People

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

critical and creative urban thinking, teaching, research, practice
UCL Urban Laboratory

exploring new methods of urban research across disciplinary boundaries
UCL Urban Laboratory

critical, independent, rigorous and original scholarship on cities
UCL Urban Laboratory

leading urban debate and the design and planning of contemporary cities
UCL Urban Laboratory

engaging with London and its communities
UCL Urban Laboratory

developing international networks and comparisons in urban research and action
UCL Urban Laboratory

drawing on UCL’s heritage of pioneering urbanism
UCL Urban Laboratory

critical and creative urban thinking, teaching, research, practice

People

Director

Director of UCL Urban Laboratory
Senior Research Associate

University-led urban regeneration; Modern Movement architectural heritage and social identity; domestic space and cultures; ethnography of architectural design practice; curating the city.

Past Directors

Ben Campkin

Director, 2011 - 2018
Senior Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory

Urban decline and 'regeneration' in London; housing, including early twentieth century slum clearances, and the representation and redevelopment of modernist mass housing; LGBTQI nightlife space; and the uses of images in urban change.

Matthew Gandy

Director, 2005 - 2011
Professor of Cultural and Historical Geography and Fellow

Cyborg urbanization; urban metabolism; cinematic landscapes; infrastructure; bio-diversity; epidemiology.

Co-Directors

Pushpa Arabindoo Senior Lecturer in Geography and Urban Design	Urbanization, public space and political activism in India; cities and climate change.
Matthew Beaumont Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature	Night-time city; utopia in fiction writing; urban representations; thinking the city.
Sarah Bell Professor of Environment Engineering	Sustainability of urban water systems, particularly social and policy factors as they relate to engineering; community engagement with engineering and infrastructure provision.
Camillo Boano Professor of Urban Design and Critical Theory	Urban development, contested urbanism, socio-spatial dialectics, design and urban transformations, and shelter and housing reconstruction in geographies of the global south.
Ben Campkin Senior Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory	Urban decline and 'regeneration' in London; housing, including early twentieth century slum clearances, and the representation and redevelopment of modernist mass housing; LGBTQI nightlife space; and the uses of images in urban change.
Ellie Cosgrave Lecturer in Urban Innovation and Director of UCL City Leadership Laboratory	Urban and local governance; city leadership; engineering design; smart cities; sustainable urban environments; choreographing the city.
Andrew Harris Senior Lecturer in Geography and Urban Studies	Art, space and the city; creative cities; gentrification; urban infrastructure; vertical urbanism.
Jennifer Robinson Professor of Human Geography	South Africa, including studies of segregation and state power; the politics of urban development; comparative urbanism; city strategies and the circulation of urban policy.

Centre Manager

Jordan Rowe

Steering Committee

Michele Acuto Professor of Diplomacy and Urban Theory	Global city politics; the use of STS methods in international relations and urbanism; the intersection between city networks, urbanisation and global governance
Yasminah Beebeejaun Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning	Territorialisation of certain spaces as ethnic; community engagement in decision-making; and exploration of the creation of inequalities both within historical and contemporary debates about nationhood, colonialism, and postcolonial society in post-war Britain and North America
Iain Borden Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture	Large-scale architectural and urban spaces in cities worldwide; cities, film and mobility
Victor Buchli Professor of Material Culture	Architecture, domesticity, the archaeology of the recent past, critical understandings of materiality and new technologies and the anthropology of sustainability and design
Licia Capra Professor of Pervasive Computing	Ubiquitous computing. Specific topics include: crowd-sourcing and crowd-sensing, urban computing, location-based services, recommender systems, data mining for development
Claire Colomb Reader in Planning and Urban Sociology	Urban governance, policies and politics, European spatial planning, and urban sociology
Adam Drazin Teaching Fellow in Anthropology	Culture, materials and design
Murray Fraser Professor of Architecture and Global Culture	Design, architectural history & theory, urbanism, and cultural studies
Alexandre Apsan Frediani Lecturer in Development Planning	Housing and squatter settlement upgrading; participatory approaches to research, planning and design; social movements and right to the city; urban regeneration and well-being; human development and the capability approach
Barbara Lipietz Lecturer in Development Planning	Urban governance, participatory governance and planning through co-production; circulation and localisation of public policy; anti-poverty strategies; inclusive cities and the 'right to the city', sustainable cities, resilient cities; housing policy, slum upgrading practices, urban regeneration
Susan Moore Lecturer in Planning	Sustainable urban development processes and practices; Relational geographies of urban (and suburban) development and built form
James O'Leary Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Innovative Technology	Contemporary Art & Architecture, Situated Practices, Critical Spatial Practice, Narrative Spaces, Urban Memory, Contested Space
Kieren Reed Lecturer in Fine Art	Sculpture, performance, installation, public art, culture-led regeneration
Rafael Schacter Research Fellow in Anthropology	Independent public art; street art and graffiti; visual culture; vernacular art; popular politics; public sphere; anthropology of art; material culture

Artist in Residence

Tom Wolseley (2015/16)

Max Colson (2014/15)

Rab Harling (2013/14)

B.J. Nilsen (2012)

Carolyn Deby (2011/12)

International Advisory Board

Dr İpek Akpınar (Istanbul Technical University)
Professor Karen Bakker (University of British Columbia)
Professor Stephen Barber (Kingston University)
Professor Neil Brenner (Harvard University)
Professor Mustafa Dikec (École d’urbanisme de Paris)
Mr Michael Edwards (University College London)
Professor Adrian Forty (University College London)
Professor Susanne Frank (TU Dortmund University)
Professor David Gissen (California College of the Arts)
Professor Stephen Graham (Newcastle University)
Professor Jane M. Jacobs (Yale-NUS College)
Professor Gareth Jones (London School of Economics)
Professor Roger Keil (York University, Toronto)
Professor Patrick LeGales (Sciences Po Paris)
Professor Jorge Francisco Liernur (Torcuato Di Tella University)
Professor Julia Lossau (University of Bremen)
Professor Iain Low (University of Cape Town, African Centre for Cities)
Mr Jeremy Melvin (World Architecture Festival, Visiting Professor - University College London)
Professor Ayodeji Olukoju (Caleb University, Lagos)
Ms Kate Orff (Columbia University)
Dr Vyjayanthi Venuturupalli Rao (Terreform Centre for Advanced Urban Research)
Dr Rebecca Ross (Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design)
Professor AbdouMaliq Simone (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity)
Professor Erik Swyngedouw (Manchester University)
Dr Karen Till (National University of Ireland Maynooth)

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

UCL Urban Laboratory

People

Director

Co-Directors

Centre Manager

Steering Committee

Artist in Residence

International Advisory Board

Visiting Researchers

Current researchers

Past visiting researchers

Students

Current Urban Laboratory affiliated PhDs:

Recently completed PhDs