livable Cities / IMCL

michael.mehaffy@livablecities.org

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 Cortona, Signor Luciano Meoni (third from left), with staff members, meets with IMCL representatives to finalize details of the next IMCL conference, tour the venue, and arrange receptions, tours and other events.

CORTONA, ITALY - The 61st International Making Cities Livable (IMCL), set to run here from October 29th to November 1, 2024, is in the final stages of preparation. Executive Director Michael Mehaffy, Board member Jim Brainard, and colleague Jenny Quillien (Board member of sister NGO Sustasis Foundation), met in Cortona with the City’s Mayor, Official for Culture, and other local partners and associates. We toured our beautiful venue, the Sant’Agostino Conference Center, and made other arrangements for a wonderful gathering.

Getting a tour of Teatro Signorelli from Francesco Attesti, cultural liaison from the City of Cortona.

Among other preparations, we tentatively planned our opening reception at a 15th century palazzo featuring an Etruscan well, Roman bath and Renaissance olive press in its splendid basement hall. The beautiful facility is provided through the generosity of the DelBrenna family and their company, a three-generation jewelry-making business in Cortona. We have a dinner planned in a Michelin-rated restaurant, the Osteria Teatro, located in a historic theater building. Finally, our closing party will be in the City's amazing Teatro Signorelli, originally built in the 16th century and renovated in the 1800s. We might be treated to performances by world-class musicians who live in Cortona - stay tuned!

Our main venue will be the City's state of the art conference center, the former Sant' Agostino monastery building dating from the 13th century. The building is just south of the city's main square, and very convenient to most hotels in the city (see video report and photos below).

A video report from the trip by IMCL Executive Director

Michael Mehaffy (click to enlarge).

The City of Cortona is eager to join us in exploring challenges facing smaller cities and towns in Italy and globally, including the need for diversified economies for all, support for local businesses and local markets, improving public spaces, walkability, mobility, healthy food, quality of life, beauty and livability, resilience and climate adaptation, ecological and sustainable development, and many other related issues. The 61st IMCL, like others, will be an opportunity for city leaders, researchers, practitioners, students, and NGO heads, to gather to share their latest findings and effective knowledge, and examine instructive case studies in depth. As always, we will gather in a place that is itself a fascinating case study - Cortona - and learn its lessons.

In addition to the City of Cortona, partners in the conference will include The King's Foundation, INTBAU, The Congress for the New Urbanism, UN-Habitat, Seaside Institute, HealthBridge, the World Farmers' Market Coalition, Placemaking US, and others to be announced.

BIG NEWS! IMCL announces new student poster session, partner discounts.

We have added several important elements to our program for Corona. First, we will have a student poster session, in which students can register for a lower rate and give a short oral presentation. We have heard from many students that the full speaker rate is a challenge for their limited budgets, but they would still like to get credit for making a presentation at the conference. The student presenter rate for the fuill conference will be $290 (about €267). Student non-presenters can register for the full conference at $245 (about €225).

Students can also register for one or two days, and receive a prorated discount. The one-day option will open in early September.

The other news is that members of our partner organizations will be eligible for a 15% discount! For example, student poster presenters can have their full registration for $246.50 (approx. €226). Non-presenters can receive a similar discount.

Eligible members of partner organizations include members if INTBAU and its chapters; members of the Congress for the New Urbanism; and students from several partner universities, to be announced.

In addition, other organizations can sponsor groups of attendees at a discount, or make scholarships available to needy attendees. Our goal is to convene a diverse group dedicated to livable cities, including those of more modest means, while fully covering our overhead costs.

SCENES FROM OUR PLANNING TRIP: Upper left, the cloister of the beautiful Sant'Agostino conference center; upper center, the main hall, currently with an exhibition; upper right, touring the Roman baths in the basement of the historic DelBrenna building, site of our opening reception. Lower left, one of the beautiful breakout rooms in the Sant'Agostino conference center; a scene in a nearby hill town' and a wedding at the Cortona City Hall balcony, with well-wishers below.