images courtesy of WAF.

World Architecture Festival (WAF) is delighted to announce the first of the key topics and speakers that will feature in this year’s World Architecture Festival programme.

Singapore celebrates its 50th anniversary as an independent country this year. We are taking this opportunity to think about how architecture and urbanism has changed during this period around the world, how predictions have been fulfilled or denied, and how we think conditions may change or stay the same over the 50 years to come. The WAF programme will deliberate today’s big questions and define the way you work tomorrow.

Designing for tomorrow

Building to extremes: Developing architecture that fits life as we want to live it no matter the climate - Kai Uwe Bergman, Principal, BIG, The future of food: Radical approaches that preserve ecological sustainability - Michael Sorkin and Rachel Belatchew, Principal, Belatchew Arkitekter, Designing for age: From 1965 to 2065: how should architecture respond to changes in life expectancy? Niall McLaughlin, Principal, Niall McLaughlin Architects and Stephen Pimbley, Principal, SPARK

Plus: Future proof design and the future of height.

Find out more about these sessions.

Imagining the future...

Building worlds: future reality, not science fiction - Alex McDowell, Creative Director, 5D Global Studio; Director, USC World Building Media Lab, USC World Building Institute, Mapping the future: Michael Kokora, Principal, OMA, The way we thought then, the way we think now: Charles Jencks

Plus: Material innovation: bamboo, glass and coatings; lightweight structures and future technologies in design and manufacture

Read more about the seminars at WAF that look to the future.

Cities and urbanism

Singapore 50:50: Liu Thai-Ker, Director, RSP Architects Planners & Engineers, Paris reconsidered: Manuelle Gautrand, Principal, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Shanghai: imagining the next 50 years: Alan Balfour, former dean of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture, Cooler Calmer Singapore: Gerhard Schmitt, Future Cities Lab, ETH Global, The evolution of public space: David Green, Urban Design Leader, Principal, Perkins+Will, Reflections on 50 years of city evolution: Sir Peter Cook, Director CRAB Studio and Kerry Hill, Principal, Kerry Hill Architects

Plus: City updates on Chandigarh, Rio, Shenzen, Berlin, Sydney and Johannesburg

Read more about the conference programme

> via worldarchitecturefestival.com