The architecture of port-cities is entangled in the social, political, economic, and cultural histories of these places. Historically, major architectural projects afforded the commissioning merchant class the capacity to materialize their status in prominent urban spaces. The political and cultural frames of reference into which such buildings were inserted also provided a way in which to embed trade and commerce in a set of broader civilizational values. As such, architecture was one of the key sites for referencing the cultures of other places, with historicist styles, civilizational discourses, ‘exotic’ motifs and – crucially – representations of the local all centring on both major public architectural and domestic dwellings alike. Furthermore, architecture also housed the social interactions crucial for knitting together trading networks within and beyond the city, with practices which became visible in port architecture as the configuration of internal building spaces revealed assumptions about the ordering of social relationships and hierarchies more widely.

The International Workshop will focus on a number of interrelated issues:
- How did the social practices and values (whether religious or secular) which were crucial for assembling trading networks shape the architecture of port cities?
- Which achievements were represented and celebrated in urban space and how?
- In what ways did rapidly professionalising architects seek to draw on repertoires of historicist and international symbols - or to particularize them - in seeking to create distinctive local urban images?
- What were some of the controversies centring on major architectural projects and what do they tell us about the wider social issues that characterized the period?
- How were new technologies incorporated into the urban landscape?
This is a three-day international workshop designed to bring together colleagues with a research interest in the ways in which architecture and the built environment have been implicated in the social formations of port cities from the end of the eighteenth century to the present day. We are very open to submissions from colleagues working on historic and contemporary port architecture, on the architectural and social history of significant buildings (including, warehouses, town halls, schools, local ‘iconic’ sites, domestic residences etc) - or those interested in the regeneration of waterfront spaces that have had, and continue to have, particular strategic importance.

The International Workshop will be held between 23rd and 25th June, 2011 at the University of Liverpool. Proposals are invited for individual papers and contributions from new researchers and doctoral students would be particularly welcome.

Applicants should submit a 400-word proposal and a brief cv (in Word, RRTF or PDF) by Friday 29th April and participants whose papers have been accepted will be notified by Tuesday 3rd May. Some limited financial support may be available to help with the travel or accommodation costs of graduate students: all food and refreshments will be provided by the workshop organisers.

Further information can be obtained from Robert Lee, Centre for Port and Maritime History, School of History, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7WX (tel. 0044 151 794 2415; w.r.lee@liverpool.ac.uk), or from Paul Jones, Department of Sociology, University of Liverpool (P.Jones01@liverpool.ac.uk).