UCL Urban Laboratory

Hosted by UCL Urban Laboratory, the Graffiti Dialogues Network at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London), and London’s Southbank Centre, the Graffiti Sessions will gather a wide group of experts to debate how to advance issues surrounding graffiti. We aim to identify new horizons for future city strategies on graffiti and opportunities and challenges for evolving creative practice, towards places that are both safe and sociable.

The UCL Urban Laboratory and the Bartlett Development Planning Unit are supporting the fifth instalment of the Architecture Sans Frontieres-UK Change by Design workshops, looking at how participatory design can be used to enhance the negotiation capacity of local groups when relating to large-scale development and regeneration initiatives in London. Building on participatory design tools developed in previous workshops in Brazil, Kenya and Ecuador, the Change by Design team (Naomi Shinkins, ASF-UK; Beatrice De Carli, School of Architecture of the University of Sheffield; Matthew French, UN-Habitat Afghanistan; and Alexandre Apsan Frediani, DPU) is partnering with Citizens UK and diverse groups of local stakeholders to generate community designed scenarios which seek to bring about positive outcomes of the proposed High Speed Two (HS2) rail link in the Euston area for local residents.

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit has opened this year's dpusummerLab workshop series for applications (open until 14 July 2014). Following last year's success the workshops are taking place again in Medellín and London as well as in the new destinations of Dublin and Beirut. Financial support for our long-distance locations is available in the form of four scholarships for Medellín and some free accommodation in Beirut.