Norman Foster Institute launch in Madrid

The Norman Foster Foundation will present the Norman Foster Institute’s inaugural Programme on Sustainable Cities in Madrid on January 22, 2024 with a day-long event bringing together leading design practitioners, policy makers, health experts and city representatives. The programme aims to train scholars from different disciplines in the sustainable development of cities with strategies for the future.

The programme will open with an event moderated by Tim Stonor, Member of the Advisory Board, Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Managing Director, Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom, which will provide insights and strategies for the current challenges facing cities, including architecture, city governance and climate change.

The first session will feature keynotes by Norman Foster, President, Norman Foster Foundation; Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute, Madrid, Spain; Advocate of the United Nations Forum of Mayors; Founder and Executive Chairman, Foster + Partners; Kent Larson, Norman Foster Institute Co-Director; Member of the Advisory Board, Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, Spain, Director, City Science Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States; Edgar Pieterse, Norman Foster Institute Provost; Founding Director, African Centre for Cities (ACC), University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; and Dava Newman, Norman Foster Institute Honorary Dean; Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It will also include a panel discussion between all of these participants. 

Following the panel, there will be keynote presentations by representatives of the three cities featured in the master’s programme: Dr. Georgios Stamtsis, President of the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency, Athens, Greece; Eider Inunciaga Serna, Department for Euskera, Public Services, Civic Engagement, Agenda 2030 and Internationalisation, Bilbao, Spain; and Stefano Canti, Minister for the Territory, Environment, Agriculture and Civil Protection, San Marino. 

The final keynote of the first session will be by Bret Stephens, Journalist, Editor, and Columnist; The New York Times, New York, NY, United States.

The second session will begin with remarks from Glyn Richards, Group Sustainability Director at Bupa, who will explore the huge opportunity that developing health-centred actions can play in the design of the cities of the future, not only to promote health and wellbeing of urban populations but also to address the climate crisis. The second session will also include keynotes by Alejandro Aravena, Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute; Executive Director, ELEMENTAL; ELEMENTAL Copec Chair, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Jury Chair of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Chicago, Illinois, United States; Member of the  Advisory Board, Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Vishan Chakrabarti, Member of the Academic Council, Norman Foster Institute; Honorary Trustee, Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Founder and Creative Director, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), New York City, New York, United States; and Beatriz Corredor, Member of the Norman Foster Institute Academic Council; Chairwoman, Redeia; Former Minister of Housing of Spain, Madrid, Spain. A panel discussion between Alejandro Aravena, Vishaan Chakrabarti and Beatriz Corredor will then take place. 

Following the morning event, the Norman Foster Foundation will host the first public event of the Norman Foster Institute, the “Cities Beyond Earth” public debates. The debates will explore the remarkable confluence of space colonies and the sustainability of our cities on Earth. As humanity increasingly ventures into the cosmos, the lessons learned from building and maintaining self-contained habitats beyond our planet hold immense relevance for the cities we inhabit today. Our world faces unprecedented challenges, from climate change to resource scarcity, and the urgency to create more resilient, sustainable urban environments has never been greater. By studying space colonies, we can gain critical insights into efficient resource management, closed-loop ecosystems, and innovative technologies that can be harnessed to improve the sustainability and resilience of our terrestrial cities to avert the collapse of our model to inhabit the Earth. 

The debates will be moderated by Tim Stonor, Member of the Advisory Board, Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Managing Director, Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom, with an introduction by Norman Foster, President, Norman Foster Foundation; Co-Director, Norman Foster Institute, Madrid, Spain; Advocate of the United Nations Forum of Mayors; Founder and Executive Chairman, Foster + Partners, and keynotes and a debate between the following experts: Dava Newman, Norman Foster Institute Honorary Dean; Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States; Xavier De Kestelier, Global Head of Design, Hassell, London, United Kingdom; and Marc Guberman, Senior Partner, Designer, Foster + Partners, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

The Public Debates are free and open to the public, with a limited capacity, after registering via Eventbrite. The public debate will be held in English without translation.

The Norman Foster Institute is a centre dedicated to promoting a sustainable and visionary approach to the development of cities worldwide. The Programme combines practical on-site experience with academic input from the Norman Foster Foundation’s network of international experts. The course begins with training tools and skills that can be used to address wide-ranging issues of cities. These could be applicable to cities all over the world, as well as informal settlements and suburbia.

The Norman Foster Institute has assembled an integrative team of professionals from different continents to provide a global vision and a broad spectrum of expertise for those seeking a holistic approach to the future design and management of cities. Norman Foster, President of the Norman Foster Foundation, and Kent Larson, Head of the City Science group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, Co-Directors of the Programme on Sustainable Cities, will lead a body of distinguished global experts drawn from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the scholars will use the most up-to-date digital tools as part of the NFI City Lab, to allow them to explore, test and evaluate their interventions in the quest to improve a sustainable quality of life in cities. Scholars will develop skills in leadership, advocacy, communication, presentation, diagramming, mapping and the understanding and interpretation of data.