Design Laboratory 2009

2040 City - Sampling the Future
Visions for the future of the city
A free public forum

Presented by Melbourne Conversations and Design Laboratory

22 July 2009
BMW Edge, Federation Square
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST TO ATTEND HERE

Moderated by Peter Mares, ABC Radio National

For the State of Design festival this free public forum will bring together leading designers and thinkers to explore the future of the city, presenting a series of 'visions' as provocations or considerations.

What will shape and define the nature and liveability of the future city? What are the pressures and circumstances - imminent or distant that will shape the social fabric of the 2040 city and the subsequent spatial, physical and ecological fabric that 2040 Citizens will occupy?

2040 City will be an exploration into emerging opportunities, technologies and necessities within four city 'Systems'; built systems, mobility systems, human systems, and living systems. The systems are inter-dependent, and co-reliant presented in one simultaneous event the 2040 City Free Public Forum.

"Cities are responsible for more than 70% of the world's emissions - and 80% of Australians live in cities (compared with 50% worldwide). So if we are to tame global warming, we need to make our cities liveble, sustainable and economically viable. As 80% of the infrastructure that will exist in cities by 2030 already exists today, the larger challenge is how to reconfigure our existing infrastructure to achieve a sustainable future" - Rob Adams, Director Design and Urban Environment City of Melbourne 2008