Photo Credit: Alexander Macfarlane
About the booklet
The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2024, and it is with great pleasure that we have added another decade to the Short History of the Development Planning Unit. This booklet (hard copy and online) documents DPU experiences, interactions, and contributions to development practice, research, and teaching since 1954 in the context of diverse international ideas and practices in the development field and the education, research, and practice associated with it.
The book captures the ‘turning points’ in the genealogy of arguments championed by the DPU over time in the fields of urban development planning, design, and international development.
The journey from the AA Tropical Architecture Studies in 1954 to a fully-fledged UCL Department in the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment in 2024 has been impacted by extensive challenges and changes in the fields of international development and higher education. To capture the way the DPU has been actively engaged in this unfolding history, we have formatted the document in three-columns. The first column documents the key activities of the DPU; the second focuses on our engagement with prevailing development Concepts & Ideas; and the third summarises our involvement in and the impact of key International Events.
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