19th IPHS Conference
The 19th biennial International Planning History Society (IPHS) conference will take place 5–6 July 2022. The conference program will consist of diverse events, which include a keynote lecture, research panels of presentations, and book talks. The 2022 IPHS conference aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the history of renovations and revitalisations of the built environment by exploring both as transformation and stability of urban space.
Under the weight of economic constraints and options of virtual reality, historic planning approaches have been somewhat sidelined in the debates on the modernisation and renovation of dilapidated houses and public spaces in cities and towns.
Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the development and design of land use and the built environment. This includes air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks of municipal services. Following the cancellation of the 2020 conference, due to the covid pandemic, and the cancellation of the 2022 conference as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, the 19th IPHS Conference will be hosted by TU Delft. It will take place both online and in Delft.
City Space Transformation
The theme of urban transformation is critical now due to the new information and technological revolution, the contradistinction of the neoliberal and centre-planned economy, local identity and globalisation and new roles and uses of urban heritage.
Urban history has witnessed continuous changes, which included transformations of urban plans and objects, changing images or identities of certain spaces or whole cities.
Modifications of urban areas served the needs of modernisation, triggered by politics, economy, demography, religion, culture and everyday needs. On the one hand, the current era puts a strong emphasis on the cultural heritage of a place, which, in fact, has been transformed many times. On the other hand, many urban objects and plans are undergoing strong transformations.
Many European cities were transformed in the Renaissance period, but even more, noticeable transformations took place in the era of absolutism and growing empires. Growing metropolises of the 20th century transformed the adjacent territories to form agglomerations. The urban renaissance was the recent period of regeneration of the inner city after urban decay and suburbanisation during the mid-20th century. The common equivalent for urban renewal in the USA was the New Urbanism that helped to encourage people back into the city, assisted by gentrification.