Ecocity World Summit Announces Theme for 2023 Edition and Launches Call for Submissions
Tuesday 21 June 2022
Ecocity World Summit has announced that the theme for the 2023 edition is Connecting Communities. The theme will investigate the critical role of collaboration in creating sustainable cities of the future.
The 2023 Summit aims to support collaboration across sectors, disciplines, localities, cultures, and economies, in tackling global social, economic and environmental issues.
The Summit’s programme will be centred around four key topic areas: biodiversity, how can we restore and sustain ecological integrity through species and ecosystem diversity, locally and globally?; new lifestyles, how can culture, new technology, urban design and governance enable sustainable behaviours and a healthy and equitable future?; regenerative design, how can we design, build and operate our buildings and urban places to have a net-positive impact on our environment?; healthy ecosystems, how can we responsibly manage our natural and material resources to sustain healthy and restorative systems?
Ecocity will be launching a call for ideas, research, and projects, with a portal opening for submissions in September 2022. The aim is to identify concepts and applied thinking that support the theme of Connecting Communities by specifically showcasing examples of innovative collaborative design approaches, co-curation practices, and participatory city-making for sustainable transformations.
Proposals can come from any type of organisation. Submissions will be reviewed by an Academic Committee, and selected for presentations, posters and papers that will form part of the Summit proceedings. Further details of submission criteria and the process will be released in July, sign up for updates via the website ecocity-summit.com.
Ecocity 2023’s mission is to gather and grow a network of urban stakeholders supporting sustainable futures; disseminate learnings and intelligence between cities and city-makers; provide a forum to challenge existing urban systems, policies, and priorities; inspire collaborations that support participants to act on key targets; and ultimately to leave a legacy in London through partner pilots and a learning programme.
The in-person London Summit will take place on 6-8 June 2023, at the Barbican Centre. It will bring together a network of academics, innovators, professionals, activists, and political leaders from across the world. The London Festival of Architecture 2023 alongside a learning programme will provide a platform to engage the public in key themes tackled at the Summit.
London Ecocity World Summit is led by New London Architecture (NLA) in partnership with London & Partners, the Barbican Centre, professional conference organisers MCI and Ecocity Builders.
Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Summit Director, Ecocity World Summit 2023, said: “We hope to uncover pioneering concepts and case studies for collaborative approaches to city making – success stories to learn from and inspire others.”
Kirstin Miller, Executive Director, Ecocity Builders: “The most successful cities and neighbourhoods of the future are going to be those who figure out how to effectively collaborate and execute their plans. London is, excitingly, embracing complexity and creativity at the core of change. This edition of the Summit is going to be dynamic, and we can’t wait to get it started!”
Christina Olsen, Acting Director - British Columbia Institute of Technology, Centre for Ecocities, said: “Academics, youth activists, policy makers, urban planners, ecologists, concerned citizens, and more. Such diversity helps compost old ideas into fertile new directions of thinking, taking action, and working together. That’s what the theme of connecting communities is all about.”
