LC2026: Livable Cities: Critiquing the Urban Renaissance University of Salford Manchester, UK, June 17-19, 2026 |
| Conference website | https://amps-research.com/conference/manchester-livable-cities/ |
| Submission deadline | April 1, 2026 |
Manchester: Livable Cities 2026
Critiquing the Urban Renaissance
June 17-19, 2026
Abstracts deadline: April 1, 2026
LOCATION
University of Salford, Manchester, UK
CALL
An international conference on life in cities. The 16th Annual Livable Cities Conference
Some 25 years ago Richard Rogers proposed an urban renaissance for cities across the UK. It was a moment of optimism for an urbanised world that, a decade ago, the United Nations identified had become the most common mode of living for peoples around the globe. The intervening years have brought many criticisms, with cities being seen as places of inequality, social injustice, unsustainability and sites of global health problems. They can, of course, also be places of economic opportunity, cultural creativity, intelligent design and cutting edge architecture and planning. They are, almost by definition, places of contradiction, contrast and contestation.
This conference is interested in diverse readings of the places we inhabit: their design, management, planning, social policies and cultural trends. It is interested in critiques of urban regeneration and creative economies, whether they come from the North or South America. It seeks debate on tourism and its impacts from across Europe, Asia and beyond. It welcomes examinations of the urban economies and smart cities of the digital age, whether stemming from Silicon Valley or Taiwan. It is concerned with urban health and cultural policies globally, from Africa to the Middle East. It is open to explorations of design agendas in the Pacific Rim, and the effects of climate change in both the Global South and North.
Engaging with these questions from the city of Manchester, UK, the conference location is a perfect example of the complexity that typifies urbanisation. A quintessential post-industrial city, it is the birth place of the industrial revolution. One of the UK’s most important historic locations, it is a gateway to the north of England and its iconic country estates and landscapes. A national and global transport hub, it is central to the UK economy and has been branded a ‘Northern Powerhouse’. However, alongside these successes are inevitably the long-term problems that typify cities the world over: gentrification, unsustainable design, social divisions, immigration and unaffordable housing, to name but a few.
From this location, the 16th Annual Livable Cities Conference, ‘Critiquing the Urban Renaissance’ explores the design, management and experience of life in cities globally from a range of disciplinary perspectives:
Architecture, Planning, Sociology, History, Sustainability, Public Health, Infrastructure, Culture and more.
The event welcomes case studies of innovative projects; overviews of active research programs, examples of historical surveys, insights into effective planning, and speculative papers on theoretical futures. The overall aim is to broaden the exchange of ideas on the varied issues that inform our understanding of life in cities as a complex and sometime contradictory phenomenon.
STRANDS & THEMES
Specific Strands of interest to AMPS and the University of Salford, Manchester include, but are not limited to:
Architectural Design – examinations of contemporary design at the level of the building and interior; a fundamental aspect of urban livability; Access to housing – a fundamental aspect of urban livability; Urban Planning & Landscape Architecture – exploring best practice design and planning of the level of public space, neighbourhoods and cities; Participatory Planning – a process involving residents in decision-making; Economic drivers in development – examining the tensions between economic development, livability and gentrification; Climate change impacts – questioning sustainability and resilience in environmental and social terms; Culture & Heritage – places as sites of creative activity and historic importance; Healthy Places – critiques of planning post-Covid, care in the community, accessibility and more.
Reflecting the broader LIVABLE CITIES initiative, the general areas of interest at this event are Architecture, Landscape & Urban Design; Communities & Cultures; Sustainability & Resilience; Technology, Management and Planning; Public Services & the City.
SUBMISSIONS
Click here to submit an abstract.
FORMATS
In-person: Live at the University of Salford, Manchester
Virtual: presentations coordinated by AMPS
@Manchester: For delegates visiting the city but presenting virtually
Pre-recorded: Pre-recorded presentations or films will be available permanently on the AMPS Academic YouTube channel
Written papers: In all cases, delegates can present full written papers for inclusion in associated conference publications
PUBLICATIONS
The publishers that AMPS works with include Routledge Taylor & Francis, UCL Press, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Vernon Press, Libri Publishing and Intellect Books.
Conference outputs include the AMPS Proceedings Series, ISSN 2398-9467; Special Issue Publications of the academic journal Architecture_MPS ISSN 2020-9006; Books from this event will be developed by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, with short films available on the AMPS Academic YouTube Channel.
Written papers are optional. If submitted they should be 3,000 word length. Formatting instructions to follow after the conference. All papers are double- blind peer-reviewed for the AMPS Conference Proceedings Series. Subject to review, selected authors will be invited to develop longer versions as articles in the academic journal Architecture_MPS or in specially produced conference books.