UCL Urban Laboratory

This event will reflect on the activities and ambitions of Ruth Glass (1912-1990) and the Centre for Urban Studies (1958-c.1980) at University College London.

This seminar series led by Bartlett Visiting Research Fellow Dr Andy Merrifield is intended as a stimulus and support to the research of postgraduate students, and perhaps some advanced undergraduates, in all parts of the UCL Bartlett and UCL Urban Laboratory, who find Merrifield’s work stimulating. The seminar will take place each week from 1500h to 1700h on Wednesdays, from 29 January until the end of term and should provide opportunities for participants to share their ideas and discussions. Location will vary from week to week and will be announced on the programme page. Please note this seminar series is for UCL students only. 

Join us for the final event of Urban Lab Films DEMOLITION season, 'Dream and Destruction'. We will be screening films of demolition from early cinema, through documentary to contemporary format television, this event explores both the ongoing human fascination with the spectacle and the utopian impulses, failures and dreams that are part of every story of demolition and creativity.

The UCL Queer Space Reading Group was established in 2012 to provide space for discussion around LGBT and queer themes, focused on texts and informal presentations of work-in-progress. The organisers welcome proposals for sessions related to the interests of staff and students. All UCL staff (academic and non-academic) and students are welcome to participate. Each session will be led by a member of staff or student whose role will be to facilitate and structure discussion. All participants are expected to come prepared with points for discussion based on the key text(s).Email communication will be sent out via the Moodle enrolment list - so be sure to add yourself to the group by searching 'Queer Reading Group 2013-14' or clicking this link https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=20805. If you have queries or would like to propose a session please email Dr Brent Pilkey b.pilkey@ucl.ac.uk or Dr Ben Campkin b.campkin@ucl.ac.uk

UCL Urban Laboratory Steering Committee members Dr Alexandre Apsan Frediani, Dr Camillo Boano, and Prof Murray Fraser will be presenting at an event hosted by the Bartlett Development Planning Unit reflecting on the partnership between the DPU and Architecture Sans Frontières –UK, which has contributed to shaping ASF’s participatory design programme: Change by Design. This collaboration has developed through a series of action-learning workshops, publications and public events focusing on participatory design in the context of informal settlements upgrading. This work has informed teaching at DPU, and has been disseminated through conferences and symposia such as UN-Habitat World Urban Forum in 2012.

Ben Campkin (UCL Urban Laboratory Director) will be talking about his recent book, Remaking London: Decline and Regeneration in Urban Culture, at Sutton House, Homerton High Street on 10th March. All welcome. Tickets are £4 and available from Pages of Hackney.

We are excited to announce Urban Lab Films DEMOLITION season: three events using film and moving image to examine the often overlooked yet powerful place of demolition within society, both as threat and as a source of creativity and fascination. Through three events we will examine human reactions and relations to demolition, from insurrection and controversy to intervention and artistic choreography, with screenings and discussions with film authors, academics, artists and activists.