Living Cities Forum 2017
Living Cities Forum 2017
MPavilion is an ongoing initiative of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, supported by City of Melbourne, State Government of Victoria, through Creative Victoria and ANZ. Every year the Naomi Milgrom Foundation commissions an outstanding architect to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens, in the centre of Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct, which are then gifted to the state of Victoria.
The Living Cities Forum is an annual gathering of a select group of visionary international speakers who help us transform architecture and urbanism perspectives into decisive action.
By connecting us to industry and policymakers, the foundation brings the world’s foremost creatives and thought-leaders into local discussions around urban planning and civic life.
In 2017, the Living Cities forum brought together leading international architects and design thinkers to investigate the meaning of liveability and liveable cities though the lens of architecture and design.
“Today is an opportunity to gather insights from around the world and debate Melbourne’s future in this global context. I hope it is a discussion that takes us beyond the pet-shop parody of the ‘world’s most liveable city’ - As important as that is, and I hope that we look at what it takes to be a creative city, an inspiring city, a progressive and interesting city, and what it means to be a democratic city, a city that is a good place to live for all of its citizens.”
The Hon Martin Foley, Minister for Creative Industries
Outcomes
Forum Themes
27 July 2017
Comprising two focused sessions with three keynote speakers, the presentations explored the importance of reconceptualising our cities as spaces that are deftly innovative and informed by the unique social and environmental exigencies of the contemporary moment. The morning session, City Limits, reflected upon the ways cities can be healthy, dynamic and prosperous by managing neglect, over-crowding and poor planning.
The afternoon session,City of People, redirected the focus from broader civic spaces to the fine grain of human experience, social forms and community identity.
Each seminar of three presentations was followed by an hour-long panel discussion. Importantly, during the second half of each panel discussion, the dialogue was opened-up to questions from the audience, facilitating dialogues between local and international design professionals.
340 Attendees
Audience comprised of individuals ranging from the professions of architecture and design, in addition to developers and planners , representatives from community and cultural organisations, entrepreneurs working in the field of social enterprise, and local government and academics
Satellite events/ Collaborations
Melbourne School of Design, 25 July — International forum speaker, Minsuk Cho, participated in a public lecture at Melbourne School of Design on 25 July entitledRecent Works, which explored the work of Mass Studies, theSeoul-based architectural practice he founded in 2003.
Monash University, 26 July — Marisa Yiu participated in a series of events with Monash University, including a student workshop and studio visit, and presented a free public lecture as part of the MADA TalksSeries (26 July) which explored her multi-disciplinary design, culture and spatial practices asFounding Partner of Honk-Kong based architecture firm ESKYIU
RMIT University, 26 July
Mimi Zeiger participated in a Curatorial Workshop at RMIT with Naomi Stead, Kate Rhodes and Fleur Watson and a was involved in strategic planning session for RMIT Design Hub.
Open House Melbourne, 26 July — Visiting speaker Mimi Zeiger participated in “Self-Made City,” a booked-out panel discussion held at the Wheeler Centre in collaboration with Open House Melbourne on 26 July
Assemble Papers — Developed in partnership with the Naomi Milgrom Foundation and MPavilion, Issue #8 ofAssemble Papers drew from and engaged with the issues and discussions that arose from the inaugural Living Cities Forum,
Speakers
David Gianotten
David Gianotten is the managing partner-architect of influential architecture firm OMA. David oversees design and construction of various projects, including the Taipei Performing Arts Centre, the masterplan of Feyenoord City and the new Stadium Feyenoord, the CIFCO building in Beijing, the Prince Plaza Building in Shenzhen, the KataOMA resort in Bali, theNew Museum for Western Australia, and MPavilion 2017.
Mimi Zeiger
Mimi Zeiger is a Los Angeles-based critic, editor, and curator. Mimi writes on art, architecture, urbanism, and design and her curatorial work sits at the intersection of architecture and media. Zeiger is the 2015 recipient of the Bradford Williams Medal for excellence in writing about landscape architecture.
Rory Hyde
Rory Hyde is Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.He studied architecture at RMIT University in Melbourne, where he also completed a PhD on emerging models of practice enabled by new technologies. He is currently Adjunct Senior Fellow with the University of Melbourne
Marisa Yiu
Marisa Yiu is a writer, curator and architect and founding partner of ESKYIU, a multi-disciplinary architecture studio based in Hong Kong whose work integrates culture, community, art and technology. Marisa Yiu was the chief curator of the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture located at the West Kowloon waterfront. Marisa recently curated Studio-X Shenzhen at the Value Factory. Along with her partner Eric Schuldenfrei, they were awarded theArchitectural League Prize from the Architectural League of New York for their installations featured in the Venice Biennale andNew York’s Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Minsuk Cho
Minsuk Cho is an architect and founder of Seoul-based firm Mass Studies. Cho graduated from Yonsei University and Columbia University, and spent his early career in New York and Rotterdam, and in 1998, co-founded Cho Slade Architecture in New York
Key Advisers
Andrew Mackenzie and David Neustein were engaged to develop the forum precise and format, with MacKenzie acting as lead moderator on the day. Mackenzie and Neustein are both highly skilled in architecture conference programming and moderation, both having been involved indirecting the AIA National Conference in recent years.
