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Dr Pablo Sendra
Associate Professor in Planning and Urban Design
The Bartlett School of Planning
Faculty of the Built Environment
- Joined UCL
- 1st Sep 2014
Research summary
Pablo Sendra’s main areas of research interest are the public space in social housing neighbourhoods and collaborative processes for planning and designing public spaces. He studies the impact that regeneration processes have on people’s relationships and looks at design strategies that encourage unplanned activities and sociability in the public realm.
On social housing neighbourhoods, he is currently Principal Investigator of the research project "Community-led social housing regeneration: between the formal and the informal", funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant. His doctoral thesis, titled “Infrastructures for disorder”, looked at cases studies in London and proposed an approach for designing interventions that create conditions for the unplanned use of the public realm and encourage social interaction. He has also participated on a research project on social housing with the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain), which looks at best practices for regeneration, titled: “Intervention in obsolete housing: Manual of Best Practices”.
On collective urbanism, he has recently co-edited with Maria Joao Pita and CivicWise the book Civic Practices. He also works on the research platform “Laboratorio Q for Creative Urban Places” (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain), which maps bottom up initiatives, collective process and collaborative actions in the public realm.
He is also interested in the history of modernist social housing and its relation to welfare delivery, colonialism and postcolonialism. He is currently working with the research group GAMUC on a research project on colonial planning in former Spanish colonies in Africa, titled “Architecture and Urbanism in Spanish Colonies in Africa: Construction of the Modernist Habitat: Postcolonial Definition”.
His research is related to his professional practice. He runs Lugadero, a placemaking practice that works on collaborative and participative urban design processes.
Teaching summary
Pablo Sendra teaches at the MSc in Urban Design and City Planning. He co-ordenates the module Sustainable Futures by Design. He also teaches Urban Design: Placemaking, Collaboratives City Planning Strategies and Critical Debates on Urban Design and City Planning. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Education
- Other Postgraduate qualification (including professional), ATQ03 - Recognised by the HEA as a Fellow | 2017
- Universidad de Sevilla
- Doctorate, Doctorado | 2014
- Universidad de Sevilla
- Other higher degree, Master | 2011
- University College London
- Other higher degree, Master of Architecture | 2009
- Universidad de Sevilla
- Other qualification, Architect Engineer | 2007
Biography
Pablo Sendra is Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design at The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. He is also founder partner of the urban design and placemaking practice: Lugadero. He graduated as an Architect at the Universidad de Sevilla (2007), MArch Urban Design at University College London (2009), MSc in Sustainable City and Architecture at the Universidad de Sevilla (2011) and PhD in Architecture at the Universidad de Sevilla (2014). He has been Research and Teaching Fellow at the Universidad de Sevilla (2010-2015) and Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge (2011).
He combines his academic career with professional practice in urban design and placemaking. In 2014, he won with Lugadero the urban design competition Future Wimbledon for rethinking Wimbledon Town Centre, where he proposes a participatory process where neighbours decide about the future of their town centre. He is also co-founder of CivicWise, a network that works on civic engagement and collaborative urbanism.
Before starting his academic career, he worked as architect, urban designer and strategic planner in Spain and China. In 2007-2008, he worked on public space and mobility projects at the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona.
From 2007 to 2015, he was the authorised organiser of the PechaKucha events in Seville, Spain.