IFLA Europe Regional Conference
Details
Conference and General Assembly
16 – 19 October 2025
Brussels, Belgium
Stay tuned for further updates on the location, registration and fees, which will be published soon.
Application deadline Youth Competition: 15 September
Book your tickets nowNEW URBAN LANDSCAPES
Regenerating Cities – Revealing new urban landscapes
Today, over 56% of the global population lives in urban areas, a figure projected to rise to nearly 70% by 2050. NEW URBAN LANDSCAPES is an invitation to rethink urban space through three core strategies:
- ADAPT the existing fabric: unsealing soils, greening surfaces, allowing water to infiltrate. Place Flagey in Brussels or Place de Catalogne in Paris are exemplary projects in which stone has given way to plants.
- RECLAIM underused spaces: abandoned areas can become vital. The Marais Wiels in Brussels is now a haven of urban biodiversity. In Berlin, Tempelhof airfield is a massive public park on the site of a disused airport.
- UNFOLD spatial opportunities: dismantling concrete to de-urbanise, as in the Parc de la Sennette in Brussels; opening up rooftops to collective uses, as seen in the Rotterdam Rooftop Programme; or reimagining interiors, like the Gare Maritime at Tour & Taxis, once industrial, now a lush and vibrant public hall.
These strategies align with broader programs like the New European Bauhaus, the European Green Deal, and growing city climate agendas. They speak to a new urban imperative: to see cities as living ecosystems, inclusive, sustainable, and beautiful.
Over two days, we will bring together thinkers, practitioners, public bodies and citizens to discuss tools, challenges, and paths forward aiming for real solutions and shared inspiration.
- What if urban landscapes were not just a backdrop, but a driver of transformation?
- What if public space became a collective right and a shared opportunity?
