About Milton Keynes
The Open University, host of the AAH2012 Annual Conference and Bookfair is located just outside of Milton Keynes, in Buckingham, UK.
Conceived as a ‘new town’ in 1967 under the UK Government’s post-war planning initiative, MK was deliberately located equidistant from London, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and Cambridge with a view to being a self-sustaining city. MK is characterised by grid roads interspersed by lakes and parkland. This radical, non-hierarchical city plan was inspired by the work of Californian urban theorist Melvin M. Webber, whose ideas predicted a future based around e-commerce and car ownership that could promise residents a "community without propinquity". MK was originally conceived as a ‘city in the forest’ and its park system was designed by landscape architect Peter Youngman. Since 2006 woods and parks have been managed by The Parks Trust. In 2010 English Heritage endorsed the controversial grade II listing of Milton Keynes half mile long glass shopping mall. This first sunlight-only mall was described by Nikolaus Pevsner in 1994 as "still the best-looking if no longer the biggest shopping centre" in the UK. The town boasts an array of public sculpture, including works by Philip Jackson and Elizabeth Frink. Milton Keynes public art gallery was opened in 1999 and since that time has established itself at the forefront of contemporary art exhibition and gallery education.
