December 3, 2026 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm EST (Doors at 6:00 talk beginning 6:30)

For the past three centuries, people have imagined future cities radically different from those of the past. The Invention of the Future argues that these past futures can help us understand both the history of the built environment and our anxious present. How can transforming our cities also transform our relationship to the future?

Join us for an evening presentation on the book The Invention of the Future: A History of Cities in the Modern World , with author Professor Bruno Carvalho followed by a conversation with Jamie von Klemperer FAIA RIBA, President KPF

Speakers:

**Bruno Carvalho,** Professor and chair of the program in History & Literature at Harvard University, and Senior Fellow in Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks

**Jamie von Klemperer FAIA RIBA,** President of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC

About the Speakers:
Bruno Carvalho specializes in urban life and how cities change. He is a professor at Harvard University, where he chairs the program in History & Literature and teaches the history of urban design. His publications include Porous City: A Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro (2013), several co-edited volumes, and essays on topics ranging from urban rivers to planning for mega-events. His latest book is The Invention of the Future: A History of Cities in the Modern World (Princeton University Press, 2026). He also co-edits a book series on architecture and urbanism with the University of Texas Press, serves on the board of the Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University, and is a Senior Fellow in Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks.

Jamie von Klemperer FAIA RIBA Is President of KPF, where he leads the firm’s global community of designers in exploring shared architectural agendas and goals, while his own projects have set the bar for impactful architecture in urban centers around the world. His projects include, One Vanderbilt, which sparked a revitalization of New York's East Midtown; North Bund Lot 91, an all-electric supertall in the center of Shanghai, which supports China’s sustainability agenda while embodying a culturally representative design; 64 University Place, where hand-laid brick arches complement the historic fabric of Greenwich Village; and 520 Fifth Avenue, a mixed-use building where a similar motif is expressed in terra cotta and welded aluminum, among many others.

He is also an active contributor to architectural discourse and education, regularly lecturing at universities including Harvard, Columbia, Tsinghua, Tongji, Seoul National, and Yonsei Universities, the ESA in Paris, and at Yale, where he has taught as Saarinen Visiting Professor. In 1980, he was the Charles Henry Fiske Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. Jamie chairs the Boards of the Urban Design Forum and the Skyscraper Museum and serves as a Trustee of Bard College.

This event is offered in person only and is Free and Open to the Public

Organized by

Harvard Alumni Architectural and Urban Society (HAAUS) and KPF