The 2026 annual Conference of CORP (Competence Center of Urban Planning and Regional Development in the Information Society) was very much in line with what CORP does and stands for: cosmopolitan-internationality and interdisciplinarity, bringing together urban development experts from policy, administration and NGOs; researchers – academics and applied; and stakeholders from the economy, commerce and industry.

This tripartite interaction is one of the hallmarks of CORP, and is always represented by the keynote speakers from very different backgrounds and parts of the world. IUPF members Dara Golubovic-Matic, Madina Junussova and Ali Alraouf were keynote speakers this year and Ali Alraouf presented IUPF to the CORP audience (dia1). The other CORP hallmark is what has developed over the years as the “CORP family”, a core of active participants closely connected with CORP chairman Manfred Schrenk, CORP’s driver and soul, and with Clemens Beyer, the CORP pillar of making things work. The convivial coffee and lunch breaks (dia2) are essential, as they provide the CORP participants the opportunity to network and develop professional and personal friendships.

The 180 conference papers ranged from policy issues, research and practical projects to exploring the profound impact of information and communication technologies on planning and management of the built environment. As always, the papers were published on the CORP website (www.corp.at) at the outset of the conference, unique among scientific conferences, and will be added to the archive on the website which contains all the CORP contributions from inception. Many of these papers are of interest to IUPF members and can be freely accessed at www.corp.at. Panel discussions form part of CORP conferences and were on “the Future of Education – is Europe becoming the school of the world?” and “The New City and the New Countryside, a win-win game of bringing urban quality to rural areas and village qualities to our cities”.

CORP venues alternate between Vienna and other cities mainly in Europe. This year’s venue was very special (dia3): the Otto Wagner areal, the site of a large psychiatric hospital (dia4) (dia5) of which Otto Wagner was the competition winning architect. When the hospital left the city of Vienna took over this large site to turn its architectural heritage (dia6) into an artistic, cultural and recreational area. CORP 2026 enjoyed three sunny early spring days in this exceptional built and natural environment in south Vienna with participants from 35 countries. Otto Wagner was a pioneer architect and CORP organised a visit to many other Otto Wagner buildings in Vienna, guided by a knowledgeable and enthusiastic scholar.

Like every year, CORP is innovating. This year Manfred Schrenk (also an IUPF member) initiated a double conference with VisionEducation, an Institution committed to strengthening education and research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Sadly, the unpredicted wars in Iran and Lebanon prevented many planned participants, especially from the Middle East and beyond to attend the conference which, fortunately was hybrid, although that can never replace face to face encounters.

A highlight of the conference was the signing of an official cooperation agreement between VisionEducation (Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq) and the University of Applied Management Studies Mannheim, Germany (dia7). IUPF could envisage to make such an agreement with CORP, as well as with other professional organisations. CORP also attributed awards to young planners’ papers curated by Ali Alfaouf. Attributing awards, especially to young urban professionals could also become an attractive activity of IUPF.  

Judith Ryser, founding member of IUPF