RESEARCH AND DEBATE ON OUR COMMON URBAN AND ARCHITECTURAL FUTURE
October 16-19, 2025 * Potsdam, Germany  

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Join us for a very special 2025 gathering of the IMCL, a unique peer-to-peer international conference of built environment researchers, professionals, municipal leaders, NGO heads, and other thought leaders, founded in 1985. We don't shy away from the big questions of this time in our urban and planetary history -- but we also dig deep into specific issues, tools and strategies. Speakers at our most recent conference in October 2024 included over 50 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.” 

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THEME: The professions and disciplines of the built environment are at a watershed moment of disruptive history, facing unprecedented challenges to meet the pressing needs of the urban future. At the same time, astonishing new findings from the sciences are providing remarkable insights into the human and biological factors of our urban world, and tools to harness them. Research in neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, environmental psychology, sociology, medicine, and other fields, are highlighting the inadequacies of conventional methods, and the fascinating and hopeful opportunities now emerging for cities, towns and suburbs. 

WHAT IS THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE (LIVABLE) FUTURE? Debates are raging on the valid "architecture of our time" -- but our focus will be on more concrete evidence for effective responses to the challenges of our time. What are successful strategies to frame and activate public space with building edges, and to connect the public to the private and semi-private? How can architecture promote health and well-being, both human and planetary? What are the lessons emerging from the sciences on cognitive architecture, neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, biophilia, nature-based solutions, evolutionary and self-organizing processes, cities as complex adaptive systems, and effective tools and strategies emerging from these findings?

Meanwhile, public demands are growing for a new architecture that integrates the richer qualities of history and nature, and the beauty of traditional designs. At the same time, proposals for "green" and futuristic" cities and buildings are facing new accusations of "greenwashing" and fantasy-based marketing. Built environment professionals -- and city leaders as a whole -- are called to engage in a "big rethink" about the architecture and urbanism of the future, and the assumptions that have guided, and perhaps limited, contemporary practice.  

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Among other pressing topics, the conference will critically examine the long-standing prohibition of “revival” architectures and their patterns, and their continued replacement with aggressively “modern” buildings and cities. What have been the consequences of the last century of this practice for human well-being, for ecology, and for the likely durability and sustainability of cities and towns into the future? Why are citizens across diverse political and demographic categories rising up to demand professional reforms? What are the alternatives ahead, including new vernacular architectures, traditional and Classical approaches, “generative” and computer-based design processes, and other innovative methodologies? We will explore and debate these and other issues of the urban future.

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. 
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At the IMCL conferences, we don't just discuss these issues: we examine effective tools and strategies, presented in case studies by those who are using them, and backed up by research findings. Many of our speakers and attendees are "in the trenches" driving positive change for city livability, and they come to our conferences to share, learn, recharge, and get inspired for the challenging but fulfilling work ahead.

VENUE. Our 62nd conference will occur in beautiful Potsdam, Germany, in the Berlin region, at a watershed 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 conference location is the MAXX Hotel at the gates of the spectacular Sanssouci Park. 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. 

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.     ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​