Stellar lineup of additional speakers and session leaders announced for IMCL 2023 in Poundbury

Leading experts in street retrofits, missing middle housing, main street retail, original green design, architectural neuroscience and more will join already confirmed international leaders

ABOVE: The Poundbury website, photo by Finnbar Webster. Credit: Duchy of Cornwall.

POUNDBURY (UK) - The 2023 IMCL conference roster of international experts on making livable cities is growing. The conference will be held October 10-13 in Poundbury (Dorchester), UK, 2.5 hours by train from London - a fascinating laboratory of innovations in ecological and livable cities and towns.

Among those slated to gather (in alphabetical order):

• Robert Adam, prominent architectural author and co-founder of INTBAU as well as the UK's Traditional Architecture Group (TAG).

• Xavier Bohl, architect who has played major roles in landmark projects like Port Grimaud and Le Plessis-Robinson (site of the 2022 IMCL conference).

• Nir Buras, author of Classic Planning, principal of the Classic Planning Institute, and investigator into the connection between neuroscience, beauty, and environmental well-being.

• Anne Fairfax and Richard Sammons, principals of Fairfax and Sammons, award-winning architecture firm based in New York.

• Bob Gibbs, principal of Gibbs Planning Group, widely recognized as one of the top experts in planning successful retail in walkable mixed use and new urbanist projects.

• Roberta Gratz, award-winning journalist and urbanist, and long-time colleague of Jane Jacobs.

• Bill Lennertz, founder of the National Charrette Institute, and an expert on successful public involvement processes.

• Chuck Marohn, President of Strong Towns, an advocacy group "giving citizens the knowledge and tools to start making our places better today."

• John Massengale, co-author of Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns, and an expert on walkable mixed streets and how to get them.

• Steve Mouzon, author of The Original Green, and a pioneer of new vernacular design approaches based on pattern languages and other innovations.

• Petter Olsen, developer of Ramme Farm, an ecological farm and museum complex near Oslo, Norway, featuring the home of the artist Edvard Munch, and a beautiful new museum of paintings by Munch and others. Olsen was a co-founder and early patron of INTBAU.

• Dan Parolek, principal of Opticos Design, and a pioneer of "missing middle housing" and strategies to allow more missing middle, as a means to address the housing crisis.

• Justin Shubow, Director of the National Civic Art Society based in Washington, D.C., and a facilitator of new research on public preferences for architecture (particularly architecture paid for by the public!).

This stellar roster is in addition to our previously announced plenary speakers! (See below.)

Summer discount registration is available through August 31. For more information and/or to register, visit https://www.imcl.online/2023-poundbury. Please note that our beautiful venue is small, and we anticipate selling out soon. We are already 2/3 full, with more than three months remaining. (Hotels and transportation may also become difficult to arrange.) We encourage you to register soon, and we hope to see you there!