Cities Methodologies Spring 2014 open 28 April - 2 May
23 April 2014
UCL Urban Laboratory will open the spring programme of Cities Methodologies from Monday 28 April to Friday 2 May 2014 in the UCL Slade Research Centre

The week-long programme is an ongoing series of events and installations showcasing innovative methods for the analysis and improvement of cities worldwide. The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 - 18:00.
The exhibits and events featured in the spring programme engage with a number of diverse topics. Highlights include a seminar on the life and work of Ruth Glass, the UCL sociologist who 50 years ago coined the influential term 'gentrification', drawing together scholars who knew or were taught by her. Cross-disciplinary groups of researchers and practitioners will also present novel approaches to heritage, as the built environment takes on new social, cultural and economic importance as a repository of collective memory - in tension with the increasing threat of erasure through new development. Emerging scholars and artists will lead ground-breaking critical guided walks through London, focusing on the City, the River Fleet and King's Cross, and explicitly reflecting on walking as a way of better understanding cities and urban experience.
Dr Ben Campkin, Director of UCL Urban Laboratory, comments:
"For the past six years, as an experimental space for presenting new methods, Cities Methodologies has hosted an exciting array of events and installations, fostering radical and rigorous cross-disciplinary urban research.
This year, leading scholars, built environment practitioners, community groups, artists, writers and others will collaborate to produce new ideas and develop new methods focused on the most pressing urban questions - from the relationship between housing and wellbeing, to the definition of cultural heritage, to the history and study of gentrification - engaging with cities worldwide."
Cities Methodologies events are free to attend, with some requiring pre-registration. Three installations - on architecture and fire, urban walking and the photography of Balfron House - will be open throughout the week from 10am to 6pm in the Slade Research Centre. Follow updates on Twitter (@UCLUrbanLab) and contribute to the exhibition by using the hashtag #CitiesMethodologies.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of:
- UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
- UCL Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences
- UCL Engineering
- UCL Faculty of Arts and Humanities
- Slade School of Fine Art
Events that do not require pre-booking:
- Bartlett Research Exchange: Cultural Heritage
- Book launch: The New Urban Question by Andy Merrifield
- Buildings on Fire: Towards a New Approach to Urban Memory
- Participatory Photography in Practice
- Making Cities Better: Urban Theory and Practice
- Engineering Exchange
Events that require pre-booking:
- Remembering Ruth Glass and the Centre for Urban Studies at UCL (waitlist)
- UCL Urban Laboratory Literary Fellow writing workshops (waitlist)
- Walking Methodologies: A Silent Circle (waitlist)
- AHRC Housing and Wellbeing Symposium: Equalities of Wellbeing & Housing Workshop (places available)
- Walking Methodologies: Money Walks: Profit, Power and Pedestrians in the City of London (waitlist)
- Photographing Balfron Tower (places available)
- Walking Methodologies: Lost Fleet River (waitlist)
- Demolish or Refurb? (places avaliable)
- Walking Methodologies: Tracing Invisible Londons (waitlist)
- Walking Methodologies: Learning to Walk roundtable (places available)