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The Bartlett aims to tackle the most challenging research issues within the built environment.
These are some of the most pressing global challenges of our day, from sustainable economic growth to urban poverty, to reducing carbon emissions.
Through our distinctive interdisciplinary approach, we are well-placed to address these issues at local, national and international levels.
Our focus is on projects that have impact in the real world. We seek to make the built environment better for everyone with research that is global, innovative, responsible and relevant.
UCL researchers: Our 'Funding expressions of interest' form is designed to help us identify appropriate UCL funding schemes for our research community. We aim to respond to form submissions in two working days.
The Bartlett: Real World Impact
Through a series of animations, get an insider look at how The Bartlett is working with governments, industry and other universities to understand the relationship between people, buildings and the built environment.
Our interdisciplinary approach
Research at The Bartlett involves a range of disciplines, including the physical sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, and design.
Our broad-based research teams have a wide variety of backgrounds, spanning architectural design, digital data modelling, planning, development studies, energy efficiency, urban design, construction, project management, transport infrastructure, cultural heritage (and many others).
We continually seek to increase the diversity within our existing disciplines, and much of our work sits on the boundaries between them. It is these different perspectives that equip us to deal with multi-level, real-world challenges.
Latest research projects
Working together
The Bartlett is one of the UK’s major centres for research into the built environment, and one of the most influential centres globally.
Our approach is increasingly focused on working with external stakeholders. We believe that collaboration is crucial and our aim is to become the ‘partner of choice’ for UK and international universities, as well as other organisations, across all areas of built environment research.
Our schools and centres
The Bartlett’s schools and sections span almost every aspect of built environment study, and every one of them conducts research that’s independent, influential and internationally respected.
In the UK’s latest Research Excellence Framework exercise (REF2021), The Bartlett submitted 725 examples of interdisciplinary and collaborative research from 332 colleagues, with all of the 12 case studies submitted by The Bartlett deemed to be internationally excellent and world leading.
Having started life in 1841 as the UK’s first school of architecture, The Bartlett added the School of Planning in 1914, and its other schools and centres in the last 50 years to become the UK’s largest and leading faculty of the built environment. As one of 10 faculties within UCL, we are part of a unique community of extraordinary and diverse research talents, offering unrivalled potential for cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Vice-Provost of Research David Price believes that UCL's ‘collective wisdom is greater than the sum of its expertise’, and has challenged UCL researchers to tackle some of ‘major challenges facing humanity’.
- Links to departmental websites
- The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
- The Bartlett School of Architecture
- The Bartlett Development Planning Unit
- The Bartlett School of Planning
- The Bartlett Real Estate Institute
- The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction
- The Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources
- UCL Institute for Digital Innovation in the Built Environment
- UCL Institute for Global Prosperity
- UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
- UCL Urban Laboratory
UCL Grand Challenges
Bartlett research has embedded links to all of the UCL Grand Challenges, the university’s cross-disciplinary initiatives in:
