The 5th International Urban Design Conference

The 5th International Urban Design Conference will be held at the Hilton on the Park in Melbourne from Monday the 10th to Wednesday 12th of September 2012.

The International Urban Design Conference was established in 2007. Since then over 390 presenters have shared their knowledge in developing a range of themes including, Resilience in Urban Design 2011, Designing the Future 2010, Waves of Change - Cities at Crossroads 2009 and Survival: implementing tomorrow's city 2007.

If the act of planning is to legitimise 'what should be done', opportunistic design thinking seeks to action 'what can be done'. Indeed, the focus of planning may enable it to be read as one form of catalyst for thinking opportunistically. That is, a process of creative thinking leading to more flexible, more inventive and more contextually responsive strategies of intervention into the urban environment.

City leaders in Australia and internationally are , to varying degrees, endeavouring to respond to the aftermath of the GFC, effects of climate change, dramatic population movements, peak oil speculation, emerging social media and the influences on how we socialise and connect with each other, and a search for meaning (to name a few !).

Growth, flux, and decay are inherent aspects of urban systems. As changing financial, political, environmental, technical and social conditions influence urban life, it is apparent that urban design will have to become increasingly opportunistic and creative in approach, formulation and delivery.

This trend is manifesting itself across a broad range of disciplines, scales and intents. It is most popularly evident in innovative place making projects and strategies such as the High Line in NYC, tactical urbanism, a multiplicity of fluid uses of public spaces (eg pop ups).

The conference will focus on ideas and projects that are visionary despite, or maybe because of, the current context.

Call for Papers Now Open here

OPPORTUNISTIC URBAN DESIGN — 2012
Authors or organisations interested in submitting a paper or presenting a
workshop are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 300 words
outlining the paper or their intended role in a workshop.

IMPORTANT DATES
Call for Abstracts Close: 14th May 2012
Notification to Presenters: 29th May 2012
Presenters Acceptance Close: 6th June 2012
Program Published: 15th of June 2012
All accepted abstacts published: 16th of June 2012

Full Papers for Peer Review or publication: 18th July 2012
Acceptance/Modification of full paper: 15th August 2012
Final academic-refereed papers due: 29th August 2012

CONFERENCE STREAMS
1. Political Strategies
2. Design Approaches
3. Initiators & Entrepreneurs
4. Finance & Funding
5. Open Papers