MArch Urban Design 07-08 Lecture series
Five key lectures will be held on Tuesday the 5th of February as part of the MARch Urban Design 07-08 lecture series, as follows:

11:30-12:45 Lecturer: Adam Lubinsky

Lecture title: “Schools as Generators of Urban Change: Social Infrastructure and Physical Form”

Synopsis: A paradigm shift away from the modernist ideal of the rational and universal city has led in two often competing directions – first, in the direction of localised and self-sufficient networks embodying the sustainability paradigm and second, toward the ‘choice’ paradigm. The demand for individual choice of physical infrastructure, such as broadband connections or gas supply, and social infrastructure, such as schools and health services, has had dramatic impacts on urban form and the development of sustainable cities.

This presentation will discuss how school planning and the school building typology has affected urban form, first in the paradigm shift to a centralised modern industrial economy and, over the last 20 years, in the shift to a postmodern network-based, choice-based, free market society. The advent of school choice has altered the historical one-to-one relationship between a primary school and a defined catchment area. Three case studies, considering London, New York City and Cape Town, examine the shifts from three types of modernist neighbourhood schooling to three different school choice policies.

Bio: Adam Lubinsky is currently a Director at Urban Practitioners and a PhD candidate at the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. In his professional work, Adam is leading two masterplans in the Thames Gateway and is on the team developing the CABE Sustainable Cities on-line manual. Adam is also managing the Woolwich Squares Competition on behalf of Design for London and the London Borough of Greenwich and is directing the Hunts Point Community Investment Project, a project funded by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to design and build three innovative waterfront projects. Adam’s academic work examines the planning and design implications of the shift from neighbourhood schooling to school choice policies.

14:00-16:15 EDAW lecture series. Session 1. (lecture 1: Chris Choa. Lecture 2: Michelle Saywood)

As part of a programme of lectures by principals from leading London-based practices, we have asked EDAW, a multidisciplinary international practice that brings together skills in architecture, urban design, planning, economics, environment and graphics, to hold a series of 5 lectures given by associates, directors and principals from their urban design, landscape and architecture studios. They will discuss London and major projects for the city, alongside projects in international cities including Tokyo and Barcelona.

In the first session, Chris Choa – Urban Design principal with international experience focused on high-performance urbanism- will discuss five cities and five projects. He will be joined by Michelle Saywood, Urban Design Director, who is involved in projects that have explored both urbanism and architectural design, and who will examine the metabolism of the city, and London perceived as a city of villages.
In the second session (to be held on Tuesday the 12th of February), Jason Prior – a practising landscape architect and urban designer and president of EDAW - will discuss the reinvention of places in Manchester, Tokyo, Barcelona and Liverpool. He will be followed by Pippa Gueterbock, Urban Design associate, who will explore the sustainability, character and landscape of the Olympics. And finally, Jonathan Rose, Architecture Director who recently joined EDAW having been Practice Principal at Arup Associates leading major international projects, will finish with a look at London futures and the dynamics of public and private space.

14:00-15:00 Lecturer: Chris Choa

Lecture title: “Density is Good – Five Exemplary Environments” (EDAW series. Lecture 1)

Synopsis: Urban Density is the most readily available and powerful source of renewable energy on the planet. Christopher Choa will present some recent projects that consciously attempt to develop mixed-use density in developing economies.

Bio: Christopher Choa is a Principal of EDAW. A prize-winning architect, urban designer, and author, he brings over 20 years of experience to a wide range of government, commercial, institutional, and cultural projects.

Christopher has served as co-chair of New York New Visions – the design coalition for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. Some of his ongoing or completed projects include European Embankment masterplan/St. Petersburg, Saadiyat Island Masterplan/UAE, the masterplan of Shanghai’s North Bund/China, the Twentieth Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles/USA, and the Tempozan Harbor Village in Osaka/Japan.

15:15-16:15 Lecturer: Michelle Saywood

Lecture title: “The metabolism of the city; London – a city of villages” (EDAW series. Lecture 2)

Synopsis: London is a dynamic, diverse and ever-responsive city, providing all who live, work and visit with an unrivalled range of experiences and opportunities. London’s identity is a palimpsest of historic buildings, streets, spaces and places for the purposes of public and private exchange and it is a product of contemporary culture, fashion, economics, environmental and political issues. Its ability to transform means it is constantly able to respond to local needs and yet is equally adept at attracting international investment and intrigue.

Abercrombie famously described London as a ‘City of Villages’; from Brick Lane to Bloomsbury, Camden to Covent Garden, each address has a unique identity that collectively combine to form the distinctive character of London. The legacy of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games offers an unparalleled opportunity to contribute to the growth of the city and ensure that London remains a destination for all. The Legacy Masterplan Framework will create a new address for London. It will become a location with meaning that evokes emotions of attachment or belonging and a destination of spectacular proportions that builds on the memory of the Olympic Games and the powerful character of the East of London.

Developing a special identity for this new London address will generate a sense of place that enables people to associate with the locality in which they live, work or visit and it will alter the aspirations and expectations of local people and future investors.
Bio:

Michelle is an award winning Urban Designer with 8 years experience. As a creative and innovative designer, she has been involved in a range of challenging projects that have explored urbanism, town building, place making and architectural design, including the Olympic and Legacy masterplans and Kings Waterfront in Liverpool.

Michelle has experience of working with both public and private sector clients and has worked within a wide range of consultant teams. She combines her abilities as a project manager with her talents as a creative thinker, problem solver and detailed designer to deliver a range of masterplanning and regeneration projects.

Prior to working at EDAW, Michelle trained as an architect, working on a number of Architectural projects, ranging from large mixed use development schemes, bespoke new build houses and restoration and conservation of listed buildings. Michelle was awarded a commendation for the RIBA Presidents Silver Medal in 2002.

16:30-17:30 Lecturer: Professor Dr. Michael Batty.

Lecture title: “Fractal geometry and cellular automata in urban design”

Synopsis: This lecture introduces new ideas about geometry based on the notion that similar patterns occur at different spatial scales in cities. These patterns suggest an underlying order in cities which is fractal. We show how fractals are self-similar systems and occur in all kinds of natural, biological as well as artificial systems. We then show examples of how to grow fractals which are reminiscent of urban morphologies and then illustrate how we can articulate these as cells and develop automata which is the basis of a series of models for growing cities.

References: Batty, M. (2005) Cities and Complexity: Understanding Cities with Cellular Automata, Agent-Based Models, and Fractals, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA; Batty, M., and Longley, P. A. (1997) The Fractal City, Architectural Design, 67 (9-10: Profile 129), 74-83; Batty, M. and Longley, P. A. (1994) Fractal Cities: A Geometry of Form and Function, Academic Press, London and San Diego, CA.

Bio: Dr. Michael Batty is Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London where he directs the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA). Previously (1990-1995) he was Director of the NSF National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) in the State University of New York at Buffalo and from 1979 until 1990, he was Professor of City and Regional Planning in the University of Wales at Cardiff. His research work involves the development of computer models of cities and regions, and he has published many books and articles in this area, the most recent being Cities and Complexity (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005) and an edited volume GIS, Spatial Analysis and Modeling (ESRI Press, Redlands, CA, 2005). He is editor of the journal Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design. The work of his group can be seen on the web site http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/ and at http://www.casabook.com/. He is made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2001. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2004.

17:45-18:45 dhem technopolitan studio lecture series. Lecturers: Dan Horner and Edouard Moreau.

Lecture title: “Technology and cities: A critique of urbanism within the context of technological innovation” (technopolitan studio Lecture 1)

Synopsis: Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, societies have been founded, expanded, and adapted by a constant stream of technological advancement which has lead some academics to believe that technological innovation is the single most important source of social change. Recent technological milestones such as the internet and the mobile phone have altered the dynamics within our cities so profoundly that some believe the movement rivals the changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution. The evidence of these changes is embedded in our popular culture and our increasing dependency on digital technology and digital processes within our daily lives.

The first lecture in the series explores historical, proposed and conceptual urban projects which have utilized technological innovation in its creation or evolution. Case studies including Zaragoza, Mazdar and Helsinki Virtual Village support the notion that 21st century urbanism is evolving beyond brick and mortar; establishing an expanded design palette which utilises technological advancement as a tool for achieving dynamic Urbanism and Architecture.

Bios: Following their graduation with distinctions in 2007 from the MArch Urban Design at the Bartlett, Daniel Horner and Edouard Moreau founded dhem:technopolitan studio as a continuation of their “urbanism 2.0” project ; an investigative work exploring contemporary shifts in societal organisation in response to the rapid digitalisation of an expanding informational economy; technopolitan studio has the ambition to become a collaborative lab of design professionals and technological innovators exploring theoretical and design aspects of the city 2.0, through various disciplines from urban design and interactive architecture to interaction design, web 2.0 platforms and new mobile technology. The aim of this studio is to bridge the gap between the digital world and the physical realm and use technology as a tool to create challenging and responsive environments through “intelligent spaces”.

In parallel with their work for the technopolitan studio, Daniel and Edouard are urban design consultants for Dar-Al Handasah, a Middle-East based architecture and engineering firm, on large-scale projects across Africa, Middle-East and the Far East. Their current work includes a 1000ha+ city extension of Tunis and an equestrian city in Riyadh.

Edouard Moreau:

Edouard’s work experience covers various disciplines, scales and locations, including urban design projects, urban engineering, transport planning and urban analysis, in Paris, London, Tokyo or New Delhi. Edouard also participated in several associative projects around alternative and bottom-up approaches in urbanism. He received in 2006 the British Council’s Entente Cordiale Scholarship awarded to the most outstanding French scholars in the UK.

Daniel Horner:

An experienced urban designer with an academic background in Landscape Architecture, Town Planning and Architecture. Over 3 years of practical experience working in both public and private sector projects at a variety of scales and locations across Europe and the Middle East. Recent experience covers new settlement masterplanning, urban extensions, urban regeneration, design coding, detailed public realm design and architectural development briefs.

Registration required:

No

Free:

Yes