The second International Conference on Defence Sites, Heritage and Future will be reconvened in 2014 at the Arsenale di Venezia, Italy following the success of the first meeting held in Portsmouth, UK in 2012. The conference series launched by the Wessex Institute of Technology is co-organised on this occasion with IUAV and the Arsenale di Venezia Spa, Italy. Redundant defence sites offer a range of opportunities to planners, architects and local communities to redevelop large areas, bringing new life to often neglected parts of towns. The opportunities are common to many countries and the papers to be presented at the conference will stress this common feature and help to share experiences of the transformation of defence sites to civilian uses around the world. The conference objective is to raise the knowledge of the scale, design and functions of defence sites. It brings a better understanding of the issues raised by their redundancy and the implications of different disposal processes for the land. The re-use of defence sites also raises questions regarding the need to recover brownfields and contaminated land which can have far-reaching legal responsibilities and environmental consequences.