Katie Jensen
Presenter, Host
Sessions (5)
Sessions featuring Katie Jensen at LIVEX | Main Stage
The 15-minute city: The best idea in urban planning or its most appealing?
The core value proposition tested in this Oxford-style debate was whether the fifteen-minute city should be treated as an aspirational model for other cities: a way to put work, schools, shops, parks, and daily services within roughly a fifteen-minute walk or bicycle ride from home. The moderator framed the concept as both one of urban planning’s most talked-about ideas and one of its most contested, then asked the audience to vote on the motion, “This house believes that a fifteen minute city is a model that other cities should aspire to.” The initial show-of-hands vote revealed limited commitment: the moderator estimated roughly 10% in favour, 5% against, and a large undecided group, giving both sides room to influence opinion. Carlos Moreno, introduced as the originator of the concept, argued for the motion by reframing the fifteen-minute city away from a literal number of minutes. He said the least important point was the number itself, noting that implementations are increasingly described as the “X Minute city.” Using Paris as his principal example, he credited proximity planning under Mayor Anne Hidalgo with supporting urban transformation through walkability, bikeability, urban forests, recovery of the Seine river, social housing, and economic localisation. He stressed that proximity is not simply distance but “useful time,” tied to reducing CO2 footprint, preserving diversity, avoiding gentrification, supporting affordable housing, and relocating jobs closer to where people live. Moreno also situated the idea within wider global and policy uptake. He cited implementations in European metropolises, middle cities, African and South American contexts, Central Europe, small areas, and rural territories, as well as laws or policy action in places including Scotland, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Spain, Italy, and South Korea. He connected the concept to Paul Krugman’s “new economical geography,” local commerce, coworking after COVID-19, short circuits using local raw materials, and newer mobility standards that embrace polycentric cities and proximity. His closing proposition was that the model improves quality of life “every day, every time, everywhere in a city.” Vladislav Boutenko opened the opposing side by first acknowledging the conceptual strength of Moreno’s work, calling it a revolution in urban planning because it moved measurement from distance to time and centred residents rather than developers. His critique was practical rather than conceptual. He argued that fifteen minutes can be too large for children, older people, and hot climates; too uniform for districts with different needs; and too geometric because real accessibility is constrained by highways, railways, and other barriers. In Abu Dhabi’s hot and humid context, he cited a radius of 240 metres, or about three minutes, as more realistic. He also argued that different amenities require different accessibility calculations, because a pharmacy, cinema, hospital, or café each has distinct frequency-of-use and economic viability constraints. The provided transcript ends during this critique, before the remaining speakers, rebuttals, final summary, and second vote are available.
The honest mayor
The core message of the session was that making a city more livable requires political resilience, a people-first use of public space, and the discipline to connect difficult urban changes to urgent shared goals such as health, climate, civic pride, and economic recovery. Anne Hidalgo, former mayor of Paris and global ambassador for the Global Covenant of Mayors, described how her long tenure in Paris City Hall shaped her view that cities must be built “for the people, with the people.” The moderator framed her leadership through Paris’s major transformation: removing traffic from 100 streets, converting the Seine riverbanks from a busy highway into green spaces, parks, play areas, and cafés, adding more than 1,500 kilometers of cycling tracks, and improving air quality while facing strong local resistance. Hidalgo also reflected on leading through the 2015 terrorist attacks, the Notre Dame fire, the Olympics, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Density: The solution to everything or the cause of everything?
The core message of the session was that density should not be judged as automatically good or bad; its value depends on whether governance, design, infrastructure, and lived experience make higher-density places genuinely livable. The moderator opened by asking how close people live to their neighbors and framing density as a force that affects commutes, public transport viability, access to schools, shops and parks, space, costs, congestion, and social isolation. The debate motion was: “this house believes that greater density makes cities better places to live.” Before the speakers began, the moderator estimated only about 10% of the room supported the motion, around 5% opposed it, and many attendees remained undecided, setting up the debate as an attempt to persuade an uncertain audience.
The art of living well: Luxury, design and the cities people choose
The session’s core message is that luxury housing is increasingly being valued not only for premium materials, location, or brand prestige, but for its ability to improve daily life: sleep, movement, emotional wellbeing, community connection, and potentially longevity. The moderator opened with a simple comparison between two identical homes, one merely acceptable and one enhanced by beautiful design and better living outcomes, then asked how much more people would pay for that added quality of life. This framed the panel around the premium people are willing to attach to wellness, beauty, longevity, and design, especially at the high end of the residential market where money may be less of a constraint. Claire German of Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour explained that luxury interiors are becoming more human-centric. With visibility across 700 brands and more than 160 showrooms, she described discerning clients as increasingly demanding provenance, narrative, and individuality. They want to know where pieces come from, how they are made, and often why they are made. For her, bespoke work is the gold standard of luxury interiors, whether a six-month hand-blocked fabric, a handcrafted games table, or hand-painted wallpaper. The point was that craftsmanship and artisan skill are not decorative extras; they are powering luxury by making homes feel emotionally meaningful and personal. Majdi Munif Treish shifted the conversation from interiors to community-scale development, using ICTReD’s Yas Canal as an example: 1,146 villas within a total of 9,000 units for more than 30,000 residents. He argued that large-scale projects must focus on the whole community, not just the appeal of individual residential units. He described balancing aesthetics with comfort, space with efficiency, and price with value, while following DMT guidelines and prioritising landscape, public realm, wayfinding, green space, parks, retail, F&B, marina-facing promenades, and waterfront access. His emphasis was on designing the full journey from the community entrance to each resident’s home. Alfredo Bataller then positioned SHA’s work with Imkan on Al Jurf as an attempt to create “the first healthy living island in the world,” combining residences with a wellness clinic, hydrotherapy, meditation areas, movement spaces, nutrition facilities, and organic farming ideas. He framed the project around repeated design questions: how residents can sleep better, energise in the morning, eat better, and raise children in a healthy living community. Finally, engineer Tareq Siam described Emirates Developments’ branded residence strategy, including Hilton, Elie Saab, Jumeirah, and a forthcoming Missoni project in Abu Dhabi. His key distinction was that a brand should not simply sit on a building; it must be authentic through team selection, design, materials, amenities, landscape, air quality, lighting, and resident experience.
Capital follows compassion: How philanthropic cities build global impact
The session’s core message is that philanthropic capital produces global impact when it is paired with long-term investment in people, resilient systems, and the practical infrastructure that connects funders to credible solutions. The moderator framed Abu Dhabi as an increasingly important philanthropy hub, bringing together governments, foundations, investors, and global institutions to address social and health challenges. The discussion opened by asking what moves capital from good intentions to measurable impact, with panelists representing global health philanthropy, UAE-based community initiatives, and regional social investment networks. Tala Al Ramahi explained that the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity was established just over a year ago and is rooted in the UAE’s nation-building philosophy: investing in people, systems, and the long term. She described the foundation’s emphasis on uplifting people from poverty, unlocking opportunities for communities, and helping children grow up healthy so families and societies can become more productive. She tied the foundation’s program design to the UAE’s broader approach: back the best ideas, work with partners that can scale, and invest in systems that continue functioning over time. Khuloud Al Nuwais then described the Emirates Foundation’s domestic role, noting that it marked its twentieth anniversary and had reached 2.6 million people. She positioned the foundation as Sheikh Mohamed’s philanthropy vehicle for public-private philanthropy partnerships in the UAE, focused on empowering communities, strengthening the country’s social fabric, and developing people’s competencies. Its long-term investment in volunteering, especially youth capacity-building and social responsibility, proved valuable during COVID-19 and during floods in Dubai two years earlier, when trained volunteers supported testing centers, humanitarian facilities, positive cases, and affected families. Dhun Davar broadened the discussion to Asia’s social-investment landscape, arguing that the issue is not only the availability of capital or ideas, but the missing “piping” that connects capital providers and capital seekers. AVPN’s 900-plus members across 43 markets see both sides: funders with intent and impact organizations seeking backing. Davar cited trillions of dollars in funding gaps for Asia’s sustainable development agenda and referenced $5 trillion expected to move between generations in Asia, including $1 trillion in the Middle East. She highlighted local infrastructure such as MAJRA and MAAN, regional platforms such as AVPN’s Impact Colab, and AVPN’s Abu Dhabi hub as mechanisms for moving capital effectively. The excerpt closed with Al Ramahi detailing Reaching the Last Mile Fund, launched in 2017 to eliminate neglected tropical diseases, expanded from seven countries to the African continent, and contributing to Nigeria becoming the first African country to eliminate river blindness.