The Gardens Trust is launching a Call for Papers and Participation for a conference on ‘New Towns: Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future’.
This two-day conference will be held in Milton Keynes on 23 – 24th September 2026. It will bring together academics, practitioners, policymakers, and those with direct experience of New Town development to explore how the histories of New Towns can inform their futures.
New Towns represent some of the most ambitious urban experiments of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As many face renewal, adaptation, or reimagining, there is an urgent need to reflect on their origins, lived experiences, and long-term trajectories. This event places historical insight at the centre of forward-looking debate, asking how lessons from the past can meaningfully shape future planning, design, governance, and community life.
The conference is conceived as both a scholarly forum and a space for professional and intergenerational exchange, encouraging dialogue between research, practice, and lived experience.
Call for Papers
Please download the Call for Papers here. We are seeking presentations of 15-29 minutes and ask you to submit an abstract of 300–400 words.
Submissions should include the author’s name, affiliation (if applicable), and contact details, and be sent to Jill Sinclair, jill.sinclair@thegardenstrust.org and Jan Woudstra, j.woudstra@sheffield.ac.uk by 1 May 2026.
Call for Collaboration with Professional and Academic Partners
The Gardens Trust is actively seeking collaboration with professional and academic partners, including professional bodies, universities and research centres. We are pleased to be partnering with the Landscape Institute and welcome additional partners too.
We welcome expressions of interest from organisations and institutions interested in co-sponsoring, contributing to sessions, or supporting the event. For enquiries or partnership discussions, contact Linden Groves, linden.groves@thegardenstrust.org.
Image: Grafton Park, Milton Keynes by TCExplorer via geograph.org.uk/p/8161506. CC-BY-SA/2.0
