Throughout 2020, the shape of the city – its buildings and open spaces – has taken centre stage in our experience of everyday life. Living in lockdown has confronted urban dwellers around the world with the limits of confined domestic environments yet reminded us of the benefits of a well-designed and accessible public realm.  

Living together has been challenged as a concept and as a reality. How we spend time at home, on the street, and in the city over the next decade is being re-framed. How we re-calibrate urban centres where people can live, work and transact is open to debate. 

This Urban Age Debate brings together prominent city-shapers and commentators who are committed to making cities more liveable, more democratic and more complex. Using images of recent projects in Mexico City, Mumbai, New York, Moscow and London, architects and urbanists explore the deep connections between the design of public space and social inclusion as cities strive to become more humane, domestic, and home to diverse communities.

Speakers  

Elizabeth Diller (@DSRNY) is a partner of the architectural practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) based in New York City.  Diller has been committed to an exploration of how democracy and the public realm intersect, realising spatially-inventive and socially-progressive projects in cities across the world including the High-Line in New York City and Zaryadye Park in Moscow, as well as educational and cultural buildings that prioritise connection with the city and the creation of social space. 

Rozana Montiel (@rozanamontiel) leads the Mexico City-based architecture studio Rozana Montiel | Estudio de Arquitectura which has investigated how elegant, modest architecture can contribute to the creation of socially-inclusive urban spaces. She has transformed abandoned open spaces in a public housing project into active social facilities through the Common Unity project in Mexico City and completed a rural housing project for earthquake victims in Ocuilan, Mexico. 

Amanda Levete (www.ala.uk.com) is one of the United Kingdom’s most respected architects who has consistently pushed the boundaries of architectural, technical and social innovation. A regular commentator on design and urban society, she is the principal of AL_A, which re-engaged the Victoria & Albert Museum in London with the city through its award-winning Exhibition Road project, re-animated Lisbon’s waterfront with the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, and is exploring the potential of regenerating inner cities across the United Kingdom.   

Suketu Mehta (@suketumehta) is a writer, critic and urbanist who focusses on the social and ethnic complexity of the contemporary city, and the deep connections between urban form and cultural vibrancy. Author of ‘Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found’, winner of the Kiriyama Prize and finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, Mehta explores how cities sustain diverse urban communities, delving deep into the dynamics of migrant communities in the global cites such as New York City, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro. 

Chair

Ricky Burdett (@BURDETTR) is a Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics, Director of LSE Cities, a global research centre at LSE, and co-founder of the Urban Age. 

Welcome

Anna Herrhausen is the Executive Director of the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft and the head of Deutsche Bank’s Art, Culture and Sports department.

Twitter hashtag for this event: #UrbanAgeDebates

Podcast, video and other supporting material

Trailer for Humanising the City 

Video of live event 

Listen to the podcast

Debate summary: Key takeaways