This Urban Studies Foundation symposia provides a meeting space for urban researchers, activists, practitioners and policymakers involved in a variety of experimental, collaborative projects aimed at improving the quality of our urban buildings, spaces and communities. The primary focus is unravelling and understanding emerging practices that challenge traditional planning processes, urban governance and management. These can be together described as forms of ‘experimental urbanism’, presented in the public and academic discourse through often overlapping and related terms covering a range of temporary, pop-up, lo-fi, guerilla, living-lab and community-led projects experimenting with buildings, public spaces and urban policy. These activities are supported by institutional and regulatory experimentation to ensure planning regimes are responsive and supportive. The scope of these projects is global, varied in scale, ranging in permanency, involving different levels of funding and have been initiated and delivered by a diverse range of urban stakeholders. They all share the experimental characteristics of innovation, learning by doing and collaboration.
This is the second symposia of a series which aims to bring together a wide range of stakeholders to share and explore their experiences of collaborative ‘experimental urbanism’. It seeks to provide an open dialogue around community agency, democratic engagement, and a socially sustainable urban future. This second symposia is being hosted by Vrije Universiteit Brussels on the 15th and 16th of January 2026. The event will consist of a dynamic exchange of ideas to solve complex ‘wicked problems’ and include a combination of talks from academics and practitioners involved in experimental urban projects together with workshops, site visits, and social events. Participation is free of charge, and catering will be provided; however, participants will need to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.
We are specifically seeking a mix of applied research and projects that highlight the range and variety of financial/funding, policy and governance dimensions of urban experimentation. We welcome academic paper contributions and/or practitioner problem-setting pieces and practical examples/case studies on one or more of the following themes:
- Experiments in urban governance from a wide range of perspectives, and from both bottom-up and top-down viewpoints.
- Experiments in financing models and approaches to managing urban innovative projects.
- Policy innovations and the changing legal / financial context for undertaking experiments, including Living Labs.
- Theoretical contributions and thought experiments on the value and potential of experimental urbanism to add to current urban planning, architecture and urban design academic and practice debates.
- Emerging experimental urban technologies and new infrastructures, such as urban robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), digital twins, gamification and related fields.
We welcome geographically diverse case studies – from varying scales, contexts and partnerships across the Global South and North – that demonstrate a diverse range of planning solutions for possible futures.
We are planning several key outputs resulting from the symposia series:
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- An edited volume entitled Experimental Urbanism and Future Cities with Routledge or Palgrave/McMillan.
- A Special Issue of the Journal of Urban Studies on experimental urbanism and its role in helping achieve more inclusive, sustainable and resilient urban futures.
- The creation of an international academic/practitioner blended network UrbEx and associate web-based digital platform to showcase projects.
- A guide for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) on how to maximise the impact of their research.
You are invited to submit your proposal for a paper/presentation. Please include author(s), organisation/institution, proposed title and a 300-word abstract.
Email your proposal to contact@experimentalurbanism.org or georgiana.varna@newcastle.ac.uk by 10th December 2025.
Warm welcome to Brussels!