Space is the future: In this session, three practitioners engaged with the design and delivery of public space in towns and cities pick their top three things that will drive change in the use, design and volume of public space.

The future is going to happen – the trouble is we don’t know how. Predictions for the post-Covid world range from back to (nearly) normal, to an everlasting dystopia of social distancing. The truth is that we don’t know what the future of our towns and cities will be and so, as ever, we will have to be flexible and resilient.

We should however consider what different scenarios might look like and what preparation could be put in place now in order that we are more resilient tomorrow. And so even knowing that we can’t predict the future it makes sense to try, at least a little.

In these 40-minute sessions, panels of ‘’futurologists’’ from around the globe will each highlight 3 ways in which the future built environment could be different and what we should be doing in response.

Two IBI Group speakers – experienced in public realm design and placemaking across UK and North American geographies – are joined by an expert UK guest panelist.