Ahead of The Living Cities Forum coming to Sydney this Friday 20 September, alongside Melbourne on Wednesday 18, Tope Adesina, one of Australian Design Review’s 30UNDER30 Architects and Innovators of the Built World cohort spoke with Nathalie de Vries, co-founder of Dutch architectural firm MVRDV, about the challenges and opportunities facing cities of the future. 

Visions of future cities have long stirred the public imagination and shaped architectural discourse. Yet, in Australia’s increasingly regulated and risk-averse landscape, a reluctance grows to ask “What if?” and perhaps more crucially, “What now?”

This hesitation risks relegating strategic visions to fleeting mirages, tangible possibilities to shallow marketing, and a progressively distant future rather than palpable possibilities approached through gradual testing and iteration.

Do we increasingly settle for more of the same?

Nathalie de Vries, through her practice, publications and advocacy, reminds us that future-oriented design is an attitude. It’s not just about imagining future possibilities, but it is rooted in the present, grounded through deep observation, and focused on the potential of its time.

For de Vries, building the future begins with the permission to “build those ideas now”. The challenge, then, is not one of imagination, but of a committed process, moving toward “human-centric, culturally responsive design” that proves itself, brick by brick, in the urban fabric.

As de Vries aptly notes, “Imagination helps with futures down the road, but even those need starting points in the now.”

De Vries’s own career echoes this philosophy. From a childhood spent sketching “fantasy maps”  to her teenage years, where she realised she could merge social engagement with architecture, her journey ultimately led her to co-found MVRDV at just 27 years old.

Through bold, research-driven work, de Vries and her team at MVRDV address pressing issues like density, sustainability and urban futures, an ethos vividly captured early on in MVRDV’s projects such as the 2000 Expo ‘Holland Creates Space’, whose themes remain as relevant today as they were over two decades ago.

What is particularly unique about de Vries’s 30-year career in architecture is the impressive array of roles that reach outside of it. Alongside co-directing what quickly became a leading innovative practice, de Vries has held numerous roles as an urbanist, chief national railroad architect, museum board member, city architect for Groningen, chair of the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA), and professor of architecture and public building at Delft University of Technology.

While reflecting on the diverse hats she has worn throughout her career, de Vries captures the sentiment eloquently, recognising that each experience deepened her understanding of architecture’s broader context. “All these things come together. I love that it’s not a profession where you have to just do one particular thing. It is very integrated in all kinds of acts, movements and knowledge. I realised that I could influence, but also learn from the client and government sides.”

Expanding on this, she notes that having an open mindset equipped her to “think differently” about her profession.  “At 27, with barely any practical experience from working as an intern…I suddenly went into a world where I got much more input from all kinds of sides — clients, processes and policies. It really helped me in my own profession,”de Vries recalls.

Through this insight de Vries acknowledges that solving problems in our cities starts with developers, municipalities and local communities.  “It’s not something only designers, especially architects, are able to solve; it requires a lot of collective thinking.”

In these roles, de Vries was able to “promote the profession” to private and government clients, while encouraging younger architects to engage in expanded aspects of the profession, making her a vital voice in the intersection of architecture and governance.

Her career also highlights the critical need to “break down barriers”, not just to lead architectural innovation, but for broader social, gender, and spatio-political issues. As de Vries puts it: “We have to be there… It may take an extra effort sometimes, but what about the new generations? The younger generations? We have to be there.”

By inserting ourselves as designers into these spaces, we recognise that the conversations architects engage in, whether about cities, sustainability, or urban design, are inseparable from larger dialogues on equality, representation and social justice. De Vries explains that advocacy for future cities goes beyond the tectonics of architecture — it involves a commitment to addressing deeper issues that define the spaces we inhabit. For her, the future is not just a design challenge — it’s a call to rethink how we coexist. Who gets to shape it and who is included in the vision for the future must be considered.

De Vries observes that there is an “ongoing battle” for public space, but also occupied space, noting that, “with more and more buildings, we have to find a more friendly way of densification because we know it’s inevitable”. She advocates for strategies that keep cities liveable by integrating public and communal spaces into developments.  With growing privatisation, often under economic constraints, de Vries acknowledges that there is no one ideal solution. “We have to find ways to include public space, to embed it in our buildings or on our buildings, in how we design their footprints and distribute area in neighbourhoods. This has to go hand in hand with understanding how people are living currently,” de Vries says.

De Vries also underscores the opportunities presented by the reuse of existing structures. “[As] a young architect in the 1990s, we did a lot of new buildings, but nowadays a large part of our practice is also conversion,” she says, reflecting on MVRDV’s early work. “I’m very glad that’s happened. It can lead to really nice solutions that you would not achieve with a new building.”

On common spaces, specifically common green spaces, de Vries says MVRDV’s approach is often embedded in buildings. “We don’t create parks, but rather integrate public spaces into and onto structures — car parks, abandoned bridges, and buildings. That’s where our specialism lies.”

This shift toward adaptive reuse increasingly transforms existing spaces into more inclusive, multifunctional environments, aligning with de Vries’s coined concept of “multiplicity of space” — an idea which promotes flexibility and diversity in design, where spaces adapt to various uses and avoid the limitations of “mono-functionalism”, as she describes it.

De Vries advocates for openness in her work. She emphasises learning from past architects who avoided “deliberately emphasising or overdesigning”, instead opting to keep spaces open to suggestion, experimentation and encounter. “You should have spaces where people can meet and interact with others they may not otherwise meet… If you don’t encounter each other in space, you never talk to each other and you don’t know that the other exists.”

De Vries also highlights the importance of designing places where young people — who will inherit our cities and public spaces — can gather and express themselves without fear or concern of falling victim to anything untoward.  “One of the challenges is designing spaces where young people can still experiment. Safety is an issue, as well as the question of health and movement in public space,” she says. Her emphasis on these elements reflects a belief that the architecture of common spaces should serve as a catalyst for social interaction and wellbeing.

De Vries’s approach offers a compelling blueprint for a dynamic future city. Her emphasis on inclusivity, experimentation and adaptive reuse provides a robust framework for reimagining architectural and urban design practices as we approach the megacity of 2050, one that is responsive to Country and our local environment. De Vries urges us to build not just for today, but with a mindful eye towards the future.

Tope Adesina is a Melbourne based designer, artist and photographer. Adesina actively engages with the public realm through various mediums, exploring how architecture, photography and other art forms can enhance perception of public space.

Learn more about Tope Adesina’s design and public art practice.