The third annual Living Cities Forum in Melbourne and Sydney invited a cohort of internationally renowned speakers to interrogate the theme Future Needs, addressing the challenges imminently facing our cities, from climate change and population density to social inequality. The forum posed the question: How do we transform overwhelming predictions into decisive action and build better cities for our future? Helmed by Australia’s only Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Glenn Murcutt AO, the forum presented provocative and thoughtful practices across four continents, focusing on localised projects and movements away from global-scale thinking.