New Town Heritage Research Network Sharing the Learning Day

23 January 2019
MK City Discovery Centre Milton Keynes

This International Network led by Oxford Brookes University and Coventry University has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Milton Keynes Council, and MKCDC and has originated out of several New Towns celebrating birthday milestones, but with one eye on using that pivotal year to move forward to meet future growth and/or regeneration challenges.  Other partners in the Network include the International New Town Institute, Rotterdam, Peterborough and Harlow. The working programme is attached.

The day will see speakers drawn from across a number of new towns in the network and a variety of disciplines including academia, heritage, culture, city planning and growth all come together to share their experiences from the research project.

The morning will explore the strategic context of how new towns, having reached a certain ‘age’, are now seeking to reinvent themselves, using their unique heritage and design ‘DNA’ to  position themselves in a rapidly urbanising and diversifying world.  Following a networking lunch, the afternoon will then focus on individual new town case studies. 

Panel discussions will follow both sessions in which you and/or your colleagues can also feedback your experiences in your town, so that a complete story of what challenges are facing new towns is captured.  The day will end with an open ‘Next Steps’ session where discussion will be on what the Network hopes to achieve in 2019 and whether there are opportunities for your town to participate. 

The day is open to any number of delegates, specialising in the disciplines mentioned above, although for capacity reasons we may have to restrict numbers. 
If you are interested please RSVP by Tuesday 15 January stating how many delegates wish to attend to: Director@mkcdc.org.uk