Indian-born architect Anupama Kundoo will join international experts in architecture, urban planning and housing at the Living Cities Forum in Melbourne and Sydney this month, with the 2026 program turning its attention to how cities can respond to housing pressures while maintaining a sense of community and belonging.
Kundoo, who is based between Germany and India, will appear alongside Malmö city architect Finn Williams and German futurologist and spatial researcher Ludwig Engel at the eighth edition of the forum. The Melbourne event will be held at The Edge at Federation Square on 25 August, followed by Sydney at the State Library of NSW on 28 August.
This year’s theme, Cities Made With Care, will examine housing both as infrastructure and as part of people’s relationship with the places in which they live. The program will bring together architecture, government, spatial research and civic practice, with discussions covering development, preservation, growth and belonging.
Kundoo brings an Indian perspective to those discussions after more than three decades working in architecture. Her research-oriented practice began in India in 1990 and has focused on people-centred design, low environmental impact and the use of materials and construction methods that take account of social and economic conditions. She is currently Professor of Architecture at TU Berlin.
Her work has also examined whether architecture can produce better housing and public spaces while using fewer resources, an issue that sits closely with the forum’s focus this year on the pressures facing growing cities.
Williams has served as City Architect of Malmö, Sweden, since 2021, following planning and architecture roles in Britain including at Croydon Council and the Greater London Authority. He was also co-founder and chief executive of Public Practice and co-curated the British Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Engel’s work focuses on the future of cities and the use of existing buildings. He works with HouseEurope!, a non-profit advocating changes to housing and construction rules that favour renovation over demolition, and teaches in Amsterdam and at ETH Zurich.
Naomi Milgrom AC, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, said debates about cities were increasingly dominated by measures of development and economic performance.
“Increasingly, cities are discussed through the language of targets, growth and delivery, rather than care. The most meaningful cities are not defined by efficiency or economic success alone – they are places that foster connection and a sense of belonging. The international guests invited to speak at Living Cities Forum each offer powerful examples of how care can operate as a radical framework for imagining and shaping the cities of today and tomorrow,” Milgrom said.
Kundoo, now a Professor of Architecture at TU Berlin, began her practice in India in 1990 and is known for people-centred, environmentally conscious design shaped by material and social considerations
Naomi Milgrom Foundation chief executive Elaine Chia said the forum was intended to encourage debate rather than seek agreement on a single approach to urban development.
“Living Cities Forum doesn’t seek to produce consensus, but to create the conditions for more ambitious public conversations about the future of cities, and the values that will define them,” Chia said.
The three international speakers will address different approaches to urban development, including Malmö’s experience with civic governance, European campaigns against unnecessary demolition and Kundoo’s research into materials and human-centred architecture.
International keynote sessions will run during the morning, followed by discussions, Australian case studies and sessions involving local design practitioners in the afternoon. Half-day tickets covering the keynote program are also being offered this year.
Living Cities Forum was established in 2017 and is presented by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, the organisation behind projects including MPavilion.
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