Ecology and technology applied to the city for a sustainable future are the shared values to emerge from the Domus Forum and its research into the future of cities.
The first edition of the Forum promoted by Domus editorial recently set out to answer the most pressing questions about the urban future of the world's cities. Will the cities of tomorrow be smart, efficient and sustainable? Will they be able to meet the needs and desires of those who inhabit them? And how? Under the aegis of two main sponsors – Permasteelisa Group and Toyota –, Fondazione Cariplo, and Assolombarda, and with the patronage of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Municipality of Milan, a group of experts and opinion leaders who had come from all over the world – or who took part via video interviews – discussed these questions.
In the opening address, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan – described in the programme as a Milanese 'Civil servant', the term now preferred for those who care for the city – spoke of Milan as a paradigm: a virtuous example to be followed, thanks to the great strides made in recent years towards shaping the city's sustainable future. Giuseppe Guzzetti, president of Fondazione Cariplo, introduced the general concepts of 'industrial humanism' and 'sustainable development', which, to be realised, must succeed in addressing the problems of poverty among families and children, unemployment, the fragility of the elderly, and other at-risk groups still present across many areas of Milan.
Hosted by Walter Mariotti, editorial director of Domus, speakers included Michele De Lucchi, architect and current director of Domus magazine, Jacques Lévy, urban planner at the École polytechnique fédérale in Lausanne, Fathi Saleh, adviser on cultural affairs to the Egyptian government, Samia Nkrumah, founder of the Kwame Nkrumah Pan African Center, Evgeny Morozov, journalist and author of, among other works, 'Internet non salverà il mondo' and 'Ripensare la smart city', Antonio Calabrò, vice-president of Assolombarda, Riccardo Mollo, CEO of Permasteelisa Group, Mauro Caruccio, CEO of Toyota Motor Italia, and Yutaka Hasegawa, vice-president and head of design at Sony. Video contributions came from Saskia Sassen, sociologist at Columbia University in New York, and Luciano Floridi, philosopher at the University of Oxford.
All the speakers' contributions from the forum are available at this link.
The results were presented of a study commissioned by Domus editorial from Nielsen, which involved experts in metropolitan dynamics as well as residents of Chicago, London, Milan, Shanghai and São Paulo. One overall finding common to all emerged: ecology and technology applied to the city are increasingly shared values. Safety, the environment and mobility are the key issues for all citizens, who are calling for greater economic and environmental liveability; urban parks, bicycles and electric cars are common wishes when it comes to imagining the cities of the near future in a positive light – greener and more liveable.
The research findings are available here.
The first Domus Forum's main sponsor, Permasteelisa Group, is a world leader in the field of technological architecture, having built extraordinary buildings such as the London Bridge Tower – better known as The Shard by Renzo Piano –, the Unicredit Tower in Milan by César Pelli, and Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino designed by Norman Foster. Building the future was the theme addressed by Riccardo Mollo, CEO of the group.
"Never before have architectural works and building complexes been so capable of changing the faces of cities – not only in visual terms, but in terms of the regeneration and redefinition of entire urban areas, with all that this entails for those who live in them. For some years now, architecture has added to its technological and engineering value a genuine role as an attractor and driver of tourist flows: from the Bilbao case to Chicago, through to Milan itself, there are many examples of cities revitalised not only aesthetically by architectural works and the creation of new urban spaces capable of drawing in visitors and investment. In this sense, and in pursuit of this outcome, the construction industry and architecture must go hand in hand, evolving in harmony with institutions and policy makers, who are called upon to raise the bar ever higher by demanding elevated and sustainable standards. Against this backdrop, we are able to provide technical solutions capable of delivering extraordinary results in terms of acoustic and thermal performance, safety and occupant comfort."
The challenge that car manufacturers must face in order to help protect the environment is an unavoidable choice for both the present and the future: reducing gases harmful to health (NOx, nitrogen oxides and PM10) and those responsible for climate change (CO2); improving energy efficiency; and contributing to the large-scale spread of renewable energy. These topics were discussed by Mauro Caruccio, CEO of Toyota Motor Italia, in an interview with Walter Mariotti. Toyota, the forum's main sponsor, was among the first manufacturers to commercialise electrified vehicles on a large scale, primarily through the use of Full Hybrid Electric technology.