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Stratosferica & Future of Cities Present: Utopian Hours First US Edition
November 18, 2023 @ 2:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Utopian Hours makes it to Miami for its first US edition
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Dubbed Europe’s hippest and most inspiring city-making festival, the Italian Turin-based Utopian Hours travels to Miami for a day of creative urbanism.
Following the success of the 7th edition of Utopian Hours in Turin, Italy the festival launches its first US edition in Miami, Florida at the Future of Cities regenerative event venue Climate and Innovation Hub in Little Haiti.
On Saturday, November 18 2023, the festival directors Luca Ballarini and Giacomo Biraghi, with the team from Stratosferica, will present with the founder of Future of Cities and festival host, Tony Cho, a curated lineup of exceptional guests engaged in shaping and saving the cities of tomorrow by revamping their urban planning strategies and designing their neighbourhoods through creative urban interventions.
From city-making to citizen-making
The Utopian Hours Miami one-day festival will be a chance to evolve the discussions from the recent seventh edition in Turin, which the Italian and global media praised for its rare talent to involve the youth culture, urban professionals, city officials and activists alike in a refreshingly citizen-centric event about urban innovation and the future of our cities.
The festival’s co-director Giacomo Biraghi aims big:
“We are used to asking a lot from healthcare, scientific research, space exploration, economy. But rarely do we ask the same from our cities. We want more —freedom, progress, money, green spaces, well-being … you name it— from our beloved cities, and we want it now.”
Tropical Miami will be the centre stage for the full immersion into a world of creative urbanism at the Future of Cities / Climate + Innovation HUB, founded by urban regenerator Tony Cho, a guest speaker at the event, on Saturday, November 18. Miami is a cultural melting pot undergoing radical transformation, but as a southern US city, rising sea levels caused by climate change are a real threat to the city’s future; Utopian Hours is the occasion to discuss this with urban experts.
Five keynote speakers explore urban evolution through avant-garde topics like urban ecology, placemaking,community building, social innovation, the feminist city, and more.
A part of Utopian Hours will be dedicated to its host city with two multi-voice panels: “Making Miami” and “Regenerative Placemaking”. Conversations between key local cultural and creative entrepreneurs about creating new opportunities through innovative and creative practices from both an economical and social point of view.
Making Miami
“Making Miami” brings to the stage, Tony Cho, pioneer of regenerative placemaking and founder of Future of Cities (FOC), Matt Haggman, Executive Vice President at Opportunity Miami, who is spearhaeding new economical models
for the city’s future, Ximena Caminos, cultural placemaker and founder of The ReefLine, The Underline’s project activator Meg Daly and Raymond Fort, Vice President of one of US most renowned architecture and urban design firms, Arquitectonica.
“Regenerative Placemaking” is an open-source guide for developers and practitioners based on three core values, Community, Nature, and Culture, to facilitate the creation process of community-led urban regeneration projects for cities worldwide.
Moderating the panel is Alexandra J Tohme, Director of Regenerative Placemaking; she leads the Regenerative Placemaking Framework development and community programs with Cho Ventures, focusing on Little Haiti. Joining her is Tony Cho, the project creator, Emily Moody, director of Community Engagement for the Phoenix Jacksonville Arts + Innovation District (PHX-JAX), and Francois Francois Alexandre, a Haitian-American social entrepreneur and international & community leader in South Florida and founder of Konscious Kontractors, KLOTA (Konscious Leaders of Ti Ayiti), and TAPARI non-profit organisation.