domusforum 2020: all the higlights from the event

Will the concept of cities as we know them survive the era of the virus? This is the crucial question that lies at the heart of the third edition of domusforum – the future of cities, taking place today, November 4, in Milan, at Cavallerizze hall of the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, starting at 9.30am. The event is live broadcasted on Domus and you can subscribe for free to follow the live video streaming.

The morning starts with the greeting of Sofia Bordone, CEO of Editoriale Domus, and Walter Mariotti, editorial director of Domus, who tells the audience how much architecture has become a central discipline in the last years, and that it's important that it interacts with other disciplines. Fiorenzo Galli, general director of the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, stresses how it’s important to not consider the physical space as we did in the past, and explains that the museum has opened its spaces for the vaccination of citizens.

Nicola Pianon of Boston Consulting Group presents “six bold visions city leaders are pursuing”, that are livable city, digital city, innovation city, resilient city, social emporewed city and sustainable city.

Gianni Bonini, geopolitical analyst, goes back to the La Casella social experiment of partecipatory design, “an ante litteram civic ecology” in Florence in the ’70s, to project the vision of a Mediterrean community able to face the challenge of the demographic challenges for the future: food, quality of life and preservation of natural resources with a world population of 9 billions.

At domusforum 2020, Igiaba Scego tells the symbolic places of that colonial past. The result is a narrative and visual construction of a decolonized, multicultural, inclusive Italy, where every citizen can finally be himself.

Jyoti Hosagrahar, deputy director at the UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, Paris, addressed the crucial role and contribution of cultural heritage to the cities of the future, to make them more socially and economically inclusive and environmentally resilient and sustainable, with a particular focus on historic centers/quarters – including contemporary interventions in historic contexts.

It takes a paradigm shift to learn to inhabit complexity, explains Mauro Ceruti, professor at Iulm University in Milan: this is the challenge of the 21st century. We live in an increasingly complex world, in which everything is connected. And yet dramatic disintegrations are produced. A paradigm of "simplification" dominates, which deceptively separates us from nature, locks us within national boundaries, fragments knowledge, stiffens identities.

A conversation between Wowo Ding (Nanjin University), Raul Mehrotra (Harvard), Sarah M. Whiting (Harvard), and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani (ETH Zurich), who starts by pointing out that completely renouncing to the idea of density as we know it, would be a mistake. Rahul Mehrotra focuses on the topics of social iniquity that the pandemic is bringing. Sarah Whiting comments the American elections, and the phenomenom of the massive mail vote, which is something quite unprecedented in US history, and also in relationship with how the pandemic changed the approach of Americans to living.

Rinaldo Melucci, mayor of Taranto, explains the challenges of the Apulian town, which is trasforming to a post-industrial city, with stress on sustainability and the 2030 Agenda. A model that, if it will work, could ever be exported.

9:30 - 9.35 Inauguration and welcoming session – Sofia Bordone, CEO of Editoriale Domus 9.35 - 9.40 Opening session – Walter Mariotti, editorial director of Domus 9.40 - 9.45 Greetings – Fiorenzo Galli, general director of the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci of Milan  9.45 - 10.05 Presentation of A vision for the cities of the future by Boston Consulting Group – Nicola Pianon, managing director at BCG Milan  10.05 - 10.20 David Chipperfield, guest editor of Domus 2020  10.20 - 10.35 For a Mediterranean civic ecology – Gianni Bonini, geopolitical analyst 10.35 - 10.45 Walter Mariotti interviews Marco Tronchetti Provera, executive vice president and CEO of Pirelli  10.45 - 11.30 Roundtable Energy, infrastructure, finance: three perspectives on sustainability.

Speakers: Giulio De Carli (architect, co-founder and managing partner of One Works), Giovanni Fosti (president of Fondazione Cariplo), Paolo Quaini (head of Energy services, Edison Group).
Moderator: Walter Mariotti 11.30 - 11.45 Negated Rome: Postcolonial Routes through the City – Igiaba Scego, writer, scholar  11.45 - 12.00 Jyoti Hosagrahar, deputy director at the UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, Paris 12.00 - 12.15 Inhabiting complexity – Mauro Ceruti, full professor of Philosophy of science at IULM University, Milan 12.15 - 13.00 Roundtable New urban spaces at the service of tomorrow’s society. Speakers: Wowo Ding (Nanjin University), Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani (ETH Zurich), Rahul Mehrotra (Harvard), Sarah M. Whiting (Harvard).
Moderator: Walter Mariotti 13.00 - 13.15 Taranto ecosystem. Strategy for an ecological, economic and energetic transition of Taranto Resilient City – Rinaldo Melucci, Mayor of Taranto  13.15 - 13.25 Freedom – Walter Mariotti