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IMCL Call for Abstracts closes with 60 excellent entries; NEW student Call for Abstracts extended to August 31st

Michael Mehaffy

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!



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Begun in 1985, the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference series, hosted by the Lennard Institute for Livable Cities, has become a premier international gathering and resource platform for more livable, humane and ecological cities and towns. Our flagship conferences are held in beautiful and instructive cities hosted by visionary leaders able to share key lessons. We are a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation based in the USA, with alternating events and activities in Europe and other parts of the world.

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