Our history

The beginning

In the 1960s, as The Bartlett forged a reputation for progressive teaching and research, Duccio Turin founded the Building Economics Research Unit at UCL dedicated to studying the economic aspects of construction. John Andrews led research into the management of the construction process and Patricia Hillebrandt developed the field of construction economics.

The two disciplines came together in our groundbreaking original degree programmes in 1974, which runs today as the Construction Economics and Management MSc, and has been fundamental in establishing the global study of construction.

The Bartlett's undergraduate degree in building, also developed in the early 1970s, reflected the faculty's interest in the managerial dimensions of construction, and was renamed Project Management BSc for Construction in 2003.

In 2002, these programmes were brought together as The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, headed by Professor Peter Morris, a leading international figure in the management of projects.

The School’s founding consolidated our expertise in the field and led to the creation of new degree programmes that took the discipline of project management beyond the confines of the built environment.

Growing our programmes

Under the direction of Professor Stephen Pryke, the Project and Enterprise Management MSc was designed to consider the relationship between organising an enterprise and managing projects. 

Strategic Management of Projects MSc (originally known as the Interdisciplinary Management of Projects MSc under the direction of Professor Andrew Edkins), now led by Dr Antoine Vernet, tackles the key strategic issues in project management across a wide range of industry sectors.

In 2013, the School’s Infrastructure Investment and Finance MSc was created to address the future challenges in construction economics and global, national and sector level investment in infrastructure.

Today

Since its creation, the School has more than tripled in size and now has over 100 members of academic, honorary and visiting and professional services staff and over 100 PhD students.

In May 2021, the school changed its name to The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction (BSSC). In renaming ourselves The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, we want to emphasise the importance that sustainable construction practices will play in the Low Carbon Transition to Net Zero, which means ensuring that our curriculum educates students about embedded carbon and life cycle assessment modelling, sustainable materials and structures, and the role of circular economies in addressing the industry’s long standing problems with solid waste, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions (especially over the supply chain) and air pollution. Read more about how we marked our name change.

According to REF 2021, The Bartlett is where the UK’s most ‘World Leading’ and ‘Internationally Excellent’ built environment research is undertaken. 91% of our research has been deemed ‘World Leading’ and ‘Internationally Excellent’ and The Bartlett is number one for Research Power in the built environment.

In addition, we also want to emphasise that we are advocating for a sustainable future for the construction industry and a sustainable vision for the outputs of construction, including sustainable housing, commercial property, infrastructure, and the role that all these play in building sustainable cities.