E25: Future of Cities - Power, Politics & Density with Patrik Schumacher

Patrick Schumacher, Principal of Zaha Hadid Architects, joins Talking Place for a conversation that challenges some of the most settled assumptions in contemporary placemaking and urban design.

From the claim that inclusiveness undermines rather than strengthens place identity, to the argument that London should house 30 million people and that the UK planning system is structurally incapable of delivering the homes the country needs, Patrik makes a case for a more specific, more curated, and more ambitious approach to the built environment.

The conversation also ventures into the frontier of AI-powered architecture - not the image generation many are familiar with, but the deep technical work ZHA is doing to train machine learning models to understand structure, tectonics, and fabrication logic. And it closes with Patrik's vision for ZHA's Metrotopia: a virtual city that may reshape how communities form, how conferences run, and how architecture is experienced.

Challenging, sensational, and dramatic - this is Talking Place at its most provocative.

RESOURCES/ PROJECTS MENTIONED

●      Reinier de Graaf · Architect, Comma, Verb

●      Second Home · mixed-use workspace, London

●      DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) · Seoul, ZHA

●      Heydar Aliyev Centre · Baku, ZHA

●      Galaxy SOHO · Beijing, ZHA

●      Vitra Fire Station · ZHA

●      ZHA Metrotopia · virtual city project

●      Prospera · charter city project, Honduras

About Patrik Schumacher

Patrik Schumacher is Principal of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and one of the leading theorists in contemporary architecture. The author of the two-volume treatise “The Autopoiesis of Architecture”, he is known for his unapologetic advocacy of parametricism and free-market urbanism. His latest book, ‘Tectonism – Architecture for the 21st Century’, was released in 2023. His current research and design interest is focused on the metaverse and the integration of real and virtual communication spaces. He received the European Architecture Award in 2025.