In the context of global climate and resource challenges, how can design lead the future ecological transformation?

The Eco - FUTURES forum aims to integrate technological innovation, humanistic care, and environmental wisdom with ecological design thinking at its core, going beyond traditional sustainable paradigms. We invite top - tier global practitioners such as Pritzker Prize winner Shigeru Ban, science - fiction architecture explorer Liam Young, digital architecture pioneer Jeffrey Huang, and experimental architecture master Hernán Díaz Alonso to engage in interdisciplinary dialogues from multiple dimensions, including humanitarian construction, future narratives, algorithmic urbanism, and digital ecological aesthetics.

This forum will explore how design, as a key link, can balance the relationships among humans, nature, and technology to jointly shape an adaptable, breathable, and symbiotic future urban landscape.

2025年9月26日 14:00-17:00

Date：September 26 , 2025 , 2:00-5:00 PM

Venue：Forum Zone B1 No. 689 Jumen Road Huangpu Riverside，Shanghai

14:00 - 15:00

Balancing Architectural Practice and Social Contribution

Shigeru Ban

15:00 - 15:30

New Planetary lmaginaries

Liam Young

15:30 - 16:00

Transcending Prospectsin the Climate Crisis : Architecture as Strategic Design

Jeffrey Huang

16:00 - 16:30

Primitive High Tech:  Towards an Eco-Intuition

Hernán Díaz Alonso 

16:30 - 17:00

Panel

Philip F. Yuan

Moderator： Philip F. Yuan

Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban, a laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Professor at Kyoto University of the Arts, and Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has created numerous innovative architectural works using unconventional materials (such as paper) over his more than four-decade career as an architect.

Since 1995, Ban has been actively involved in post-disaster relief efforts, a commitment that has never wavered to this day. He has designed low-cost, recyclable shelters for refugees, endowing architecture with both humanitarian care and an environmental mission.

In this lecture, Ban will review his past and latest architectural works while sharing his humanitarian initiatives. He will also explore a core question: Can one contribute to society while creating architectural works? Additionally, he will talk about his beliefs as an architect, as well as how architecture can address problems and make contributions to society.

Liam Young

Liam Young is a designer, director, and BAFTA-nominated producer, dubbed by the BBC as the man designing our future. His forward-looking films and fictional worlds not only offer extraordinary depictions of the future but also conduct an urgent examination of the environmental issues we face today. As a worldbuilder, he creates future cities and props for the film and television industry. His works have premiered on platforms such as Channel 4 and the Venice Biennale, and are included in the collections of institutions like MoMA and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In addition, as a top futurist, he provides technological design consulting for clients including Nike, Google, and NASA JPL. He has served as a visiting professor at Princeton University, MIT, and the University of Cambridge, and currently offers the groundbreaking Master’s Program in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI Arc in Los Angeles. He has also published books, including Machine Landscapes: Architecture in the Age of Posthumanity and Planet City — a story about an imaginary city created for all of humanity.

Jeffrey Huang

Jeffrey Huang is a Professor of Architecture and Computer Science at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, founder of the Media x Design Laboratory, and former Dean of EPFL’s School of Architecture. Educated at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) and Harvard University, his work spans architecture, urban studies, and artificial intelligence (AI). He is also co-founder of Convergeo, a strategic design consultancy.

He previously served as the founding Dean of the School of Architecture and Sustainable Design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) — a leading young innovative design university co-founded with MIT. Prior to that, he taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design and worked as a Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center.

His research focuses on the integration of physical and digital architecture, exploring how architecture can shift its focus to Earth’s flow processes. He leads the AI-powered urban digital twin project Blue City, with its core being the Large Flow Model. He brings together interdisciplinary teams to reimagine urban-nature interactions and also co-organizes the relevant symposium at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. Committed to redefining architecture as a discipline of strategic design, he advocates that amid the climate crisis, architecture should go beyond adaptation to realize a sustainable future.

Hernán Díaz Alonso

Hernán Díaz Alonso, Distinguished Faculty at SCI-Arc, served as the Institute’s Director from 2015 to 2025. He joined the school’s faculty in 2001, became a Distinguished Faculty Member in 2010, and has held various leadership roles, including Graduate Programs Director. A key figure in driving SCI-Arc’s transition to digital technology, he has played a leading role in shaping the school’s graduate curriculum.

He also heads HDA-x, a Los Angeles-based architectural firm. His interdisciplinary practice, spanning design, animation, and interactive environments, has earned numerous honors: he won the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program (YAP) competition in 2005, received the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Educator of the Year Award in 2012, and in 2013, took home the AR+D Emerging Architecture Award and Progressive Architecture Award for his museum project in Patagonia, Argentina.

His works have been featured in exhibitions like the Venice Architecture Biennale, with solo shows at institutions including MoMA and SFMOMA, and are part of museums’ permanent collections worldwide. His writings and designs are widely published. A former Visiting Professor at Yale and Columbia Universities, he was named one of Design Intelligence’s ”25 Most Admired Educators (2018-2019) and won the Architecture Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019. He has recently completed a residential project in Argentina and costume designs for Nike.

Host：Shanghai Government 、UNESCO

Moderator：Philip F. Yuan

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