On 4 November 2020, Domus organized the DomusForum 2020 “The future of cities”. The conference brought together high-profile experts, international organizations, business leaders, government officials and academics for a conversation on the challenges faced by cities, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The conference focused on a central question: "Will the concept of cities as we know them survive the era of the virus?" At the same time, several key issues regarding the cities of the future were identified, such as the increased prevalence of tele-working beyond the pandemic, the importance of technology and technological companies in the development of cities, and of stakeholder management as crucial for good governance.The Deputy Director of the World Heritage Centre delivered a presentation in which she highlighted the potential of historic cities to serve as lessons and resources to achieve sustainable urban development. She noted that the current crisis is in addition to other ongoing global crisis including Climate Change and disasters linked to Climate Change related extreme weather events, as well as conflicts. These crises highlight the deficiencies of our current planning system that disregards, disrespects, or threatens the heritage value of the city. Hence, we need to create plans and processes that integrate heritage protection into the urban processes to make the cities resilient, sustainable and liveable. The Deputy Director proposed specific ways to achieve this goal by referring to tools developed by UNESCO, such as the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape and the Culture | 2030 Indicators.
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