Urban design, planetary collapse, and how to live together

In an age defined by ecological breakdown and social fragmentation, this conversation asks what urban design can become when the old certainties collapse. Drawing on Camillo Boano’s “minor and destituent” design philosophy, it explores how cities might be shaped not through grand visions of control, but through practices of refusal, care, and collective re‑imagining. Rather than reinforcing the systems driving planetary collapse, Boano’s approach invites us to unmake them—experimenting with forms of living together that are humble, insurgent, and radically open. This is an invitation to rethink design as a shared, unfinished project of survival and solidarity.

Speakers

• Prof Camillo Boano is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at PoliTo. His work examines the intersections of critical theory, urban design, and crisis‑generated urbanisms across Latin America, the Middle East, and South/Southeast Asia.
• Prof Peg Rawes is Professor of Architecture and Philosophy at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Her research focuses on architectural humanities, ecological ethics, and biopolitics, exploring how design engages with social and environmental justice.
• Dr Hanadi Samhan is a UCL researcher whose work examines Palestinian refugee camps, focusing on verticality, land rights, and socio‑spatial infrastructures. Her publications explore urban governance, displacement, and territorial politics in Lebanon and the wider Middle East.
• Prof Julio Dávila is Professor of Urban Policy and International Development at UCL’s Bartlett Development Planning Unit. His research addresses urban infrastructure, transport equity, and planning in rapidly urbanising regions, particularly in Latin America.
• Welcoming address: Prof Julian Walker, Director of the Bartlett Development Planning Unit
• Chair: Dr Giovanna Astolfo, Associate Professor at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit