Maja Hoffman, Sissel Tolaas and Joseph Grima were some of the creative minds who gathered in Venice last month to take part in a two-part panel discussion hosted by Therme Art.

Held during the Venice Architecture Biennale, the discussions took place as part of Therme Art’s Wellbeing Culture Forum – a programme that explores the role of culture, art, design and architecture in promoting health and wellbeing in urban populations.

They brought together experts from the fields of architecture, activism, art and design and science to answer this year’s biennale’s over-arching question: How will we live together?

The discussion was split into two parts, called Mutual Aid and Resurrecting the Sublime – both names taken from exhibitions held during the biennale – and co-moderated by Therme Art‘s CEO and curator Mikolaj Sekutowicz and the artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Botanist Stefano Manusco kicked off the discussion by stressing the urgent need for humans to rekindle a more symbiotic relationship with the natural world.

“Just two per cent of the surface of the earth is covered by towns,” he told the audience.

“From this two per cent comes 80 per cent of the CO2, 80 per cent of the waste and it consumes 80 per cent of the resources of the world. So it’s clear that if we want to solve the environmental problems we need to work on the towns.”