This event aims to focus on questions concerning the paradigms driving global urban development, within the ongoing transformation of urban contexts triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, and its potential enduring impact on urbanism. Cities and urban citizens worldwide have faced challenges as a result of lockdowns, restrictions on mobility across transnational networks, and the temporary exodus from cities of some of the privileged classes. This event will unpack issues of global wellbeing of the anthropocene, the planet’s ecology, locality, and the economic fallout of these intertwined crises. The years 2020 and 2021 have demonstrated how the global urban paradigms of progress, growth and connectedness are at once on pause, evidenced by curtailed supply chains and global travel, and also accelerated, through the rapid advancement of information and communication technologies.

In presentations and a panel discussion including participants from all corners of the world, this event will interrogate how local forces shape conceptions of culture and design practice in different contexts.

This proposed panel discussion can possibly also be linked to a parallel exhibition by the participants (TBC) and can be spread over two sessions, or two events, as best meets the curatorial preferences.

Welcome and Introduction: Dean Maria R. Perbellini
Introduction and Moderation: Professor Tom Verebes

Presenters and Panelists:
Donald L. Bates, Chair, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia)
Dana Cuff, Professor, UCLA (Los Angeles, USA)
Neville Mars, Director, MARS Architects; Director, Dynamic City Foundation (Shanghai, China) 
Michael Weinstock, Director, EMTECH MS/M.Arch Program, Architectural Association (London, UK)
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17th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2021; Virtual Italian Pavilion
Curated by Professor Tom Kovak, RMIT, Cities X; Dean Maria Perbellini Creative Director