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 on 4 November in Milan, Cavallerizze hall of the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci and broadcast live on Domus platforms. 

Domusforum 2020 will tackle the subject of urbanism with a particular focus on ten keywords for our age, ten keypoints, ten reference to imagine the future of our societies. 

Complexity, net, education, freedom, sustainability, fragility, space, resilience, solidarity, vision.

Following months of lockdown and faced with drastic changes to the social and economic world that are still hard to define, we have understood that once the pandemic is behind us, the world will never be the same again.

Beyond reflections regarding the role and responsibility of humankind on this planet, it is clear that in practice there are many things that need to be changed with regards to the way in which we produce, consume and live. This means, above all, that many of the physical spaces we have been using until now are not suited to the new model. 

For the first time in its history, humanity is faced with the need for a rapid, joint and global reorganisation of the way in which it inhabits the planet, above all in urban centres. Now more than ever, the culture of design will play a pivotal role in domusforum 2020. Important names from the international architectural scene will try to answer questions concerning the fields of domestic living, urban public space, work and production chains, from mobility to health. 

The list of the spaces to be renovated, re-adapted and rethought is endless, and the task calls for efforts in a range of fields. This is why domusforum 2020 will also feature contributions from representatives from institutions, the economic and finance sectors, social sciences and the business world. A search for a fusion of ideas to serve as a starting point for the creation of a fairer, safer, more inclusive, practicable and therefore ­– hopefully – better society. 

As usual, the reflections of the speakers will be introduced by the results of a survey conducted by a leading international research institute. This year it will be Boston Consulting Group to illustrate the findings of a research on the theme of the urban future. 

Conceived as a development of the Domus system, in its first two editions domusforum – the future of cities has gathered distinguished speakers including, among others, the sociologist Saskia Sassen, the Oxford University philosopher Luciano Floridi, the African activist Samia Nkrumah, the Indian activist Vandana Shiva, the EPFL geographer Jacques Lévy, the visionary sociologist and journalist Evgeny Morozov, the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala, the Italian banker and former Minster for the Economic Development Corrado Passera, the Ceo of Pirelli Marco Tronchetti Provera and the President of Fondazione Cariplo Giovanni Fosti.

Domusforum also produced a vast wealth of knowledge through six in-depth interviews with urban experts (including Rahul Mehrotra, Jeff Speck and Anna Scheuermann) and two comprehensive field researches conducted by the Nielsen company and ISPI – Institute for International Political Studies – in several world’s global cities including Chicago, London, Johannesburg, Milan, New York, São Paulo and Shanghai.