Guests, Live Podcasts, and New Storytelling Formats

Mayors, architects, urban planners, journalists, authors, and creators will take the stages at Future4Cities to explore urban transformation from a range of perspectives. Confirmed guests include Meredith Glaser, CEO of the Urban Cycling Institute and professor at Ghent University, who will speak on Friday, September 25 at 5:00 PM; urban planner Elena Granata of Politecnico di Milano, appearing on Friday, September 25 at 6:30 PM; Silvia Salis, Mayor of Genoa, on Saturday, September 26 at 12:00 PM; and Matteo Lepore, Mayor of Bologna, on Saturday, September 26 at 2:15 PM.

Architect David Sim, former Creative Director at Gehl Architects and author of Soft City, will be featured in a live episode of the podcast Città on Saturday, September 26 at 4:00 PM, interviewed by Paolo Bovio of Will and Stefano Daelli of FROM. At 7:00 PM that same day, sports journalists Giuseppe Pastore, Marco Cattaneo, and Fernando Siani, well-known voices and faces of Cronache di Spogliatoio, will discuss the relationship between cities and stadiums.

Live podcasts will also play a major role in the festival, featuring some of Chora and Will’s leading formats and voices. Guido Maria Brera will headline Black Box Live, while Riccardo Haupt and Riccardo Bassetto will bring Actually Live to the stage on Friday, September 25 at 5:15 PM for a conversation on cities and the energy transition. Comedian Pierluca Mariti, aka PiuttostoChe, will join Mezzo Pieno Live on Saturday, September 26 at 6:00 PM alongside Will author Camilla Ferrario and writer and creator Camilla Boniardi, aka Camihawke. Saturday will conclude with the comedy night Stand-Up 4 Cities, with dedicated ticketing details to be announced separately.

The festival will also explore cities through music, culture, and new forms of storytelling. Highlights include the presentation of STRADE, the new issue of VOLUME, Chora’s magazine, scheduled for Saturday, September 26 at 11:00 AM, featuring Boosta, keyboardist for Subsonica, and journalist Silvia Nucini, the magazine’s editor.

Sunday, September 27 will begin at 10:00 AM with an audio walking tour dedicated to writer and politician Natalia Ginzburg, led by Sara Poma, Head of Editorial Content at Chora & Will. The immersive listening experience combines a walk through real locations across the city with an audio story or podcast created specifically for the route.

Throughout the festival, additional roaming activities will take place across Turin, alongside opportunities for discussion and engagement with the community at OGR.

Mario Calabresi Tells the Story of Turin’s Industrial 20th Century

The festival’s opening day will conclude with a live performance by Mario Calabresi, paying tribute to Italy’s collective memory and history. Between the 1950s and 1970s, Turin emerged as one of Europe’s leading industrial capitals, welcoming hundreds of thousands of workers and migrants from southern Italy.

In Il Novecento a Torino, una grande storia costruita con la fatica (20th-Century Turin: A Great Story Built Through Hard Work), Mario Calabresi revisits this defining period. His storytelling will be accompanied by an evocative visual journey featuring photographs by Mauro Vallinotto.

The Future4Cities Awards: Piedmont Takes Center Stage

One of the festival’s key moments will be the presentation of the five Future4Cities Awards on the afternoon of Friday, September 25. The awards recognize outstanding urban regeneration and innovation initiatives, selected from more than 250 applications.

Of the 25 finalists chosen by the jury, six are projects from Piedmont, represented across all five award categories: Community, Mobility, Housing, Work, Climate and Energy.

MaaS ToMove, developed by the City of Turin, is testing an integrated mobility model through a single digital platform; Aurora – Terreno Comune is bringing the Community Land Trust model to Turin to ensure long-term access to affordable housing; Seconda Chance – Città che lavorano creates employment opportunities for people who are currently or formerly incarcerated; the Coordinamento di Comunità Energetiche Torinesi addresses energy poverty through a network of renewable-energy communities based on solidarity; Coltiviamo il Futuro transforms the courtyards of Turin’s public schools into green spaces open to the community; while Rural Pop-up, founded in Guarene, in the province of Cuneo, brings unused public buildings in smaller inland municipalities back into use by making former schools, community halls, and other public spaces available for booking.

How to Attend

The festival will open on Friday, September 25 at 9:00 AM with institutional welcome remarks, followed by a morning of thematic workshops curated by FROM: roundtable sessions designed for public administrations, practitioners, and experts. Workshops can be booked directly through the program.

The festival’s main stage programming will begin at 2:00 PM on Friday, September 25, with different access requirements depending on the event and venue.

• Daytime Future4Cities activities at OGR are free of charge, but a mandatory pass is required and can be obtained at this link. The pass grants access to the festival but does not guarantee admission to individual sessions, which are subject to capacity. Three days before the event, registered attendees will receive a request to confirm their attendance.


• The performance Il Novecento a Torino, una grande storia costruita con la fatica with Mario Calabresi, taking place on Friday, September 25 at 9:30 PM, with doors opening at 9:00 PM at Sala Fucine, OGR Torino, requires a separate ticket, available through Mailticket.


• Sunday’s audio walking tour is free of charge and requires a separate reservation, available at this link.


• Saturday night’s comedy event, Stand-Up 4 Cities, will have a dedicated ticketing system, with further details to be announced separately.