Sir Peter Cook Headlines Utopian Hours 2026 in Turin One Week Before His 90th Birthday

Sir Peter Cook will deliver a masterclass in Turin on October 16, exactly one week before his 90th birthday, headlining the second part of the Utopian Hours 2026 city-making festival.

The Archigram founder will speak on the festival's first day at La Centrale Lavazza about his experience imagining and studying cities, and the power of imagination. Cook and Archigram will also be the subject of an exhibition featuring works never before shown in Italy.

The two-day Turin program, running October 16–17, marks the tenth-anniversary edition of a festival organized since 2017 by Stratosferica, a nonprofit cultural association producing urban knowledge through content, events, community building and placemaking. The first chapter took place in Rotterdam.

"After witnessing in Rotterdam both the urgency of today's urban challenges and the extraordinary creativity with which cities are responding to them, we return to Torino with even greater ambition," said Luca Ballarini, co-founder of Stratosferica. "For Part 2 of our Ten Years Edition, Utopian Hours will continue to push boundaries, bringing some of the world's most radical ideas about cities to our hometown. Because now more than ever, cities are mental weapons."

Who else is on the program?

The lineup brings together international voices:

• Wim Walschap, CEO and senior partner at Herzog & de Meuron
• Zahra Ebrahim, co-founder of Monumental, which builds bridges between communities and institutions in Toronto
• Carolyn Steel, who explores the concept of Sitopia ("food-place")

Featured projects and practices include Rotterdam Rooftop Days, examining city roofs for climate adaptation and public space; Gleispool, a large public swimming pool proposed for a former railway yard in Basel; Helsinki's Crown Bridges project; Quatorze, a nonprofit advancing solidarity-based architecture; Nice Developers; Madrid-based ENORME Studio; and Powerhouse Company.

What formats and venues are planned?

The program combines keynote lectures, masterclasses and the Urbanites Fair at La Centrale Lavazza, plus participatory working sessions at Dorado Community Hub. Exhibitions include Sir Peter Cook's The City Is a Garden and Urban Frames, presented in collaboration with CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, both held at Dorado.

The festival also partners with the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR), bringing a selection of architecture- and city-focused films. The full schedule is available on the festival's online calendar; roundtables at Dorado require a Professional Pass.

What is happening in Turin beyond the festival?

Two major projects for the city were announced this year. In April, an international jury chaired by Dominique Perrault selected UNS's design proposal for Turin's new Metro Line 2, developed with Settanta7, Mijksenaar, Frigorosso, 3BA and WSP. In July, MVRDV and Balance Architettura unveiled their proposal for the renovation of the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAM), after winning a public competition in December 2025.

Elsewhere in Europe, Design Museum Gent recently opened a new wing by Carmody Groarke and ATAMA, and the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial announced the theme and dates for its second edition. With Cook, Herzog & de Meuron leadership and a decade of programming behind it, Utopian Hours positions Turin as a testing ground for how cities answer this century's social, environmental and political pressures.