The Bartlett at The World Urban Forum 2026

The preeminent global conference on sustainable urbanisation, convened every two years by UN-Habitat, will take place from 17–22 May at the Baku Olympic Stadium, Baku, Azerbaijan. The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment will be fully engaged across training workshops, networking events and high-level dialogues.

The theme of WUF13, ‘Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities’, closely aligns with the faculty’s research and teaching. Delegates from the Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU), Bartlett School of Planning (BSP) and Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction (BSSC) will participate both in person and virtually. Staff will share research and convene events with urban practitioners, academics, policymakers and civil society organisations from across the world.

The Bartlett will also contribute to the Habitat Village exhibition space, a collaborative, community-led platform advancing rights-based solutions to the global housing crisis. Grounded in the right to housing and the right to the city, the Village brings together grassroots organisations, academics and international partners to promote housing justice, prevent forced evictions and support SDG-aligned, people-centred urban transformation. Partners include Habitat International Coalition, the Global Platform for the Right to the City, UCL, World Habitat, Catalytic Communities, International Institute for Environment and Development and Slum Dwellers International.

Colleagues from the DPU will contribute to several high-level meetings, networking engagements and publications. Paroj Banerjee is an author of UN-Habitat’s flagship World Cities Report 2026, to be launched at WUF13, and will join the Baku Call to Action Advisory Group. The Call to Action—WUF13’s key outcome—will set out shared commitments to improve access to adequate housing, strengthen urban resilience and accelerate implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

Barbara Lipietz will coordinate and participate in multiple Habitat Village events, including ‘Co-Produced Housing Dialogues in Europe’ (Wednesday 20 May, 11:30–12:30). She will also contribute to sessions shaping the Habitat Village response to the Baku Call to Action (Monday 18 May, 16:30–17:30) and the Grassroots and CSO Roundtable (Thursday 21 May, 09:30–10:30). As an invited panellist, she will take part in the launch of the TU Delft Centre for the Just City (Wednesday 20 May, 16:00–17:30, Multipurpose Room 12).

Andrea Rigon will take part in sessions on Tuesday 19 May (14:45–15:10), Young Citizen Scientists: Participation Infrastructure for Evidence-Based Urban Governance will take place at the WUF Academy Campus (The Classroom), followed by a Q&A; and on Wednesday 20 May (14:00–15:00), a session on the co-production of digital platforms with young people and municipalities, and its role in urban governance, will be held at Habitat Village.

The Bartlett School of Planning will be represented by Dimitrios Panayotopoulos-Tsiros across stakeholder roundtables, presentations and training sessions. He will deliver a WUF Academy Campus Classroom lecture, ‘Homes fit for purpose? Learning about place-sensitive housing strategies’, under Dialogue 5: ‘The Social and Economic Power of Housing’ (Thursday 21 May, 11:00–11:25), exploring how planning practice and education can respond to diverse social, political and institutional contexts.

The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction will be represented by Margarita Garfias Royo, who will contribute to roundtables and networking sessions. She will also speak at the networking event ‘Living with rivers: water-sensitive planning for flood-prone settlements along the Nairobi Rivers’ (Thursday 21 May, 12:00–13:30), contributing to Dialogue 2: ‘Transforming informal settlements and slums’ and Dialogue 4: ‘The climate–housing nexus’.