Living Cities Forum 2021

Living Cities Forum returns, featuring globally celebrated architects and urban thinkers. 

The Naomi Milgrom Foundation today announced the return of its Living Cities Forum, an architecture and urban design event. Taking place on Thursday, July 22 from 9am–5pm at The Edge theatre, Federation Square, Living Cities Forum will deliver its fourth program of keynote lectures, with cross-disciplinary talks and workshops over the course of the day. The event will feature keynote addresses from globally renowned thinkers including author Bruce Pascoe, British philosopher Timothy Morton, Indian architect Anupama Kundoo, and Belgian designer Maarten Gielen. Celebrated Torres Strait chef, Nornie Bero, and her team at Mabu Mabu will provide fresh, seasonal, native food for morning tea and lunch.

“I was honoured to be amongst such a stellar group of thinkers and makers. The Living Cities Forum and MPavilion do an astounding job of raising the level of public discourse about the built environment. Future reckoning—perhaps if we think about future needs in relation to where we are now, and have been, taking stock of past needs, then our imagination might hold the seeds for a future that is just and equitable.” —Mabel O. Wilson, Living Cities Forum 2019, Architect & Cultural Historian, United States of America

The 2021 Living Cities Forum theme is “The Long View”—a theme that asks how different ways of perceiving and measuring time could help us to better understand, explore and solve design challenges. How is the climate crisis and the pandemic compelling cities to slow their growth, reduce their resources, minimise their footprints, and make us think about life outside of our own lifespans? In examining this and other questions, Living Cities Forum will incorporate different concepts of time, including Australian First Nations perspectives, the deep time of geological processes, and the recursive time of non-human lifeforms. This notion of the interpretations, challenges and opportunities of time will also inform the literal shape of this year’s Forum as it leans into the challenges of time zone differences—panelists will either appear in person at The Edge theatre, or from elsewhere in the world, via a dynamic blend of technologies. A not-to-be-missed opportunity for industry professionals, students and anyone interested in the future of cities to network, share ideas and workshop together.

Timothy Morton is a British philosopher based in Texas, Professor and Rita Shea Guffey Chair at Rice University and prolific author. They are also a member of the object-oriented philosophy movement advocating for a radical rethink in the way humans conceive of, and relate to, animals and nature as a whole. Their work has seen them collaborate with Bjӧrk, Laurie Anderson, Jennifer Walshe, Olafur Eliasson, and Pharrell Williams.

Anupama Kundoo is a celebrated Indian architect, educator and researcher with a Berlin-based practice. Anupama’s most recent exhibition Taking Time was staged at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. “Time is the most essential resource that we have access to as living beings. What else do we have that is truly ours, except our own time?”

Bruce Pascoe is a Yuin, Bunurong man, farmer, firefighter, and author of the critically acclaimed text Dark Emu. Working to reestablish Indigenous produce on a commercial scale, Bruce has also revealed extensive firsthand eyewitness accounts of sophisticated Indigenous architecture, technology and farming practices observed during early encounters by European colonialists in his research.

Maarten Gielen is an award-winning, Brussels-based designer and researcher, and a leading practitioner in changing the way materials are used in architecture and construction engineering. This endeavour is made possible through the collective Rotor—a cooperative design practice that investigates the organisation of the material environment with the aim of helping designers salvage building produce to reduce waste.

About Living Cities Forum
Since 2017, Living Cities Forum has had a substantial influence on the thinking, discourse, collaboration and policy-making that determines approaches to urban development across Australia. While including established experts, Living Cities Forum actively seeks out and invites voices from across society to take part in deep and critical analyses of our cities. The dialogues are lively, rigorous, scientific, personal, productive and always inspirational, testing out old thinking, ushering in new perspectives, and paving the way for new, better design approaches, in all aspects of urban life.

Living Cities Forum is supported by principal partners Creative Victoria, Development Victoria and RACV.

Key information for Living Cities Forum 2021
Date: Thursday, July 22, 2021
Time: 9am–5pm
Location: The Edge theatre, Federation Square, Melbourne
Speakers: Bruce Pascoe, Timothy Morton, Anupama Kundoo, Maarten Gielen
Tickets: 100 AUD (75 AUD concession) includes Living Cities Forum day-pass, with morning tea and lunch by Mabu Mabu
Information: livingcitiesforum.org and naomimilgromfoundation.org
Contact: info [​at​] naomimilgromfoundation.org