The Next City: How We Design – or Lose – the Future

15 Jun, 2025, 12.00 PM @ Atelier Gardens

Event language: English

Cities that don’t adapt won’t survive. It sounds harsh – but it’s a reality. Climate crisis, war, demographic shifts, and disruptive technologies are reshaping how we live. Entire metropolises are disappearing, while new forms of urban life must emerge – resilient, just, and sustainable. Change is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. Inaction means exclusion.

But transformation doesn’t start with policy papers or digital tools alone. It starts with space – with the environments where people meet. Architecture can be a catalyst for change: open, connective structures that invite people to linger, interact, and co-create. These spaces weave together the many layers of urban life – social, cultural, economic – and make a city’s potential tangible and alive.

When we rethink urban space, we must also rethink how culture is integrated into this process. Cultural actors bring life into aging structures, break through stagnation, and create new energy that often attracts further activity – including economic enterprise. Culture can spark reactivation. It offers not just content, but context: a sense of belonging, imagination, and momentum. Without culture, transformation remains abstract. With it, cities become living ecosystems.

In this talk, we bring together international changemakers and urban innovators to explore how meaningful transformation happens – through bold ideas, strategic foresight, and lived experience. Because the city is where our future will be shaped – or lost.

Tickets

Program Info

Conversation with

Guests

Kristian Jarmuschek

Kristian Jarmuschek is a gallerist, art fair director, and chairman of the German Association of Galleries and Fine Art Dealers (BVDG). After studying art history in Berlin, he founded the gallery Jarmuschek+Partner in 2004. He launched art fairs such as Positions Berlin, paper positions, and art KARLSRUHE, which he now directs. For over two decades, he has played a key role in shaping the contemporary art market in the German-speaking world.

Mario Husten

Mario Husten started as a journalist, then helped build independent publishing houses in Eastern Europe for Gruner + Jahr. He later led the international rollout of brands like GEO. After working as a media consultant, he co-founded a cooperative entrepreneurship network in Berlin. Until 2024, he was managing director of Holzmarkt. Today he advises The Good Media Network and supports subcultural urban development, including in Belgrade.

Maja Vidaković Lalić

Maja Vidaković Lalić is an architect, urbanist, and creative director of Belgrade’s Mikser Festival, which she co-founded in 2006. She studied architecture in Belgrade and earned a master’s in urban design from Columbia University. As a curator and cultural activist, she has shaped social and urban innovation across Southeast Europe. The New York Times called her “Belgrade’s most cutting-edge homegrown architect.”

Moderation

Notker Schweikhardt

Notker Schweikhardt studied architecture and stage design. He worked in opera and theatre, created parade floats, and directed commercials and exhibitions. With the Clean Tech World at Tempelhof Airport, he turned to questions of future urban life. In 2012, he entered cultural politics with the Green Party and served seven years in Berlin’s state parliament. Since 2024, he has worked at visitBerlin, activating public properties for cultural use.