MIPIM Leaders' Perspectives

Decent and affordable housing is the bedrock upon which to build inclusive cities. But it's becoming more and more difficult as the price of housing is increasing much faster than the average salary. Our guest today has worked with the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. She is an effective advocate for the advancement of affordable housing and inclusive city development. Her name is Orna Rosenfeld.

Can the design of buildings inspire positive behaviour? Our guest today believes so... and he is shaping behaviours for more than three decades with his architecture firm. His name is Kim Herforth Nielsen, founder of 3XN and you can find his work everywhere: from the Museum of Liverpool to the Sydney's fish market or the Blue Planet aquarium in Copenhagen.  

We need to reinvent our cities. We need to take bold climate action, leading the way towards a healthier and more sustainable future. This is the mission of the C40, an organization gathering cities committed to fight the climate crisis, with the participation of mayor like Michael Bloomberg in New York and, of course, Anne Hidalgo for Paris. Our guest today is focused on developing programs to accelerate the decarbonization of buildings and urban regeneration projects. Her name is Hélène Chartier and is she is the head of Zero Carbon Development at C40. 

With the population continuously increasing, the access to proper housing and water become more and more challenging... with dramatic impact on our environment.  Our guest today, is coming with asolution: to upcycle plastic bottles to build modular construction structures.  His name is Igor Ustinov and is he is the founder of UHCS (standing for Ustinov Hoffmann Construction System).  But it's far from being the only thing on his mind. Igor Ustinov is first and foremost an artist. He is a sculptor with many monument exhibited across the world. He is also a classical singer with a Master Degree in biology.  

In the world, there are a number of "blue zones", places like Okinawa in Japan; Sardinia in Italy; Nicoya in Costa Rica and Icaria in Greece, where an higher than usual number of people live much longer than average. The mission of our guest today is to bring these longevity lessons to communities across the United States. His name is Nick Buettner. He is the vice-president of community engagement at a company very conveniently called "Blue Zones".  

What if we can use architecture to connect our cities and nature in a very direct way. This is the mission of our guest today: Rachel Armstrong, who is investigating what we can call "living architecture". Rachel is a professor of Experimental Architecture at the Newcastle University School of Architecture.  

« We need to be able to imagine positive, feasible, delightful versions of the future before we can create them. Not utopias, but futures where things turned out OK. Having the opportunity to "test drive" the future, to experience different version of the future, can help us feel they are possible ». This is a quote from the last book written by our guest today: Rob Hopkins. The book is called "Fromwhat is to what if" Rob Hopkins is best known as the founder of the Transition Movement and the Transition Town of Totnes. 

If Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful, the mission of our guest today is to organize the world's geographic information and make it universally accessible and useful. Ed Parsons have been Google's geospatial technologist evangelist for the past fourteen years. His job is basically to make our maps smarter.