The symposium explores urban environments through the lens of intergenerationality. It addresses how people of all ages and abilities experience, navigate and co-create the spatial and cultural fabric of the city. Moving beyond isolated age-focused designs, we bring together diverse perspectives to shape more inclusive, walkable and sustainable urban futures.
The intergenerational city emerges as a topical challenge as cities need to shift paradigms towards accessible, walkable and easily navigable neighborhoods. The urbanization of the past century has left us with increasingly complex and technology-laden environments and was relying on an unsustainable growth in mobility. Geared towards able and technologically skillful adults, the city of transportation impaired and even excluded many others. In contrast, the intergenerational city of the future will need to be accessible, understandable and safe for everybody – including children, youth, the elderly or people with impaired bodily or cognitive abilities. So far, much of the research on sustainability, smart growth or walkable neighborhoods has centered on the needs of a selected demographic segment such as the elderly. In contrast, the Intergenerational City considers the needs of all age groups and ability profiles. Furthermore, current approaches tend to focus either on global indicators of sustainability and inclusiveness, or on the micro-scale of projects for intergenerational buildings, leaving aside crucial practical questions at the meso-scale of neighborhood planning and urban design. This transdisciplinary workshop addresses the challenge of connecting our knowledge of the spatial structure and history of urban environments to insights on how humans of all age groups and skill sets experience and navigate their everyday lifeworld. While planning disciplines such as urban design and architecture have accumulated operational knowledge on the historical formation, present structure and future potentials of urban environments, fields such as phenomenology, embodied cognition or ecological psychology have investigated the structure and properties of lived human experience. These two strands of research have established similar and overlapping concepts, centering around notions such as “place”, “situation” or “type” and taking a processual view on the historical evolution of interrelations between habituality and spatial structure. Until recently, this important potential of common ground regarding our understanding of intergenerational environments has remained largely unexplored. This symposium addresses the resulting gap between research and practice by bringing together theorists and practitioners from the fields of urban morphology, heritage studies, applied phenomenology, embodied cognition, ecological psychology and affordance theory with protagonists of neighborhood and community projects as well as urban planners and architects involved in the conception of inclusive and sustainable intergenerational environments. The three-day symposium forms part of the renowned international Congressi Stefano Franscini series and takes place at Monte Verita, a wonderful venue with a rich history of scientific and cultural exchange, situated high above Ascona and the Lago Maggiore.
As a research team, we are interested in how people experience urban form, and aim to develop research with the overarching objective of fostering inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue. Our goal is to identify methodologies for shaping urban environments in a manner conducive to enhancing the quality of life, well-being and to multi- and transgenerational transfers of meaning.
Organizing Committee:
Stefan Kurath | Zurich Thiemo Breyer | Cologne Luca Lanini | Pisa Daria Belova | Cologne Erik N. Dzwiza-Ohlsen | Cologne Sylvain Malfroy | Neuchâtel Urs Primas | Zurich
“Monte Verità rises on the hills above Ascona and Lake Maggiore, and has always been a magnetic pole of convergence of ideas, trends, experiments and historical figures.
The alternative and vegetarian colony of the early twentieth century marked the birth of the myth of Monte Verità, with the presence of artists, anarchists, philosophers and thinkers, as well as illustrious guests including Hermann Hesse. After a brief period in the early twenties, in which some expressionist artists created a small art centre, the Ascona hill was bought by the banker and German art collector Baron Eduard von der Heydt. Monte Verità became a modern hotel centre which welcomed great personalities from the artistic, political and cultural worlds.
After the Baron’s legacy to the Canton of Ticino in the 1950s, it was transformed into a seminar centre at the end of the 1980s, thanks to collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
Today, Monte Verità is a state-of-the-art congress and cultural center run by the Foundation of the same name. Immersed in the quiet and green of a park of more than 7 hectares, with an incomparable view of Lake Maggiore, offers visitors a unique experience.”
Alessandra Basti | Cologne Gabriella Cianciolo | Cologne Rasmus Dyring | Aarhus Thomas Fuchs | Heidelberg Daniel Gallano | Cologne Ilaria Geddes | Nicosia David Habets | Amsterdam Niels Hendriks | Leuven Julian Kiverstein | Amsterdam Stamatina Kousidi | Milano Lesley Palmer | Stirling John Schofield | York Ola Söderström | Neuchâtel Gernot Weckherlin | Dessau
Daria Belova | Cologne Thiemo Breyer | Cologne Erik N. Dzwiza-Ohlsen | Cologne Stefan Kurath | Zurich Luca Lanini | Pisa Sylvain Malfroy | Neuchâtel Urs Primas | Zurich
*Please, note that the list of speakers is currently being updated
Session Topics
Poster presentations will form an integral part of four thematic sessions, fostering cross-disciplinary exchange among participants and numerous international experts:
Designing for Whom questions assumptions about human needs and human nature underlying architectural and urban design interventions in the light of recent insights from phenomenology, embodied cognition and affordance theory
The Scale of the Neighborhood addresses lifeworld interactions at the crucial, intermediate scale level of the urban fabric: neighborhood streets, public spaces and building patterns.
Urban Space Across Generations investigates ways in which memory is embodied within urban space and explores the readability of urban configurations across generations.
Health Inducing Environments gathers recent insights on the relationships between the properties of architectural and urban space and human well-being and health.
We warmly invite guests
To register please follow the instructions below
Please follow the two steps below to register for the conference and book your meals and accommodation at Monte Verità Centre. Payments can only be made via credit card, TWINT, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.
Step 1 – registration and payment of the conference registration fee
400.- CHF full fee including all meals, not including hotel room
200.- CHF student fee including all meals, not including hotel room
Once you have successfully paid the registration fee, you will receive two emails. The first email will be sent by the Saferpay platform, confirming payment of the registration fee. Please check your spam folder! The second email, from the CSF platform, will contain the event code as well as information about the booking of your meals and the bedroom.
Step 2 – booking and payment of the meals & bedroom fee
Enter the event code. Please book your meals and bedroom before February 10th, 2026. After that date, the platform is closed. If you wish to share a twin room, please provide both names when booking. Rooms can only be booked through the platform for the conference duration. If you wish to book a pre- and/or a post-night, please contact the Hotel Reception at Monte Verità: info@monteverita.org
Phenomenology & Urban Morphology 