The Bartlett PhD Walks

Walking provides a novel perspective on issues, themes and artefacts within the built environment. Bartlett Walks is a series of PhD student led excursions around different corners of London. 

Covering diverse themes including smell, water and memory, the walks all assume different methodological or thematic approaches to the built environment.

These walks are open to Bartlett postgraduate students.

12 October 2016, 14.00 - 16.00: Bartlett Blind Walk – Euston Station

It is possible to interpret the contemporary production of space as an effect of a set of initiatives and regulations still severely blind to blindness. This walk offers the opportunity for a critical appreciation of the built environment from the point of view of sight impaired people and their carers or guides. 

19 October 2016, 14.00 - 16.00: Understanding the Olympic Park

Taking in the extent of the Olympic Park, this walk will examine themes of regeneration, including the use of the Olympic Games as a vehicle for this, with a discussion about the resultant legacy. We will also get a sneak preview of the Bartlett's new facilities in Here East.

26 October 2016, 14.00 - 16.00: RAISING FROM THE ASHES - Architecture and Science for the Rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666

This walk aims to show some of the architectural sites and monuments that marked the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666. These buildings will tell the story of how the British capital, burnt to the ground after four days of ceaseless fire, was rebuilt from the ground up over just a few decades.

2 November 2016, 14.00 - 16.00: Lefebvrian Tripod Walk - Regent's Place

9 November 2016, 14.00 - 16.00: Lefebvrian Tripod Walk - Calthorpe Project

16 November 2016, 14.00 - 16.00: Lefebvrian Tripod Walk - Granary Square

This is a series of three walks through which the participants are intended to dwell on some of the key aspects of what has been approached by Lefebvre as lived, perceived and conceived spaces. These concepts are present in "The Production of Space" ([1974], 1991) and in other of his texts such as "Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment" ([1973], 2014), and "Rhythmanalysis" ([1992], 2004).

25 January 2017, 16.00 - 18.00: Look, feel, move: experiencing interactive media installations in Canary Wharf

This walk will explore Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights Festival. This festival has been running every January throughout Canary Wharf, and features several light-based installations and artworks. Each year the festival presents a different selection of installations (a total of 11 in 2015 and 18 installations in 2016), which are located in distinct areas of Canary Wharf and provide distinct levels of interaction.

1 March 2017, 14.00 - 16.00: King’s Cross – Beyond Regeneration

This walk circles the site of the King’s Cross Central development, only a couple of blocks away at all times but passing through areas that are some of the least visited in central London. These are places with colourful, many-layered histories which we will explore.

6 March 2016, 14.00 - 16.00: Euston Smellwalk

Every day we experience hundreds of smells. A smellwalk is an exploration of the olfactory environment (the ‘smellscape’); a tour where your nose gets priority. It is also an opportunity to get to know the city in a different and very personal way.

8 March 2017, 14.00 - 16.00: Graffscapes: Spatial Impact and Graffiti Perception

This walk is a guided exploration of London’s largest open graffiti painting area. We will investigate graffiti as a mediator of spatial perception by looking at Leake Street, a tunnel underneath Waterloo station. Graffiti writing has been tolerated in Leake Street for almost ten years, turning the tunnel into both a training ground and a hall of fame for graffiti writing in the capital. The space is not curated or managed, which facilitates the creation of a rough, wild, apparently chaotic appearance of the space.

15 March 2017, 14.00 - 16.00: Walk the Line: Public Art in London’s Docklands 

The Line is a public art project funded by a number of private patrons and produced in partnership with the Canal and River Trust, the London Legacy Development Corporation and the Boroughs of Greenwich and Newham. It is London’s first purpose-commissioned modern and contemporary art walk, and it is set in the East, between the O2 Arena and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This walk will follow the trail of artworks starting at the Greenwich Peninsula, via the Emirates Air Line and the DLR, and ending near Stratford.

5 April 2017, 14.00 - 16.00: Fluid urbanity: An exploration of water in city life

This walk explores the different faces and roles of water in a modern city, while highlighting contrasts and change (i.e. fluidity) in a rapidly evolving area of East London. Starting from the less glamorous and thinking about sewage water, we will subsequently brighten our scope and look at the relevance of water for transport, food, recreation and as a ‘lebensraum’.