New Cities Manifesto
Learning from Riyadh
Following a successful first edition in New Clark City, Philippines, the ISOCARP New Cities Do-Track is travelling to the 2025 World Planning Congress in Riyadh. Last year's initiative focused on developing a Manifesto for New Regenerative Cities, using Placemaking as a methodology and including site visits, lectures, and interactive workshops.
New cities are a widespread, global phenomenon, gaining new traction in both Global South and Global North – also related to the widening housing crisis worldwide. They are centrally planned projects, typically driven by a strong vision. The New Cities Manifesto wants to address the gap between the vision they promote and its realisation, by strengthening the connection between place, self, community, and nature. The New Cities Do-Track collaboratively established a critical framework and planning principles to make new towns and master plans more regenerative and grounded in the emotional value: the meaning that people, with their stories, give to a space.
Learning from Riyadh
Building upon the framework elaborated in New Clark City, the Do-Track programme in Riyadh is articulated around the following sets of values:
- Planet: Alignment with territory and regeneration of the natural environment.
- People & Places: How cities grow out of their relationship with the landscape and become identity carriers.
- Prosperity: Creating flexible urban environments, able to accommodate future changes and uncertainty.
Inspired by Riaydh's distinctive heritage and driven by the challenges that the city is facing today, the New Cities Do-Track will explore the Saudi capital in search of 'living' old/new places that confirm and enrich the key principles of the Manifesto. We walk the (expanding) city and document successful examples of urban planning, landscape design, and appropriation that demonstrate how future-proof cities can be built today. The proposed sites for the thematic excursion are:
- The Wadi Hanifah landscape interventions (Planet)
- The Souq Al Zal, an example of living heritage (People & Places)
- A residential neighbourhood developed following the Doxiadis 1972 master plan (Prosperity)
Programme: Excursion & Breakfast Talks
The New Cities Do-Track brings together hands-on experience of the city with open, collaborative dialogue. For each principle, we will conduct a site exploration of specific places in the city. Following the initial site visit, the stories, images, and ideas will be debated through informal conversations held every morning at the congress. These dialogues among congress participants shall inform the Manifesto while using Riyadh's unique urban development as a source of inspiration. The results will be consolidated and presented at the closing plenary of the congress.
Due to a packed congress schedule, this year's New Cities Do-Track consists of a compact and accessible format. The methodology employed during the excursion will be one of critical observation, walk-talks, and photographic documentation. The breakfast talks are informal, open conversations among ISOCARP members, experts, and congress participants. The participation is free for all congress participants and every contribution is welcome.
Planning:
- Monday 1 December 14:30-16:00 | Site visits: Learning from Riyadh
- Tuesday 2 December 08:00-09:00 | Breakfast Talks #1 - Planet: how do new cities align with their territory and regenerate the natural environment?
- Wednesday 3 December 08:00-09:30 | Breakfast Talks #2 - People & Place: how did cities grow out of their relationship with the landscape and became identity carriers? What makes a place successful and long-lasting?
- Thursday 4 December 08:00-09:30 | Breakfast Talks #3 - Prosperity: How do we create flexible urban environments, able to adapt to future changes?
- Thursday 4 December @Final plenary | Presentation of the "New Cities Manifesto: Learning from Riyadh".
Do-Track Leaders
Call for Action: Join the New Cities Do-Track at ISOCARP's 61st World Planning Congress in Riyadh from 1-4 December 2025!
Are you a planning professional, designer, researchers, policy-maker or government official? Or just a curious person passionate about the future of cities?
Join us at the Do-Track "Manifesto for New Cities: Learning from Riyadh"! We look forward to hearing your opinion and ideas to shape a global document that shall inspire the planning of the next century. Please note that the Do-Track has a limited capacity of 20 people.
Subscribe to the New Cities Do-Track and site visit →