UCL Urban Laboratory

London is Changing is a research project studying the impact of economic and policy changes on the culture and diversity of London.

UCL Urban Laboratory is partnering with Somerset House and A(by)P to support the Mapping the City exhibition and events programme, opening on Thursday 22 January.

In her carefully crafted introduction to the book London: Aspects of Change in 1964, the urban sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term ‘gentrification’. The term, referring to demographic shifts within an urban community, subsequently spawned an extensive and ever-growing field of urban research and debate.

Athlyn Cathcart-Keays writes for The Guardian on the debate over urban graffiti, drawing on the recent Graffiti Sessions conference co-hosted by the UCL Urban Laboratory.

Max Colson, Urban Laboratory Artist-in-Residence 2014-15, has launched a new research blog, Photo Recall, complementing his residency.

Publication date: December 2014 / Download (pdf) report by clicking on the icon below.

This new report covers the activities of the UCL Urban Laboratory across the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years, with information on research, events, and staff.

Urban Lab Co-director Camillo Boano discusses the legacy of the urban theorist and planner Bernardo Secchi, who passed away in September 2014, in Society and Space.

The Guardian report from the recent Graffiti Sessions conference hosted by Urban Lab and the Graffiti Dialogues Network at Central Saint Martins, with an article highlighting DC Colin Saysell's presentation on the first day.

Dr Andrew Harris writes in The Guardian that Mumbai's transport policy continues to be skewed towards cars despite 91% of trips in the city being made on foot, or public transport. The article appears as part of the Guardian Cities Mumbai series.

Matthew Gandy's new book The Fabric of Space: Water, Modernity, and the Urban Imagination has just been published by MIT Press.

Clare Melhuish (Urban Lab Research Associate) joins forces with Kim Townsend, UCL's Public Engagement Co-Ordinator (East), Andy Karvonen, Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Manchester, and Sam Wilkinson, Director of InSite Arts, to run a workshop at the Engage 2014 conference in Bristol on Wednesday 3 December, from 2-3pm.

Today marks the launch of an exciting new Guardian Cities series on urban images authored by Ben Campkin (UCL), Mariana Mogilevich (Princeton) and Rebecca Ross (Central Saint Martins).

Graffiti Sessions is a three day event that welcomes authorities, academics, policy makers, artists, writers, community members and urban managers to come together in order to question value, creativity and control in relation to street art and graffiti.

The potential role of higher education in ‘activating’ city centres all over the world, as opposed to generating conflict between ‘town and gown’, was highlighted at the launch on Sunday of UCL Urban Laboratory’s Urban Pamphleteer #4, dedicated to issues around the rapid redevelopment of the historic centre of Doha, Qatar. The event, held at Doha’s most recognizable landmark, the Museum of Islamic Art, concluded with a presentation from Tim Makower, a British architect based in London and Doha, who stated ‘there is a real opportunity for higher education to activate old Doha. Experience tells us that urban mixed use, cultural heritage, and education are mutually beneficial’.

The third edition of the Urban Pamphleteer has launched and is now available to download as a pdf.

Amit Chaudhuri will host a lecture at UCL to mark the Department of English's City Centre joining the Urban Lab's Cities Imaginaries programme.

We are pleased to announce the programme of events for Cities Methodologies 2014. Led by UCL Urban Laboratory, Cities Methodologies is an ongoing programme of events and exhibitions dedicated to presenting, sharing and experimenting with new methods of urban research. Click on the image to view the programme (pdf).

UCL Urban Laboratory’s annual exhibition exploring innovative urban research returns 28th-31st October. After a record number of applicants for the open call in June, we are pleased to announce the list of artists, academics, students, independent researchers and groups who will take part in the exhibition and associated programme of events.

UCL Urban Laboratory is delighted to announce that UCL has received an award from the Leverhulme Trust to fund artist Max Colson as an artist-in-residence to work with Dr Ben Campkin during the academic year 2014/15.

As part of the spring programme of Cities Methodologies in 2014, 'Buildings on Fire: Towards a new approach to urban memory' brought together a range of fire specialists, researchers, architects, curators and artists to explore the notion of fire as a methodological tool. The cross-disciplinary seminar featured a number of talks, of which three have been recorded. The audio is accessible below and on the UCL Urban Laboratory Mixcloud page.

As part of the spring programme of Cities Methodologies in 2014, the 'Learning to Walk' roundtable brought together a range of thinkers, practicioners, and artists who are engaged with walking as a method of understanding, and a way of experiencing, the city. The discussion focuses on the diversity of walks-based practices and different approaches for thinking about walking. The audio is accessible below and on the UCL Urban Laboratory Mixcloud page.

UCL Urban Laboratory has been awarded a Beacon Bursary in the latest round of UCL’s public engagement grants. It will be used for the project, ‘Making sense of digital data’ - inclusive visualisation workshops as a component of participatory urban regeneration in Brixton. Research Associate Clare Melhuish will work with colleagues in ICRI Cities at UCL (Han Pham, Christian Jetter, and Lisa Koeman), and the Brixton Green community benefit society, to organise two inclusive workshops for local residents at Somerleyton Road, Brixton.

Matthew Gandy (UCL Geography and UCL Urban Laboratory Director 2005-2011) has published an edited collection The Acoustic City (Jovis, 2014) with the Swedish sound artist BJ Nilsen, completed with the support of the Leverhulme Foundation, the UCL Urban Laboratory, and the UCL Grand Challenges programme.  The book consists of a series of cutting-edge essays on sound and the city accompanied by a specially commissioned CD with contributions from Félix Blume, Ekkehard Ehlers, Yui Onodera, Schneider TM and many other artists.

Cities Methodologies is a pan-UCL initiative to showcase innovative methods in urban research, drawing together work from undergraduate programmes, through to PhD studies, staff, and the wider research community.

UCL Urban Laboratory will open the spring programme of Cities Methodologies from Monday 28 April to Friday 2 May 2014 in the UCL Slade Research Centre. The week-long programme is an ongoing series of events and installations showcasing innovative methods for the analysis and improvement of cities worldwide. The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 - 18:00.