International Planning History Society Research Articles

20th Biennial Conference of the International Planning History Society 2–5 July 2024 (Hong Kong) prizes and awards

ABSTRACT The winners of the IPHS 2024 Prize and Awards were announced at the Awards Ceremony at the Hong Kong Conference on 4 July 2024. This year, the recipients include the Planning Perspectives Prize, IPHS Book Prizes, Anthony Sutcliffe Dissertation Award, IPHS Best Postgraduate Planning History Paper Prize, Sir Peter Hall Award for Lifetime Achievement, the East Asia Planning History (EAPH) Prize, and IPHS Professional Commendation Award. However, the Koos Bosma Prize in Planning History Innovation was not awarded as no submission met the criteria. The Judging Panel Reports provide additional information and commendations.

Report from the 19th International Planning History Society Conference: July 5–6 2022, Delft, The Netherlands

Report from the 19th International Planning History Society Conference: July 5–6 2022, Delft, The Netherlands

Awards of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) – A history and a call for submissions for the 19th IPHS Conference Moscow Russia “City Space Transformation: Renovation of The Urban Environment”

Awards of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) – A history and a call for submissions for the 19th IPHS Conference Moscow Russia “City Space Transformation: Renovation of The Urban Environment”

Conference report, International Planning History Society (IPHS) Biennial Conference, Yokohama, 15–19 July 2018

The IPHS conference in Yokohama demonstrates that the history of planning is in rude health. The discipline now includes the histories of planning around the world, and scholars from many different countries are reflecting deeply on their own and each other's experiences. Planners, the institutes they work in, the evolution and transmission of their ideas and of course their application and success or failure are now considered from a multitude of regional and disciplinary perspectives. The vitality of these debates in the twenty-first-century global urban world holds much promise that historical study can contribute to understanding some of the challenges facing contemporary cities.

The planning history of Japan in a world history planning perspective

ABSTRACTThis is an edited version of my keynote address given at the opening session of the 18th International Planning History Society (IPHS) conference in Yokohama, Japan in July 2018. The aims of the conference were to appreciate the diversity of planning histories, to deepen mutual understanding among planning historians in the world, and to look into the world history of planning, with the common goal of making our cities more humane. First, this paper discusses the necessity and difficulty of mutual understanding between different planning cultures. Secondly, it traces the planning history of Japan focussing on connections with China and the western countries, and on specific features from ancient to modern times. Finally, it reviews the points put forth by world historians today and emphasizes the importance of the quest for transnational planning history on the basis of mutual understanding between different planning cultures.

Report from the 18th International Planning History Society conference: 15–19 July 2018, Yokohama, Japan

The 18th biannual International Planning History Society (IPHS) conference took place 15–19 July 2018, in Yokohama, Japan. Themed ‘Looking at the World History of Planning’, the conference asked to...

Report from the 17th International Planning History Society Conference: 17–21 July 2016, Delft, The Netherlands

The International Planning History Society (IPHS) held its 17th Conference in Delft, the Netherlands from 17th to 21st July with the theme ‘History – Urbanism – Resilience’. Carola Hein, Head of th...

Past as guide to sustainable futures: 16th IPHS conference report

The 16th biennial conference of the International Planning History Society took place in St. Augustine, Florida, USA, from 20 to 23 July 2014. Chris Silver, FAICP, from the University of Florida and Leslee F. Keys from Flagler College co-chaired the conference. The programme included 45 paper and roundtable sessions, with 167 papers, plus 3 plenary sessions.

‘Colonial and postcolonial urban planning in Africa’, International Planning History Society and Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 5–6 September 2013

The conference ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Urban Planning in Africa’, organized by the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning – University of Lisbon, and the International Planning History Soci...

16th International Planning History Society Conference, 20–23 July 2014

16th International Planning History Society Conference, 20–23 July 2014

Cities, nations and regions in planning history

The explosion of cities in recent decades has posed myriad problems for town planners. Most of this huge and rapid expansion of the urban area has been taking place in the Global South, so it is fitting that the 15th Conference of the International Planning History Society was held in Sao Paulo. Founded by Portuguese missionaries during the 1600s, Sao Paulo was for centuries a slow-growing city within a vast rural hinterland. By 1900, it numbered less than 200,000 inhabitants. Today it is the largest city in Brazil, and one of the largest in Latin America, with a population of over 11 million, and an estimated wider metropolitan population of over 17 million. The city thus deserves its ranking in the 'top ten' of the world's largest cities. From the 41st floor of the Italia Building, in the heart of downtown Sao Paulo, the 360-degree view from the conference cocktail party was of a vast and uninterrupted urban area sprawling to the hills in the far distance.Conference organisation and contributionsThe 15th IPHS Conference convenor was Professor Maria Cristena da Silva Leme of the University of Sao Paulo (USP). The local organising committee was comprised of academics based at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism at USP, the Mackenzie Presbyterian University (MPU), the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Pontificia Catholic University de Campinas and Sao Judas Tadeu University. The conference was held mostly in MPU and USP, and in adjacent buildings within relatively close range of each other in an attractive district of Sao Paulo.Within the rubric of the conference and beyond it, a diverse set of over 230 papers and presentations were offered over the three days of the meeting. Many of them addressed the wider rubric of the conference theme outlined in the conference handbooks, including 'issues of territorial disparities in the sphere of planning history' and 'connections and discontinuities, tensions and superimpositions, both in the process of urbanisation and in the planning field'. It is impossible to do justice to all of them herein this brief report, but across the sessions and papers some key themes and subjects emerged, including:* the international diffusion of town planning ideas; large-scale urbanisation and planning; transnational planning and regional conditions;* the right to the city in response to the processes of gentrification; social housing in comparative perspective; privatisation and housing inequality;* housing, planning and production; architecture and urban design; cultural and social processes in Latin American cities;* the colonial presence of European settlers in Latin America, and their relationship to urban development;* the relationship between town planning, architecture and urban design;* modernisation and planning in Latin America and other regions of the Global South; immigration and ethnic diversity in the city;* water and urban development; sport, heritage and urban regeneration;* city-planning exhibitions;* the origins and development of planning education;* film, representation and city image; heritage, urbanisation and planning; and* the contribution of women to the development of town planning.Another interesting point about the academics giving papers or chairing sessions was that there were probably more women among the delegates than at previous IPHS conferences.Brazilian cities and regions, as might be expected, were the subject of many papers. Although this was the first IPHS conference to be held in Latin America, it was surprising that there were relatively few papers from academics in other countries south of the United States border. Chile was the subject of a session on public buildings and public space, although a couple of comparative sessions focused on city plans for Buenos Aires, Argentina and Brazilian cities.What was also striking, however, in terms of the wider geographical coverage of the conference, was the relatively scant number of papers delivered on the United Kingdom, Eastern and Western Europe and the United States of America. …

Conference report: Urban Transformation: Controversies, Contrasts and Challenges The IPHS Fourteenth Biennial Conference, Istanbul, 2010

Planning history is sometimes looked down on as a minority interest, tangential to the dynamism and focus of the major issues facing contemporary society and those responsible for its planning. However, the message emerging from the International Planning History Society (IPHS) Fourteenth Biennial Conference held in Istanbul from 12-15 July 2010 is clear: planning history is alive and kicking, vibrant and relevant. For there were no less than ten 'invited papers' and about 325 other submitted papers listed in the conference programme (and these represented a quality control that winnowed down from the 510 abstracts proposed). Not only was IPHS 2010 a large conference, but its theme - 'Urban transformation: controversies, contrasts and challenges' - was both wide-ranging and a challenge to the contributors. Conference participants and Istanbul The different origins of participants in the conference were interesting and reflected the relevance of the subject. No less than 42 countries were represented, although only nine generated participant numbers in double figures. Unsurprisingly, the host country produced the most (115 participants), a reflection not only of the nature and scope of relevant research in Turkey, but of that country's significant efforts in recent years to develop a high-performing, research-driven university sector. There were 51 participants from Brazil, apparently a response to changing funding arrangements; yet the academic profile of Brazil, too, is fast developing and the 2012 IPHS Conference will be held in Sao Paulo. China (3 participants) and India (2) represent places with fascinating planning histories, but whose academics have thus far had less engagement with IPHS and its conferences. Africa as a whole is even more difficult of access. The venue may also have attracted many participants. Accepting Istanbul's bid in its year as European Capital of Culture was a carefully considered decision by the IPHS, and the organisers and sponsors delivered a memorable experience. There was a welcoming evening cruise on the Bosphorus, the conference dinner at a major museum, a special evening opening of a major exhibition of artefacts from across the world relating to Istanbul's 8,000-year heritage held at the Sak?p Sabanc? Museum and tours of the remarkable city centre among other destinations. Lunch in the neighbouring Hyatt Hotel was also quite an experience. The conference programme, papers and sessions The quality of many conference papers was high, although in an event of this size it would be invidious to single out individuals. Nevertheless, it was good to see the number of papers singly or jointly authored by new researchers, among which the IPHS awarded the prize for best paper to Frederick Omolo-Okalebo (KTH, Stockholm) for a paper on Kampala that explored not only an unfamiliar topic, but an underresearched part of the world (at least in planning history terms). Also memorable was the plenary paper by Baykan Gunay (Middle East Technical University) on 'Ankara: duality of the core and the fringe' that was informative and entertaining, bringing the personality and history of the researcher to the fore (many of those attending the presentation conduct research about places and issues closely linked to their own backgrounds, and so it was well received). I spent most time in the 'heritage sites' theme sessions, where Muge Akkar Ercan (Middle East Technical University) gave a salutary reminder that we should consider the sustainability dimension of conservation, which is sometimes problematic in historic housing districts. The conference programme delivered some familiar themes, which included 'planning culture', 'heritage sites', 'planning models', 'public space and landscape', 'emerging concepts under urban transformation', 'public space and landscape', 'the economy and urban development', 'industrial and commercial districts', 'urban form and architecture', 'urban space', 'urban management, strategies policies and tools' and 'social justice'. …

News from the field: 13th International Planning History Society conference (10–13 July 2008)

The 13th biennial conference of the International Planning History Society took place in Chicago, Illinois, USA, from 10 to 13 July 2008. The conference theme was Public versus Private Planning: Th...

Conference Report: Public versus Private Planning: Themes, Trends and Tensions ; The IPHS Thirteenth Biennial Conference, Chicago, 2008

The thirteenth biennial conference of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) held in Chicago 10-13 July 2008 followed immediately after (and in the same Marriott Hotel venue as) the much larger joint conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Association of European Schools of Planning (ACSP/AESOP). Yet, compared to the 1200 or so papers presented at that overwhelming event, the IPHS conference was almost intimate, with roughly 260 papers; well almost, but not quite: these were still substantial numbers. The organisers, Robert Bruegmann of the University of Illinois-Chicago and Chris Silver of the University of Florida deserve congratulations for their efforts in compiling a programme that combined academic interest with a real social intimacy. Background to IPHS Chicago 2008 Those unfamiliar with the academic development of this subfield of planning studies might be intrigued to discover that every two years gatherings of about this size occur in major world cities to present and discuss papers on the history of planning. In the simplest sense, this is testimony to the remarkable persistence and resilience of the organisation launched in 1974 by the late Gordon Cherry and Tony Sutcliffe in Birmingham in the UK. It was known for many years as the Planning History Group, before adopting its present title and remit in 1993. Tony Sutcliffe organised the first international conference in London (1977) and the regular biennial cycle was initiated in 1994. The impressive list of meetings, since 1994 hosted in Hong Kong, Thessaloniki, Sydney, Helsinki, London/Letchworth, Barcelona, New Delhi and now Chicago, is also, of course, testimony to the persistence and development of planning history itself as an area of academic endeavour. This may surprise UK readers, familiar only with the weakening of planning history teaching that has accompanied the recent truncation of the postgraduate route to Royal Town Planning Institute professional qualification. Yet this has not been the case in most other countries, where students of planning retain fuller opportunities to engage with the history of their field. Moreover, planning history has never been confined to planning schools and a wide range of others from history, geography, art and architectural history have always been involved. Perhaps most striking of all, there has been a marked geographical widening of interest in planning history beyond the original concentration on Europe. Attendance at IPHS Chicago 2008 The Chicago 2008 conference was a case study of this trend of geographical widening. A list of participants circulated in the conference pack showed them coming from addresses in 27 countries and revealed the following percentage breakdown of numbers by global region: USA/Canada, 34 per cent; Latin America, 26 per cent; Europe, 19 per cent; Asia, 11 per cent; and Australia/New Zealand, 10 per cent. In descending order, the most significant national contingents were those from the USA (32 per cent), Brazil (20 per cent), Australia (8 per cent), Japan (5 per cent) and Spain (4 per cent). In general, these proportions speak for themselves, with the huge jump in Latin American, especially Brazilian, participation being one of the real shifts of recent years, apparent since the 2004 conference in Barcelona. This was mirrored too in European participation which was dominated by southern Europe, especially Spain and Portugal. Asian participation mainly reflected the longstanding Japanese interest in the field, although numbers from India and, to a lesser extent, China were unsurprisingly lower than in 2006 at the New Delhi conference. At least one Chinese delegate was also unable to stay on for the IPHS conference, having been called back to urgent duties planning the reconstruction after the recent devastating earthquake. As is often the case, some nationals from these and other Asian countries were also subsumed into numbers from the United States and elsewhere, reflecting their place of work or study. …

The Adelaide wars: an introduction

The late Gordon Cherry, the founder of the International Planning History Society, identified a fascination with the evolution of physical plans as one of the pillars of modern planning history [1]...

Call for Submissions: 2006 International Planning History Society Book Prizes

Call for Submissions: 2006 International Planning History Society Book Prizes

Museums, Community Identity and Urban Heritage

At a recent conference of the International Planning History Society, Michael Cohen, formerly of the World Bank, argued that ‘the city is missing in action’:
 
 'While we, as urbanists, are passionate about our belief in the mysteries and potentialities of the city, and the role of the city in history — past, present, and future — the city is not present in some of the most important debates about the future of the planet.'
 
 He went on to insist on a major role for cities in national economic and social development, particularly in countries governed within neo-liberal policy frameworks that generally ignore cities other than to see them as the geographical centres of finance and trade. Cohen's argument is that, if we are to improve economic growth rates, reduce poverty and inequality and create safety nets to cushion countries and their peoples from polarisation and other changes being wrought by globalisation, a larger role must be given to cities. The issue, he asserts, is ‘how to support urban economic policies to stimulate and sustain economic multipliers needed to generate employment and incomes’.

Doxiadis and the ideal dynapolis: The limitations of planned axial urban growth

The author is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he directs the Masters Program in Urban and Regional Planning. He is a member of the World Society for Ekistics (WSE), the American Institute of Certified Planners, the American Planning Association, the International Planning History Society, and many other professional and scholarly associations, and he has served as a consultant with the United Nations, UNICEF, USAID, and various projects funded by the World Bank and AID. His research and publications focus on: the history of ideas in planning and community development; metropolitan and regional development policies; the revitalization of old neighborhoods; disaster avoidance and relief; and, micro-enterprise development. The text that follows is a revised and extended version of a paper presented at the WSE Symposion "Defining Success of the City in the 21st Century," Berlin, 24-28 October, 2001.

Doxiadis and the ideal dynapolis: The limitations of planned axial urban growth

The author is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he directs the Masters Program in Urban and Regional Planning. He is a member of the World Society for Ekistics (WSE), the American Institute of Certified Planners, the American Planning Association, the International Planning History Society, and many other professional and scholarly associations, and he has served as a consultant with the United Nations, UNICEF, USAID, and various projects funded by the World Bank and AID. His research and publications focus on: the history of ideas in planning and community development; metropolitan and regional development policies; the revitalization of old neighborhoods; disaster avoidance and relief; and, micro-enterprise development. The text that follows is a revised and extended version of a paper presented at the WSE Symposion Defining Success of the City in the 21st Century, Berlin, 24-28 October, 2001.