On Friday 4 September 2026, the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL will host a major international symposium exploring the role of architect-planners in shaping cities, regions and societies.
Sponsored by the journal Planning Perspectives, the leading international journal for the study of planning history, it will bring together scholars from Great Britain, continental Europe and the United States to address the subject of Architect-Planners: Transnational and Global Perspectives
Through a series of original papers and discussions, it will examine how architectural ideas and practices have informed planning at a variety of scales and in diverse political and cultural contexts. Speakers will reflect on the essential, if sometimes contested, place of architects in major planning projects, both realised and unrealised. Topics include decolonisation, gender, pedagogy, heritage and conservation, radical urban visions, and challenges to established planning orthodoxies.
The symposium features a keynote lecture by Professor Lizabeth Cohen (Harvard University), whose address examines architect-planners and the struggle to reinvent urban America over the past half-century.
Organised by John Gold, Elizabeth Darling and Barbara Penner, and supported by the International Planning History Society and the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, it accompanies a special issue of Planning Perspectives (Vol. 41, No. 5), to be published in October 2026.
Refreshments and lunch will be provided.
Open to researchers, practitioners and all others with interests in architecture, planning and urban history, attendance is free, but it is essential to book a place. To do so, go to: