About
Presented by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, The Living Cities Forum is an annual assembly of leading architects and urban thinkers exploring the role of design, planning and architecture in shaping our society. Each year the Forum explores a different theme with the intent on generating debate on how we might improve our cities.
Since 2017, Living Cities Forum has had a substantial influence on the thinking, discourse, collaboration and policy-making that determines approaches to urban development across Australia.
While including established experts, Living Cities Forum actively seeks out and invites voices from across society to take part in deep and critical analyses of our cities. The dialogues are lively, rigorous, scientific, personal, productive and always inspirational, testing out old thinking, ushering in new perspectives, and paving the way for new, better design approaches, in all aspects of urban life.
The Inaugural Living Cities Forum in 2017 brought together leading international architects and urban thinkers to consider the factors that determine a healthy and vibrant city.
Shaping Society (2018): Investigating the theme Shaping Society, the 2018 Living Cities Forum invited attendees to a gathering of illustrious architects and global design thinkers. Building on the success of its inaugural 2017 program, the Forum will question the role of design in changing and bettering society.
Future Needs (2019): The third annual Living Cities Forum in Melbourne and Sydney invited a cohort of internationally renowned speakers to interrogate the theme Future Needs, addressing the challenges imminently facing our cities, from climate change and population density to social inequality.
The Long View (2021): In 2021, Living Cities Forum invited globally celebrated thinkers, architects and urbanism experts to discuss The Long View, a theme that asks how different perspectives on time can affect the growth of our cities.
Material Flows (2022): For the fifth Living Cities Forum renowned urbanism experts delivered thought-provoking keynote lectures on the theme: ‘Material Flows’.
The Naomi Milgrom Foundation
The Living Cities Forum is an initiative of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, a charitable not-for-profit organisation chaired by Australian business leader and philanthropist Naomi Milgrom AC. Established to enrich Australian cultural life by engaging new audiences with exceptional art, design and architecture, the Foundation focuses on bold projects that generate social, economic and environmental value. The Living Cities Forum is the sister event of the Foundation’s centrepiece project, MPavilion.
Naomi Milgrom AC is internationally recognised for spearheading and supporting cultural innovation and artistic excellence. Through the MPavilion and Living Cities Forum initiatives, she has collaborated with some of the world’s leading architects and urban thinkers, including Glenn Murcutt, Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, Amanda Levete, Bijoy Jain, Sean Godsell and Carme Pinós. She has been awarded three Honorary Doctorates, the Australian Institute of Architects President's Award, and Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010. Ms Milgrom accepted the Creative Partnerships Australia Philanthropy Leadership Award in 2016, was the Commissioner of the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2017 and in 2018 received the Melbourne Achiever Award by the Committee for Melbourne. She was also a judge for the 2017 and 2019 World Architecture Awards, is a founding patron of PHOTO 2021 International Festival of photography and Chair of the Sydney Powerhouse Precinct Project.
Naomi Milgrom AC. Photo by Stephen Chee.
