MORE
2021
M MORE 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9929657-9-2 Cover image Caio Madeira de Oliveira Designed & produced Clare Hamman First published February 2022 Printed London © University of Westminster
Contents
Introduction
2
MA Architecture Introduction Theses
Introduction
6 7
MA Interior Architecture Introduction Theses
12 14
Theses
Theses
24 26
Introduction Theses
30 32
Introduction
Live Design Practice
48 52
Research
Selected Research PhD
54 56 58 72
Department of Architecture Staff
36 37
MSc Air Transport Planning & Management Introduction
44 45
Practice & Study
Research Groups
MA Tourism & Events TBC Theses
Theses
Introduction
MA International Planning & Sustainable Development
40 41
MA Urban & Regional Planning
RIBA Part 3
MA Urban Design Introduction
Theses
Introduction
18 20
39
MSc Transport Planning & Management Introduction
MSc Architecture & Environmental Design Introduction
MSc Logistics & Supply Chain Management
38
Sponsors
82 84
MORE 2021 IS the second time we have held the celebration of our postgraduate courses and our research in January – a necessity as most of the courses in the show started in January 2021, not September 2020 as originally planned. This delay was only one element in what has been a disorienting and difficult year. To begin with we worked online through the early 2021 lockdown, then in a hybrid of online and on-campus, and then fully back oncampus (thanks to the Marylebone house team led by Kow Abadoo, Chris Meloy and John Whitmore). It has meant continual adjustments, innovations, and more than a little toughness. The work on show in MORE is testament to our students' and staff ’s tenacity and invention – a direct outcome of the diversity of backgrounds and practices with which they enrich the School. An elegantly edited exhibition that celebrates the creative cross-disciplinary work of our students in addressing Strategic Design, Place, Mobilities, Making, Territorial Transitions and Professional Practice – and how they can meet our great societal and planetary challenges. An exhibition that also reveals how we
have taken advantage of the opportunities that ‘going digital’ created. 2021 saw the School make a highly successful submission to the research excellence framework, REF2021, a process led by Johan Woltjer who has now left to a new post in the Netherlands. Following on from this, the School has created a supportive new research structure under the direction of Lindsay Bremner, with 5 complementary research groups: transport and mobility; architectural humanities; planning territories; place and experience; and architectural humanities. Lindsay has also led the creation of the School’s Climate Action Taskforce, ArCCAT, which is aligning our practices with a regenerative future. Thanks are due to François Girardin, Nasser Golzari and Mirna Pedalo, as well as the Fabrication Laboratory staff for putting the show together, and to Clare Hamman who has designed and produced the catalogue. Above all, thank you to our remarkable students and the staff. Please enjoy the show / webinar / publication. . Harry Charrington Head of the School of Architecture + Cities
2
Welcome to MORE 2021
4
MASTERS
Masters | MA Architecture
Nasser Golzari (Course Leader), Davide Deriu, Maja Jovic, Krystallia Kamvasinou, Iman Keaik, Dirk Lellau, Samir Pandya, Yara Sharif, Neda Soltani, Mireille Tchapi, Filip Visnjic Nasser Golzari is a senior lecturer and senior partner of Golzari (NG) Architects. His research and build projects have won a number of awards including RIBA Award for Research, Holcim Award and Aga Khan Award. Filip Visnjic is an architect, curator and a media technologist working at the intersections of art, media and technology. He is editor-in-chief at CreativeApplications.Net, director at HOLO Magazine and FRAMED*. Krystallia Kamvasinou is a senior lecturer, an architect and a landscape architect. Her research on the topic of Interim Spaces and Creative Use has been published widely in academic journals and books.
MA Architecture Students: Rana Almghirah, Alaa Awad, Akma Chekkinankandy Puthiyapurayil, Negin Dehnaviyylagh, Charlotte Donivar, Xiangqi Fan, Katrina Galea, Nazeli Ghazarian,Yasemin Guner, Hanan Hassan, Seyedeh Hendi, Ayushi Jain, Joanna Joshua, Mahshad Khairani Sharahi, Negin Kianpour, Katarzyna Kwiatkowska,
Saimah Latif, Caio Madeira de Oliveira, Sandra Oseas, Guilherme Paixao Argollo, Euzkadi Perez Chacon, Linah Raja, Simran Ravindan, Sophia Salvatori de Figueiredo, Ece Tavukcu, Hetul Vasani, Katherine Villavicencio, Carla Yuja de la Fuente, Enming Zhang
THE ARCHITECTURE MA course offers a dynamic and unique programme on advanced postgraduate study combining a high level of design and theoretical investigation with innovative representational methods and critical approaches to contemporary discourses in subjects of design and theory. The programme is both wide ranging and flexible, facilitating alternative modes of study and creative methods in design, representation and research. The course team of academics and practitioners offers full skills and intellectual support for students to develop their own thesis subject, concluding in a design or written thesis project promoting live projects and collaboration with real clients.
The MA Architecture allows for specialism through its three pathways: Cultural Identity and Globalisation; Digital Media; and History and Theory. Alternatively, students can also create their own pathway by selecting and combining relevant modules that meet their individual requirements. The range of optional and specialist modules offered allows students to develop their individual learning trajectories, involving design and theoretical components as well as practical applications. The course also offer two distinct student awards, Jila Golzari Award for outstanding achievement, and Weston Williamson + Partners for outstanding Thesis Design Project.
Guest Lecturers & Critics: Vladimir Bojkovic, Alastair Blyth, Philip Breese, Simon Cole, Alejandro Abreu Hermoso, Kate Jordan, Rim Kalsum, Rebecca Neil, Ina Nuzi, Angelikie Sakallario, John Walter 6
MA Architecture | Masters
Xiangqi Fan
The Freehand Brushwork Garden
THIS DESIGN-LED THESIS looks into the historic industrial sites in China and the impact they have on the local residents who are left with nothing but abandoned artefacts. The contradiction of appearance and disappearance of short term industries with its vast spatial shift requires a responsive design intervention. Located in the former industrial site of Tiexi with its abandoned railway, the design explores means to reappropriate the sites as industrial
gardens and questions whether industrial tourism can be the new typology. The Garden is inspired in its design by the concept of ‘freehand brushwork’, a traditional Chinese painting technique. It extracts basic principles from the complex traditional Chinese Gardens and reappropriates them to take over the industrial sites with a new hybrid typology.
Masters | MA Architecture
Enming Zhang
The World of Mortals
THIS THESIS TAKES the reconstruction project of the Wangyue community in Changsha City as an example to discuss the issue of the sense of belonging in the old neighbourhood. The death of the old community is accompanied by changes in the social structure of the indigenous peoples. The dynamic street scene with its
8
attractive food and complicated billboards has become the only testimony to the rich culture. Inspired by the work and writing of Nabeel Hamdi, this design-driven thesis argues for some small changes to celebrate the sense of belonging for this unique yet slowly disappearing community.
MA Architecture | Masters
Guilherme Argollo
The Construction of Virtual Environments Based on Real Spaces by the Algorithm
IN A CONNECTED world where the algorithm is always collecting information and watching, privacy becomes something that is complex to fully have. Taking how gentrification has shaped an area, as a starting poing this thesis explores how the algorithm would create and shape a virtual world. Using information gathered about
the engagements and interactions of people in that environment, and combining it with data on the political, social and geographical issues currently faced, the thesis describes the research process and proposes how this virtual environment could be.
Masters | MA Architecture
MA Architecture theses 2021 contd. Rana Almghirah
Alaa Awad
Akma Chekkinankandy Puthiyapurayil
Her Haven of (dis)Harmony: Stories of power, agency and identity
Architectural Spaces in the Lens of Emotion
Cable Car Systems in Urban Areas
Presented through script, drawings and short films, the thesis uses speculative scenarios to focus on the concept of privacy, our emotional response to it and how it reflects our perception of architecture.
Focusing on the Emirates Air Line in London, this This autoethnographic study unpacks how gendered thesis investigates social and cultural issues, and spatial programmes in the Muslim Mappila community evaluates newly adopted transport systems by in Kerala, India, affect women's identity construction examining their efficiency and environmental factors. and power structures by exploring discreet nuances and tactical forms of resistance to reclaim one’s agency. Katrina Galea
Charlotte Donivar
The Bee’s Temple: Unlocking the structural principles of biomimicry through architecture
Perennial Drift: Speculating possible futures for Maltese landscape extraction dust
Nazeli Ghazarian
Language of Perception: The embodiment of Drawing from the unaccounted by-product of the Architects are increasingly looking to nature to design memory in space Maltese limestone industry, this thesis sees dust as in sustainable and generative ways. Exploring the an agent in a temporary state of flux. It posits the oscillating vibration that bees use inside the hive, this creation of potential architectures or landforms from thesis asks: is it possible to model architecture on the this material and speculates on questions of identity, principle of soundwaves? legibility, meaning and legacy.
Hanan Hassan
Yasemin Guner
Sound Matters
This thesis reimagines Brick Lane’s soundscapes by using digital media methods to propose a series of speculative scenarios that engage and speculate on the future and current soundscape of Brick Lane in London’s East End by exploring the mechanisms that drive its acoustic characteristics.
Taking a phenomenological approach to how one experiences space, this thesis incorporates evidencedbased design criteria acknowledged for improving wellbeing and quality of life to allow a healing environment to emerge from within the architecture.
Joanna Joshua
Ayushi Jain
Reclaiming the Holy River Cooum: Displacement due to urban river restoration
Work and Architecture for a Post-capitalist society This thesis aims to understand how we perceive and understand work through time by exploring the meaning of an ideal working space with respect to mental health, climate and efficiency of the building by rethinking how we work for a more sustainable future.
10
Healing through Spaces: Bridging the gap between hospitals and home
The restoration of the River Cooum to its original state reveals socio-economic inequalities which threaten the social structure, culture, rights and lives of the urban poor. This thesis proposes an alternative approach that benefits the economy of the community and the natural biodiversity.
This thesis aims to develop a conceptual mechanical system to give visibility to the invisible – narrating the communication taking place between human computation and mnemonic space systems in the memory matrix of time and space.
Seyedeh Hendi
The Battle Against Crumble Centuries of dialogue, contradiction and confrontation from colonisation are manifested in the urban morphology of the Casbah of Algiers and its façades, exposing the visible and invisible boundaries that have shaped it. This thesis re-imagines the Casbah by stripping back those layers of history.
Mahshad Khairani Sharahi
Why is it that the rise in gated communities might threaten the public? This thesis asks if gated communities have a negative psychological impact on society, notably on children, negating the safety that gated communities are supposed to offer.
(left-right) Katarzyna Kwiatkowska; Carla Yuja de la Fuente; Ayushi Jain; Caio Madeira de Oliveira; Mahshad Khairani
MA Architecture | Masters
Negin Kianpour
Katarzyna Kwiatkowska
Saimah Latif
The Neighbourhood Room in Garden
Chance
Desert to the Sea
Inspired by Persian Gardens, this thesis explores spatial interventions on London’s Finchley High Street that can transform a neighbourhood into a ‘home’ and create rooms for children with spaces, to play, to read, to dream.
This thesis uses architecture as a method to find new ways to promote ‘chance’ to (re-)connect divided communities by creating new typologies and spaces. Cutting through the façades of Kensington, the project exposes the inequality within the borough.
Focusing on the proposed smart city, Line, Saudi Arabia, this thesis speculates on an alternative camp design for the foreign construction workers who arrive with hopes for a better future, only to face harsh conditions, emotional turmoil and physical exhaustion.
Caio Madeira de Oliveira
Presence in the Mixed Space
Sandra Oseas
The City is my Oyster: How can urban design This thesis analyses the impact of digital environments support older adults’ social inclusion? and their infrastructures on the physical space by exploring the concept of presence. Questioning the interaction between the physical and digital spheres, how does human behaviour alter with robotics, at the interface between human and object?
Simran Ravindan
The Bartered Collective
Exploring the challenges faced by people with mobility issues when navigating cities, this thesis argues that sociopolitical participation and perpetual interdisciplinary communication between users and stakeholders is fundamental in the creation of an inclusive city for an ageing society.
Ece Tavukcu
Imitation in Mosque Architecture: Symbolic The Bartered Collective proposes a framework for a selfSignificance of Mosque Building in Turkey sustaining neighbourhood in Hackney Wick, substituting the notion of exchanging currency for a product or service with a bartered economy, and reimagining the canal system as the focal point of exchange and regeneration.
Katherine Villavicencio
This thesis explores the political and cultural reasons for the repetition and imitation of one mosque model for centuries in Turkey, the values symbolised by the Ottoman period, and the subsequent lack of an innovative approach to the design of mosque architecture.
Carla Yuja de la Fuente
Micro-Utopia: A journey through new possibilities
Politics and Spaces of Kinesthetic Empathy
This design-led thesis reoccupies empty houses of Kensington to create new spatial possibilities on the ground driven by micro-utopia: celebrating rituals of the everyday as an alternative to the dystopian reality 10 imposed by the 7free-market economy, and replacing an obsession with land and ownership with collective acts.
The thesis explores spatial notions of the asymmetry between difference feminism and ‘empathism’, and how they manifest as a sense of self and space. Mapping and unpacking empathetic interactions, it uncovers 710 possible traces and speculates on their potential to reproduce power dynamics.
Linah Raja
Mahellas of Baghdad Mapping the concept of 1001 palms, this thesis offers a new reading of the city of Baghdad, challenging the image of the city as ruins and demonstrating how geography is a more honest repository of the collective memory than history.
Hetul Vasani
The Growing Pavilion Cremation and its associated spaces serve both utilitarian and spiritual means, but suffer from a lack recognisable spatial characteristics. Taking inspiration from global funerary customs and rituals, this thesis posits that there is a fundamental social need to reintroduce ceremony and urban vitality to cremation spaces.
Brick Lane 51.5249°N, 0.0716° W
Graphical Notati Sound wave file data
Digitalised sound particles
(left-right) Nazeli Ghazarian; Katherine Villavicencio; Katrina Galea; Seyedeh Hendi; Yasemin Guner
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Frequency (Hz)
Masters | MA Interior Architecture
David Littlefield (Course Leader), Dusan Decermic, Tomazs Dancel-Fiszer, Matt Haycocks, Bruce Irwin, Maja Jovic, Debby Kuypers, Lola Lozano Lara, Irene Roca Moracia, Paresh Parmar
MA Interior Architecture Students: Faisal Alroumi, Yeojin Baik, Scott Bingham, Hannah Crick, Zhuo Du, Nujoud Farraj, Marina Furnaletto, Puyu He, Xiangyi Hu, Vanja Ivkovic, Gurtej Kaur, Abi Kirubaharan, Sahithi Nadella, Shaimaa Omar, Xinrui Pang,
Charlotte Rasmussen Meling, Megan Rogers, Valentina Saldarriaga, Adesh Surve, Antonella Vitale, Adeline Waldron Pratt, Yue Xie
WESTMINSTER’S MA INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE promotes a speculative approach to spatial design that is rooted in theory and the world of ideas; those ideas, however, are deployed to confront contemporary questions and challenges. The MAIA programme, therefore, is both conceptual and pragmatic; experimental and rigorous. With a special focus on People and Place, the course encourages students to develop a deep sympathy for the needs and aspirations of the users of a space, as well as a sensitivity towards (and response to) physical and social contexts.
a building product in India; and the spatialisation and representation of Taoist thought. Such a wide range of themes, sites and processes represents the dynamism and diversity of our students, as well as the freedom and encouragement to embark on design-led adventures here at Westminster.
Located within the School of Architecture + Cities in central London, students are taught and guided by research-active and industry-experienced staff. Increasingly international and ever growing, this sought-after Masters programme offers students the opportunity to develop their own pathway and focus on a contemporary issue of special importance to them. The course becomes, therefore, a platform for the student to develop personally and professionally; the outcomes from this approach are rich and diverse. This academic year major Thesis Project investigations include: an enquiry into alternative forms of social housing; the Americanisation of Italian domestic interiors; the potential for using waste rice straw as
The MA programme comprises a set of study modules which can be grouped into three categories: theory; technical substantiation; and design. Through our theory modules, students encounter the ideas which underpin the understanding of place and site, including the notion that design and social practices are forms of cultural production; they develop research and critical thinking skills, including the use of precedent study and design method. Supported to achieve a high degree of technical proficiency in their work, students are encouraged to take full advantage of our well-equipped workshops and digital craft facilities, before developing their own major project through either a design proposition or a written thesis. Within a critical pedagogical agenda we challenge students to strive for a rich, mature synthesis of their learning, a process aimed to prepare them (academically, professionally and personally) for the challenges of a complex world.
Guests and Critics: Jo Prosser (Royal Academy) 12
Shaimaa Omar: In Between: Home away from home
MA Interior Architecture | Masters
David Littlefield is Senior Lecturer and has written, co-written and edited more than 10 books on architecture and cities. His research focuses on authenticity, heritage, regeneration and notions of place and he is presently undertaking a PhD into the representation of authenticity.
Maja Jovic is lecturer in architecture, planning and tourism. Her research investigates how conflict and national identities re-shape destinations.
Tomasz Dancel-Fiszer is an architect and associate at MJP Architects with involvement spanning from masterplanning to detail design.
Lola Lozano Lara graduated from the Architectural Association, where she is currently enrolled as PhD candidate. She teaches architecture at various UK universities and is founding director of the research and practice project Forms of Living.
Debby Kuypers is an architect, and joint founder/director of RFK Architects, an architecture and design practice based in London that specialises in retail, commercial and art/museum projects.
Dusan Decermic is an architect who engages with both theoretical and design practices in architecture and interior design. He set up his own practice, arclab, in 1999 and has worked with numerous clients, Irene Roca Moracia is an architect and design researcher who including the Royal National Theatre and fashion designer Issey Miyake. experiments with materials and spaces generated by overproduction Matt Haycocks is a designer and maker. His research concerns and the environmental crisis. She has worked for Dominique Perrault photography, heritage and public space, and the politics of place- and LVMH. making and branding. Paresh Parmar is a project architect at Holloway Li, an architecture Bruce Irwin is a designer, teacher and curator, and is founder and co-director of SCAN Projects.
and interior design practice specialising in residential, hospitality and retail throughout London and China.
Masters | MA Interior Architecture
Hannah Crick
Contesting the Municipal: An alternative future for redundant social housing typologies of the past
THIS THESIS RESPONDS to London's demand for modernised social housing by proposing the re-invention of existing housing stock in lieu of demolition and replacement. A tired housing block in north London scheduled for demolition as part of a wider programme of housing provision forms the focus of this investigation. Instead of demolition, this project argues that the existing building has the attributes and potential for enhancement, meaning that the site can be sustainably re-used. The project explores how existing municipal properties deemed inadequate could be reinvented. Drawing on ideas of co-living and community use, it demonstrates how this existing ‘static’ building embodies possibilities for transformation that includes flexible living and dynamic spaces that can shift according to occupant need. The thesis considers how retrofitted design, congenial to 21st century living, could be deployed through a 're-use' strategy, eliminating the need for demolition. By creating a new primary façade facing a shared garden space, the landscaped terrain mediates between the re-invented housing block and newer housing being proposed for the site. Entrances and circulation have been re-routed, and a new palette of materials deployed within the refurbishment and expansion of existing dwellings.
14
MA Interior Architecture | Masters
Marina Furlanetto
Glass, Vision and the [un]Intended Consequences of Transparency
EXPLORING THE CITY, through walking and adopting the role of flâneur, this dissertation considers through word and photography the ‘glass culture’ of modernity and the unexpected and unintended experiential consequences of the large-scale use of glass. This study asks questions concerning boundaries, protection and exposure, as well as the suggested permeability and ambiguity of space and threshold. Drawing on Bentham's theorising of the panopticon and Foucault's study of social structures, this project argues that transparency, though widespread and commonplace, can also prompt feelings of discomfort and insecurity. In contemporary London, glass and transparency do not always indicate a Modern desire for light, air and openness; instead it can allude to illusion, entrapment and hypocrisy.
Masters | MA Interior Architecture
MA Interior Architecture theses 2021 contd.
Faisal Alroumi
Kuwait: A new vernacular
Scott Bingham
The Situationist Studios: Collective dwelling and artistic reform in the community
An investigation into the methods through which Kuwait This project explores the theoretical framework of can maintain or develop a new vernacular which the Situationist International through architectural recognises past styles and techniques while making design, with the aim of questioning the notion of buildings suitable to contemporary needs. collective live/work environments, the boundaries of public and private, and how cultural production facilitates community development.
Puyu He
Xiangyi Hu
Floating in Eternal Nature
Old Kent Road Community Centre
The project investigates the spatialisation and visual presentation of Taoist thought – the most influential culture in the China region – to create a cultural centre and a place for public communication for an ageing industrial immigrant city lacking a cultural attraction.
Investigating a church on Old Kent Road, London, the project proposes a community design plan centred on space and time. The church, which is little used and minimally occupied, would be transformed into a community centre serving nearby residents.
Gurtej Kaur
Sahithi Nadella
‘Ricecrete’: A novel approach to solving India’s The Cooking Library (an Indian edition) smog problems One of the biggest causes of smog in India's capital city of New Delhi is the burning of rice straw. In an attempt to use the rice straw as a 'resource', this project seeks to use it to create a sustainable material for architecture and interiors.
16
Massive shifts have taken place in Indian cooking internationally; arguably weakening the emotional and cultural bonds involved. While catering to the requirements of modern society, this project aims to restore the lost connection between food and the soul of a culture involved in its making.
Valentina Saldarriaga Franco
‘La España Vacia y su Repoblacion’: Repopulation in ‘Empty Spain’ This project investigates ‘Empty Spain’ and strategies to re-populate the abandoned Spanish town Las Ruedas de Enciso. It considers current conditions of the town, materiality, a sense of community and the relationship between old and new to reinvigorate the town.
Vanja Ivkovic
Rooms for Everyone: Transcending limits of domestic space in Belgrade An investigation into informal building extensions in Belgrade, Serbia, and how they are connected to the city’s history, living conditions and urban landscape. The project focuses on using resident participation as a method to enhance life quality and adapt constrained socialist flats.
Shaimaa Omar
In-between: Home away from home An investigation of contemporary urban interiors and third-place concepts in public places; this project investigates how a community centre can gather Cairenes again post-pandemic, connecting them and providing a sense of belonging to the community.
(left-right) Vanja Ivkovic; Baik Yeojin
MA Interior Architecture | Masters
Xinrui Pang
Inside and Outside: Intergenerational mutual assistance A traditional Chinese typology of the Courtyard House and its multi-generational interactions are introduced to the community. This project considers the possibilities of breaking existing personal boundaries and promoting emotional interdependence in the community.
Gopika Sunil
Charlotte Rasmussen
Megan Rogers
Children's Day Centre: Hummingbird
The Future of the High Street
Children in the UK spend an average of just over four hours a week outdoors. This project focuses on the redesign of a day centre located in Bethnal Green, London, by introducing natural elements and activities with playful patterns and calm tones.
The high street used to be a place to socialise, work and shop; now it is often a modern-day ghost town. The typical high street needs to change; the core of the community should be about people, culture, accomplishments and, above all, uniqueness.
Adesh Surve
Antonella Vitale
Dining Bazaar: A vista of diverse dining and culinary experience
Reimagining a Hybrid Health Space for the Indian Diaspora (Maggie’s + Hospice)
Narrated interiors: Post-war Italian domestic spaces
Homogenisation of interiors leads to ‘Instagrammable’ interiors, similar to the situation in the past introduced by the ‘Picturesque’ landscape. Analysis of picturesque landscapes and the landscapes of the market space (and the parallels between them) inform the design proposal for a diverse dining landscape in Peckham, London.
Death and dying are components of our society that have a significant effect on the social context. This project revolves around the hybrid environment of a hospice and Maggie’s Centre for the Sikh community in Southall, London. It aims to induce a sense of being within the community where language is not a barrier to expressing the soul.
An investigation into the representation of the Italian post-war house in the popular media of the time such as journals, radio and television. This project, set in a Naples street, considers ideas of family, private/public, and interior/exterior.
Adeline Waldron Pratt
Critical Heritage: Understanding the physical as well as intangible value of heritage to help promote economic, cultural and social growth
Yue Xie
If Porcelain could Talk: An art centre for Chinese ceramics
This project investigates the presentation methods of This thesis investigates the physical as well as intangible porcelain museums, aiming to consider how to better value of heritage in a deprived area of Southwark, describe the history, culture and story of Chinese London. While the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings porcelain. aids environmentally-conscious design, it also feeds ideas of collective memory and urban design that can reinvigorate communities.
(left-right) Vanja Ivkovic; Antonella Vitale; Gurtej Kaur
Baik Yeojin
Upside and Downside: Revitalising gigantic infrastructure An investigation of an alternative future for abandoned, urban, gigantic infrastructure. Imagining a car-free central London, this project suggests how large infrastructure could be re-used and revitalised.
Masters | MSc Architecture and Environmental Design
Rosa Schiano-Phan (Course Leader), Mehrdad Borna, Paolo Cascone, Joana Goncalves, Kartikeya Rajput, Amedeo Scofone, Juan Vallejo, Zhenzhou Weng
MSc Architecture and Environmental Design Students: Anastasiia Babenko, Amal Breika, Iyad El-Beaini, Ezgi Ercan, Cynthia Espinola Cano, Wei Gao, Diana Criollo Guaman, Dagyeong Kang, Edlira Kraja, Gaelle Letort, Maria Makhlouf, Megha Menon, Dhrumil Patel,
Gursharan Randhawa, Liam Rollings, Dalia Safar, Sylvia Segovia Franco, Uzma Shaikh, Zain Shaikh, Genievee Tapia
IN 2020/21 THE Architecture and Environmental Design MSc, having started in January and moved online, focused on the investigation of the environmental performance of work and live environments during the pandemic. Thanks to the QHT Online Learning Experience fund 2020, the students were included in an unprecedented experiment called ‘Sensing the Changing Environment’, involving the simultaneous environmental monitoring and analysis of their own residences around the world. This study led to the semester 2 design brief on ‘Designing for the Changing Environment in the times of the Pandemic’, begun in May 2021. Proposals for the complete re-imagination of the studied sites were offered by the students with attention
to the compounding requirements of a post-pandemic society, climate change and resources conservation.
Guest Critics: Filomena Russo (University of Cambridge), Paula Cadima (Architectural Association), Vince Ugarow (Hilson Moran), Matthew Marson (Arcadis) 18
The course successfully continues the Collaborative Thesis Programme with Industry, partnering with a range of architectural firms and environmental consultancies. To date theses feature a variety of topics in different climatic and socio-political contexts. The MSc AED embeds the BREEAM Approved Graduate course, while being Learning Affiliate with the Energy Institute. These initiatives have led to joint publications and employment opportunities for our students.
Special Thanks: Carine Berger, Conor Black (Arup), Effie Chatzistefanou (WSP), Karl Cullen (chapmanbdsp), Camilo Diaz (WSP), Christian Dimbleby (Architype), Sebastian Eugenio (Architype), Catherine Harrington (Architype), Mina Hasman (SOM), Dean Hawkes (University of Cambridge), Patrik Hermon (LCD), Sandeep Kapoor (Arcadis), Maddalena Laddaga, Joao Matos Da Silva, Phil McIlwain (Stroma), Andrew Moore (Hilson Moran), Vince Ugarow (Hilson Moran) Gursharan Randhawa: The Corner Oasis (south façade), Seoul, South Korea
MSc Architecture and Environmental Design | Masters
Rosa Schiano-Phan is an architect, consultant and academic who has worked in environmental design consultancy and research for the past 20 years. Rosa taught at the Architectural Association and coordinated numerous interdisciplinary EU-funded research projects at Nottingham University. She is the co-author of The Architecture of Natural Cooling (Routledge, 2020). Joana Goncalves is an architect and academic working as a Visiting Lecturer for the MSc AED, as well as at The Bartlett and the Architectural Association. She was Associate Professor of Environmental Design at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo and has taught at Harvard University. She is the Vice-President of the PLEA conference and author of several international publications.
Masters | MSc Architecture and Environmental Design
Maria Makhlouf
eyond Temporary: Adaptive reuse of shipping containers B as post-disaster housing units in Lebanon
LEBANON IS A country where political unrest and explosions are an ongoing occurrence. As a result of that the economy witnessed a great recession, the influx of refugees increased, all compounded by the destruction caused by the 4th August explosion, creating a housing crisis in the country. Ergo, the need for temporary shelter became a vital concern in the country’s recovery scheme. These challenges have shed light on the unsustainable response and administration of the government. The effect of the blast poses an opportunity: to create a disaster mitigative response that will be used as a catalyst to enhance the city’s urban configuration and growth; and provide shelter for both the displaced citizens and refugees, creating a more sustainable city that is healthier environment for the people.
containers abandoned on Beirut’s port, and demolition materials left after the explosion. In addition to being socially and environmentally responsive, these temporary shelters will account for the local climatic conditions of Lebanon, both the capital, Beirut, which is vulnerable to ongoing disasters, and Bar Elias where the largest Syrian refugee camp is situated. These easy to assemble and disassemble shelters will cater for the needs of their future occupants by enhancing the occupants’ comfort with passive environmental design schemes. This prototype will be evaluated based on analytical assessments of its performance using parametric design tools and softwares.
This design project aims to introduce a new design prototype that will be the outcome of the post-disaster reconstruction scheme: a quick to construct, low-cost, and sustainable temporary shelter that utilises recycled shipping
20
(left) Axonometric of proposed temporary shelter housing unit; (right) Passive strategies to be implemented in the temporary shelter housing unit
MSc Architecture and Environmental Design | Masters
Sylvia Segovia
Wellbeing and the Circadian Cycle in Office Buildings
DAYLIGHT HAS LONG been related to wellbeing in architecture, which has been reflected in numerous design approaches and assessment methods. These are usually related to the visual aspects of light, on the spectrum that the human eye can see. Recently, findings in the photobiology field have shown how light also affects humans through non-visual aspects, impacting directly on the entrainment of the circadian rhythm. This breakthrough has highlighted the need to investigate further how the built environment can impact comfort and health, in consideration of the use of artificial light on a daily basis. This research focuses on office buildings, exploring how design strategies such as orientation and layout can influence the circadian cycle in this typology, while looking at the role of artificial and
(left) Office at 51 Moorgate, London; (right) UDI Simulation of 51 Moorgate, London
natural light. As a case study, a fit-out office in London was chosen, 51 Moorgate by SKANSKA, which was accredited with the WELL Institute platinum accreditation that considers ‘circadian lighting’. Site visits and computational simulations to consider both visual and non-visual aspects of light were undertaken to analyse how different building and layout configurations can impact the human’s biological clock. Based on literature review and the comparison of the simulation results and iterations, this thesis proposes design recommendations for office buildings considering a holistic approach to health, wellbeing and the circadian cycle, reflecting on the impact artificial lighting can impose when used as the main source of light.
Masters | MSc Architecture and Environmental Design
MSc Architecture and Environmental Design theses 2021 contd.
Anastasiia Babenko
Iyad El Beaini
The Future Residential Environments: Focusing on the lighting quality inside studio This thesis considers Form Finding Optimisation to solve apartments in London post-pandemic Environmental Form Finding Using Optimisation Techniques
architectural design problems through various techniques and objectives, focusing on optimising building massing, orientation, daylight, and energy demand in German office buildings. The study develops the building envelope through multi-objective optimisation.
Diana Criollo
In London, the pandemic highlighted poor lighting quality in residential units. This study is to maximise the amount of daylight inside studio apartments for a better visual quality when working from home, as a main factor to reach wellbeing and to boost productivity.
Ezgi Ercan
Amal Breika
The Use Of Date Palm Composites in New Construction for a More Circular Economy This design project focuses on lightweight structures in subtropical desert climates that can improve the performance of a building made of date palm composites to take advantage of local materials by designing a whole life cycle in an Agro city.
Cynthia Espinola
Reduction of Energy Consumption and Application of Renewable Energies in The thesis aims to review existing daylight strategies This thesis proposes generating urban design guidelines Suburban Gated Communities in Mexico
Daylight Optimisation for Low-Rise Buildings with Glazed Atrium
The Environmental Performance of Tall Buildings in an Urban Microclimate
in a low-rise building with a large glazed atrium which has issues with overheating and glare, but without compromising daylighting levels within the atrium and adjacent offices.
by understanding the impact of tall buildings on the urban microclimate conditions in Istanbul, Turkey, to maximise outdoor comfort and create liveable, comfortable open spaces for pedestrians in the city.
Wei Gao
Improving Environmental Performance of Office Buildings Through Continuous Smart Control Based on Occupancy Behaviour This thesis discusses how to use the occupancy data and information collected in real time through smart technologies to define more effective strategies to control and improve the environmental performance of office buildings.
22
Dagyeong Kang
Single-family homes in suburban areas in Mexico represent 80% of residential energy consumption. The objective of this thesis is to outline theoretical environmental design strategies for future improvements or regulations in suburban gated community building typologies which could be replicated across the country.
Edlira Kraja
High-rise Residential Complex in Seoul, South Daylight Quality and Optimisation in MultiKorea Post-Pandemic: Improving design and Purpose Community Spaces environmental quality through the balcony By analysing the qualitative and quantitative
High-rise complexes, a common typology in South performance of daylight in a given building, this thesis will Korea, are constructed as a standardised form without create a profile on a specific architectural component environmental quality considerations. The thesis and demonstrate its performance in different scenarios. investigates specific problems with current apartments and proposes design and environmental solutions for future high-rise construction, focusing on balcony space.
(left-right) Iyad El Beaini; Dagyeong Kang; Ezgi Ercan; Diana Criollo
MSc Architecture and Environmental Design | Masters
Gaëlle Letort
Megha Menon
Vernacular-inspired Climate Resilience in the Redefining the Environmentally-Responsive Mediterranean: A refugee centre in the context Office Building: A prototype for a bioclimatic, of climate migration pandemic-prepared office building in Dubai Due to global warming, spatial and geographical dichotomy in the Mediterranean basin will enhance existing climatic issues and social inequalities, leading to frequent migration flux. This design project will rethink temporary shelters for displaced populations using traditional environmental principles.
Gursharan Randhawa
Strategies to Improve Thermal Comfort and Air Pollution in Urban Plazas: A study of trade centres in New Delhi, India This thesis develops a toolkit for the improved environmental quality of outdoor urban plazas in New Delhi, India by introducing green spaces, façade control, shading systems and materiality, extending the use of the public realm and making it more active and resilient.
Zain Shaikh
This thesis design project aims to explore a new office building prototype that is appropriate to the context of Dubai, not only by responding to the local hot desert climate, but also to the new emerging global context of a pandemic-prone environment, with unpredictable occupancy and behavioural norms.
Liam Rollings
The Impacts of Bio-based Materials on Operational and Embodied Carbon CLT is being hailed as the way forward for sustainable design, but what are the true costs of our material choices? This study analyses the environmental impacts that our construction material choices have on a project's carbon footprint.
Uzma Shiakh
Dhrumil Patel
Carbon Positive Residential Development Through Low Carbon Materials in the UK In order to achieve the UK's net zero target for carbon emissions in the construction industry, this thesis explores low carbon materials and their combinations for four different construction types. It develops carbon negative residential buildings by reducing embodied carbon and offsetting operational carbon in each type.
Dalia Safar
Post Disaster Regeneration: The case of Beirut The thesis investigates how you can rehabilitate buildings after a disaster by using environmental strategies, focusing on the use of up-cycled materials from waste and implementing sustainable solutions to enhance the performance of the building.
Genievee Tapia
A Correlation Study of Indoor Air Quality and Outdoor Environment to Understand an The thesis focuses on making offices user-friendly and This thesis investigates the use of low carbon earth Effective Office Building Ventilation System Improving the Wellbeing and Energy use in Post-pandemic Offices in London, UK
Environmental Benefits of Earth Construction for Social Housing in Rural South India
safe for people by understanding the measures needed materials to solve the housing shortage in rural India. in offices after COVID-19. It proposes guidelines and It proposes a methodology to calculate the embodied suggests future reforms necessary to create healthy, carbon of earth constructions. energy-efficient buildings.
(left-right) Amal Breika; Dhrumil Patel; Megha Menon; Zain Shaikh
The study focuses on the relationship between indoor air pollutants in an office, the outdoor environment and building systems using data analysis of an indoor air pollution monitored office in Manchester, UK.
Masters | MA Urban Design
David Mathewson (Course Leader), Roudaina Al Khani, Bill Erickson, Simone Gobber, Krystallia Kamvasinou, Michael Neuman, David Seex
MA Urban Design Students: Kristina Bernard, Bhagyashree Bhamre, James Blower, Holly Dyas, Scott Houtsma, Dorothee Hubsch-Wigginton, Daniel Johnson, Katarzyna Kuzniarz, Rachael Lishman, Rowan O’Malley, Charlotte Walker
THE MA URBAN DESIGN course at the University of Westminster provides a coherent approach to challenges facing cities today, combining structured academic study with live design projects, allowing students to develop practical skills alongside a theoretical understanding and an informed approach to sustainable urban development. As a multidisciplinary field, it overlaps with and incorporates elements of town planning, architecture, landscape design, urban regeneration, geography, transport planning and infrastructure planning, drawing students from all these backgrounds. Cities are at the centre of modern life, places where most people make their homes, the hubs of economic and social activity and where the majority of resources are consumed. They have evolved over time with important city images and urban profiles that attract investment while serving as cultural assets reflecting the values of their inhabitants, around whom shared experiences revolve and daily activities are shaped. This process is well understood in the West, however in a global context the pace of change is both dramatic and accelerating, creating new challenges for city design and management, particularly in the developing nations of the global south.
24
Drawing on the cultural and economic forces acting in the city, the Urban Design course focuses on understanding and shaping the physical setting in which these processes take place: the manner in which buildings, streets and urban spaces are combined to create distinct environments that nurture daily life, provide efficient urban systems and form memorable places valued by their inhabitants is carefully considered. The work presented here is based on student dissertations and major design projects in which particular impacts on the design of cities are identified and how, in the light of these effects, urban form can best be adapted to current and future needs. The practice of urban design has been emerging as a distinct profession since the 1970s and is underpinned by a growing knowledge base informed by research and tested through spatial analysis and design proposal; these studies represent a critique of current responses to urban challenges and provide a unique contribution to urbanism’s body of knowledge.
Kristina Bernard: Walkable neighbourhoods in suburban Britain
MA Urban Design | Masters
David Mathewson is a Senior Lecturer, with over 20 years' experience as an urban designer, architectural designer and international planner currently undertaking doctoral studies in planning policy related to flooding and the link with changing urban form in Jakarta, Indonesia.. Roudaina Al Khani is an architect and urban and regional planner, and founder and director of Platforms for Sustainable Cities and Regions Ltd. Bill Erickson is Principal Lecturer. He is an architect and urban designer with research interests in digital modelling of urban development, including a focus on urban morphology. Krystallia Kamvasinou is a Senior Lecturer and an architect and landscape architect who has published widely, and recently completed a Leverhulme Fellowship on ‘Interim Spaces and Creative Use’. Michael Neumann is Professor of Sustainable Urbanism at the University of Westminster. He previously taught at the University of New South Wales, Australia and Texas A&M University. David Seex has been teaching urban design and planning at Westminster for over 30 years and runs an urban design and planning consultancy.
Masters | MA Urban Design
Kashia Kuzniarz
he Role of Densification to Address London’s Growth T and the Effects on Housing Design Quality
DENSIFICATION IN CITIES draws together a multitude of responses to a developing post-pandemic context and the challenges of London’s growth to explore its spatial and development capabilities at the urban scale. New strategies for densification are needed to respond to changes in cities while mitigating previous negative impacts associated with outmoded forms of high density development mired in controversy, safety issues and anti-social behaviour.
26
The research seeks to explore how various strategies of densification can innovate existing housing sites in London to ensure high quality, sustainable development. The thesis investigates utilising case studies of developments within London’s strategic Opportunity Areas across the city which adopt different methods of densification to enable a variety of strategies at different scales to meet various urban needs.
Housing development perspective drawing
MA Urban Design | Masters
Rowan O’Malley
Urban Space: Privatisation and the threat to urban resilience, diversity, culture and democracy
THIS THESIS EXAMINES the growing phenomenon of privatisation of public space and the threat it poses to urban resilience, diversity, culture and democracy. The provision of publicly accessible space under the control of private owners and management, known as Privately Owned Public Space or ‘POPS’, has become an increasingly entrenched blueprint for how to develop and manage public spaces within the urban realm. Critics label it the ‘death’, or ‘end’ of public space, reducing the diversity, vitality and vibrancy of cities, while proponents herald it as a 'transformation of public space' which ultimately enhances rather than undermines public space in the city. The research focuses on the development of POPS within London in order to examine the effects of privatisation
Gillett Square, Dalston
of public space on the city. As the capital of the United Kingdom and a centre of global importance, London is a city where the diverse urban challenges of the contemporary city are evident in a myriad of forms. The history and scale of urban development within London provides a testing ground to explore key concepts of POPS, such as public versus private space, land ownership, spatial patterns and distribution, post-industrial decline, urban regeneration, the Neoliberal city, security, and planning policy, which are driving development and the manner in which they are shaping the urban form of the city. The thesis concludes with a comparative case study of Granary Square at King's Cross and Gillett Square in Dalston, representing two disparate approaches to the provision and management of publicly accessible space within the urban realm.
Masters | MA Urban Design
MA Urban Design theses 2021 contd.
Kristina Bernard
Designing Walkable Neighbourhoods in Suburban UK Locations: How to promote walkability through an integrated approach encouraging stakeholders This research explores concepts conducive to walkability with a particular focus on contemporary masterplans, which unfold outside of city centres. The theoretical and conceptual framework offers a new tool to inspire policy and practice within the planning and development process.
James Blower
Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods: Questioning the role of streets Low-traffic neighbourhoods are a revitalised approach to tackling traffic in urban areas. This thesis explores whether they are the most effective mechanism for changing attitudes towards the way we use our streets.
Bhagyashree Bhamre
Urban Affordability Crisis in the UK The purpose of this research is to investigate the issues of housing affordability in the United Kingdom, as well as recent trends in housing supply to meet the rising demand. By determining how planning policies affect the crisis and examining what changes the UK government has made to its policies to date to provide solutions.
Holly Dyas
The Future of the High Street: How shopping influences the public realm A study to understand the relationship of shops, shopping activity and the built environment on the high street today. The research investigates shop management and how this can be used as a tool for town centre improvement in Bedford, England. 28
(top left) Kristina Bernard; (top right) James Blower; (bottom left & right) Holly Dyas
MA Urban Design | Masters
Scott Houtsma
How can GIS data aid the Process of Identifying Areas of Inequality and Vulnerability? Can this aid the development of the 15-minute city? Using the concept of the 15-minute city, this paper utilises mapping data to pinpoint neighbourhoods and streets in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to explore how poor access to local services, parks and transportation can leave people disengaged from the city.
Rachael Lishman
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Will Green Recovery strategies rebrand the city to create more inclusive forms of urbanity?
Dorothee Hubsch-Wigginton
In response to climate change and the pandemic, many cities have adopted Green Recovery strategies. As a city infamous for its ‘party town’ image, Green Recovery strategies could change the image of Newcastle to a healthier, greener, more inclusive place.
Are Designated Play Spaces Sufficient to Meet Children’s Play Needs? This research project explores the sufficiency of designated play spaces. It asks what provision may be required to meet children’s play needs in increasingly densely populated cities and looks at ways in which play activity can be successfully incorporated into public life and urban neighbourhoods.
Charlotte Walker
Daniel Johnson
Urban Adaptation to Climate Change A comparative look at Australia and the United Kingdom and their approaches to Sustainable Urban Water Management and what can be learned from them. (left) Dorothee Hubsch-Wigginton; (right) Rachael Lishman
Putting Healthy Placemaking Principles into Practice The dissertation aims to assess leading government and nongovernmental reports in the context of healthy placemaking, produced for built environmental professionals, and considers how they can be more valuable resources by offering evidenced-based, justified, explanatory, and transferable case studies for practical use.
Masters | MA International Planning and Sustainable Development
Tony Lloyd-Jones (Course Leader), Krystallia Kamvasinou, Roudaina Al Khani, Lindsay Bremner, Robin Crompton, Bill Erickson, Ripin Kalra, David Mathewson, Michael Neuman, Johannes Novy, David Seex, Giulio Verdini Tony Lloyd-Jones is an architect, urban designer and planner involved in international development research and practice. He is Reader in International Planning and Sustainable Development and Director of Research and Consultancy at the Max Lock Centre. Krystallia Kamvasinou is a Senior Lecturer and an architect and landscape architect who has published widely. She recently completed a Leverhulme Fellowship on ‘Interim Spaces and Creative Use’.
MA International Planning and Sustainable Development Students: Alokiir Bior Ajang, Naje Ateek, Charlotte Bowles, Caitlin Crowley, Lu Dong, Raquel Flamia, Aleksandra Kalinowska, Rosetta Kuira, Vaidehi Mestry, Keshni Patel-Rayani, Katie Sharp, Abubokkar Siddiki, Ritu Singh
THIS COURSE EXPLORES contemporary theories, policy and practice in planning and urban design for sustainable, inclusive and resilient development in cities, regions and communities in a rapidly urbanising world. It spans both developed and developing world contexts, in locations facing a wide range of growing climate change and other environmental, economic and social pressures and risks, reflected in the student project work noted here. Structured around written assignments and studio-based projects undertaken in group workshops and supported by lectures, seminars, tutorials and site visits. There are two pathways through the course. The Spatial Planning Pathway has a strong urban design component and an emphasis on development planning. The Urban Resilience Pathway provides a sustainable development-focused route with a core emphasis on climate change risks, adaptation planning and natural hazard risk management. Both pathways are grounded in three core modules: Planning in a Globalising World; International Spatial Planning Practice; and Sustainable Neighbourhood Development. The MAIPSD is aimed at those with a relevant background who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of planning Guest Critics: Darshana Chauhan (CoPlug), Martyn Clark (Tripleline), Nandini Dasgupta, Ian Davis, Tim Edmundson, Sebastian Loew (Urban Design Journal), Peter Newman, Geoff Payne (Geoffrey Payne Associates), Federico Redin, Robert Sadlier 30
and sustainable development, whether to improve career prospects in their country or enter UK or international practice. It is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and New Urban Agenda and we are a Habitat Partner University, with several students who have worked as interns with UN-HABITAT. The curriculum draws on the hands-on experience of the Max Lock Centre, an international development unit that has been actively involved in action- and policy-focused research across the developing world since 1995. The MAIPSD is aimed at full-time international, UK and EU students, but it is also open to part-time UK-based students who want to explore an international development planning career pathway. The MA course (both pathways) is fully accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) as a ‘combined planning programme’. Graduates from this course find employment as planners and urban designers, urban regeneration or environmental management specialists in private consultancy, local and national government, and non-governmental sectors in their own country or internationally, including international development agencies. Special Thanks: Camillo Boano (DPU/UCL), Angelique Chettiparamb (University of Reading), Malcolm Moor, Michael Mutter, Marion Roberts, Pat Wakely (DPU Associates), Ya Ping Wang (University of Glasgow) Abubokkar Siddki
MA International Planning and Sustainable Development | Masters
Masters | MA International Planning and Sustainable Development
Raquel Flamia
Public Open Spaces: Spatial equity frameworks for Brazilian secondary cities
AS MORE PEOPLE live in cities, the gaps between rich and poor in society also increases, and there is a need to create strategies to minimise this inequity. All cities present gaps in society, however, the Global South is suffering the most. Secondary cities are suffering from urbanisation and have fewer resources than capital cities. Access to public open space can add social, environmental, and economic value, and increase people’s and communities’ sense of belonging, social capital, mental health, and more. This study aims to create a spatial equity framework for public open spaces in secondary cities in Brazil, to be used as a tool by planners and governments. This research used mixed methods, with quantitative and qualitative approaches to data gathering and analysis. The framework’s creation
32
was based on the literature review, after which a few case studies were analysed to refine the framework, and finally, it was applied to a Brazilian secondary city case study, Bento Gonçalves, in order to test and validate the tool. The results are presented through maps that illustrate the main gaps and areas that most need public open space. The analysis of existing spaces also guides the local needs with suggestions, such as informal spaces and the necessity to engage the local community to minimise green gentrification and have more effective results. On the other hand, the study points to the challenges of creating POS, such as difficult access because of very steep terrains. Finally, the POS Spatial Equity Frameworks proved to be an useful tool for understanding spatial equity regarding public open space.
Public open space analysis
MA International Planning and Sustainable Development | Masters
Katie Sharp
Sustainable Cities: How can best cycling practices in Copenhagen be used to improve New York’s cycling infrastructure and policy?
THE GROWTH IN cities and other urban areas, have led to urbanisation and development that is putting extreme pressure on the environment in the form of climate change and other issues. To deal with these issues, governments and other stakeholders have sought to improve the future of cities and people’s livelihoods by developing sustainably. Sustainability involves three domains: economic, environmental and social. These three domains should be balanced and interlinked with one another, however in certain situations economic development has taken priority. This study looks at the importance of active transport as a way to achieve sustainable development, particularly cycling. The implementation of cycling policies and infrastructure has been met with a range of successes. Copenhagen has been labelled as the worlds best cycling city, which is used in this study to show how cities can be successful in active transport. New York has seen some development in cycling initiatives, but has faced criticism and shown teething problems. These problems include, safety issues, lack of appropriate infrastructure and facilities, inequality, poor education and training, and negative perception of cyclists and cycling. It is suggested that New York can learn from Copenhagen’s success story. Nevertheless, Copenhagen is a much smaller city in comparison to the mega city New York. The thesis explores how realistic would it be for the best practices to be scaled up for the larger scale context.
Cykelslangen, Copenhagen [photo: Unsplash]
Masters | MA International Planning and Sustainable Development
MA International Planning and Sustainable Development Theses 2021 contd.
Alokiir Bior Ajang
Lessons for Juba, South Sudan: Planning and community engagement in fragile states There is a need to explore the potential role of community planning in fragile contexts. Local communities should be involved in the planning process as early as possible, so they are informed and have a say about how their environment is shaped, thus, enhancing community resilience.
Caitlin Crowley
Naje Ateek
Charlotte Bowles
The Role of Community Involvement During the Green Recovery Process in the UK: The case of Old Oak and Park Royal
An Assessment into the Value and Purpose of Green Space in New Residential-Led MixedUse Developments
This dissertation addresses community engagement in urban regeneration Post-COVID under green recovery processes, including online and digital-focused engagement methods. It recommends several steps to improve and increase participation during the green recovery.
This study identifies the value of green space created in new developments, referring to the different types of public and private green space and its importance in both social and environmental wellbeing, and creates criteria for best design practice.
Lu Dong
Aleksandra Kalinowska
Community Displacement from Climate Change: Investigating community resilience and the role of disaster frameworks
The Influence of Modernisation on the Planning and Construction Management of Villages and Towns
Accessibility Instruments in Planning Practice: The GDATI and JAD instruments experience
This dissertation reviews the concept ‘community resilience’, with reference to its application to climate resilience, displacement and disaster management frameworks, and aims to help manage displaced communities and build resilience.
This dissertation studies management orientation, normative standards, planning and construction implementation and administrative management mechanism of villages and towns in South-east Chongqing, China. It analyses the core problems bound to creating a homogeneous ‘urban modernisation’ and recommends how this could be avoided.
Using case studies, this thesis considers how accessibiility instruments can help to inform and shape an approach to urban development and mobility management.
34
(left) Charlotte Bowles ; (centre) Akeksandra Kalinowska: Cykelslangen; (right) Charlotte Bowles :Mala
MA International Planning and Sustainable Development | Masters
Rosetta Kuira
Vaidehi Mestry
Keshni Patel-Rayani
Evaluation of the Efficacy of Community Participation in Slum Upgrade Processes in Kenya: Case Study: Kibera, Nairobi County
The Third Places and Community Planning in Mumbai, India: The case study of the Koli Community
Compact Cities: Policies and strategies used for a successful model in the case of London
This dissertation explores the existing legal and policy framework, and the role of stakeholders in the slum upgrade process, in Kibera, Kenya. It assesses the benefits of the community participatory approach to a habitable and sustainable environment as defined by the UN Habitat and the challenges that remain to put the intentions of the 2010 Constitution into practice.
This study explores the concept of 'Third Places’, social spaces that lie between home and work, and their importance in maintaining the identity and coherence of communities. The thesis focuses on Mumbai's koliwadas, indigenous fishing communities threatened by development, and explores how a community planning approach could strengthen them.
This study focuses on the experience of the Filipino community in London during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group who play a critical role in the health and care sectors. This research imagines how ethics of care provided by the Filipion community to others could be embedded into the city itself to create spaces of care.
Abubokkar Siddiki
Ritu Singh
Smart Village: How can smart villages reduce pressure on primary and secondary cities?
Designation of Conservation Areas and its Influence on the Economy
Smart village initiatives will create a well-planned village infrastructure with all the basic amenities and technological advances, creating opportunities within the village for the youth and the different generations. As a result, it will attract locals to stay within their area and reduce pressures on secondary cities.
This dissertation seeks to explain the importance of Conservation Areas and how their designation contributes to economic growth.
(left) Alokiir Bior Ajang: Floods in Bor, South Sudan [photo: UNMISS]; (centre) Ritu Singh ; (right) Abubokkar Siddiki :
Masters | MA Tourism Management
Dimah Ajeeb, Stroma Cole, Helen Farrell, Anne Graham, Clare Inkson, Maja Jović, Chantal Laws, Rutendo Musikavanhu Chantal Laws is a Senior Lecturer, disability tutor for the school and a researcher in events and the creative and cultural industries. Her professional background ranges from curating in the heritage sector to managing a multi-stage publicly-funded London arts venue. Rutendo Musikavanhu is an experienced academic, skilled in education, strategic leadership, mega-sport events, tourism and hospitality. She is a strong research professional with interests in the legacy and social impacts of mega events.
MA Tourism Management Students: Blerim Aliaj, Eliza Bagdasaryan, Abhay Bahadur, Sofiane Boumaza, Martina Buratti, Simran Kaur, Mahir Jatinkumar Patel, Clayton Rodrigues, Sameer Mansukhbhai Sakariya, Sanchay Sharma
TOURISM IS AN increasingly important part of our lives, and the tourism industry is a global industry with an interesting future in the post-COVID world. Managing this rapidly growing industry to meet visitors' demands in a sustainable way is exciting and challenging. This longestablished course addresses the knowledge, analytical abilities and skills needed to make a career as a tourism professional. Here at the heart of London, we are in one of the world's leading tourism destinations. Site visits are integrated into the course modules and enable students to explore a wide variety of aspects of the dynamic tourism industry. Students learn about the nature and characteristics of tourism and explore how it can be marketed, managed and planned, examining cases from around the world. Management and entrepreneurial skills are also developed to assist students in finding employment in many different parts of this dynamic and growing industry.
36
A range of option modules allows individuals to focus on particular interests, and to explore the links between the different aspects of tourism. A final dissertation gives the chance to apply learning to develop in-depth, specialist knowledge of a tourism topic of your choice. Annual student feedback for the course is very positive, with teaching, staff contact and course content receiving particular praise. This reflects the tourism team's efforts to provide a valuable and effective course as well as a supportive, friendly and stimulating environment in which to study. Staff teaching on the course are active researchers, and their teaching is informed by both their own research and their engagement with industry. Books and texts written by the teaching team are used by students of tourism at many UK universities.
MA Event Design & Management | Masters
Ian Arnott, Stroma Cole, Lindsey Hanford, Clare Inkson, Josef Jammerbund, Maja Jović, Chantal Laws, Rutendo Musikavanhu, Chiara Orefice, Andrew Smith Chantal Laws is a Senior Lecturer, disability tutor for the school and a researcher in events and the creative and cultural industries. Her professional background ranges from curating in the heritage sector to managing a multi-stage publicly-funded London arts venue. Rutendo Musikavanhu is an experienced academic, skilled in education, strategic leadership, mega-sport events, tourism and hospitality. She is a strong research professional with interests in the legacy and social impacts of mega events.
MA Event Design and Management Students: Maddison Ackerman, Ahmad Akhtar, Sidra Rahmath Ali, Claudia Balters, Idoia Campoy Marin, Hengyin Chen, Hassna Duihi, Pearl Galayini, Carolina Gomez Cortes, Aneta Jirouchova, Ana Jitari, Rebecca Johnson, Riddhi Joshi, Addison Keel, Madison Kesselring, Anthi Koumoutsea, Xi Luo, Andrea Martignon, Carlota Mateus Bleck de Siqueira, Georgia Michaels,
Aashna Nandu, Adriana Neves, Titilayo Okunola, Andrea Perez Bisbal, Beatriz Pinto Correia, Jess Porritt, Isabella Posenato, Salome Rainho Gracio, Reilly Sams, Adriana Santana Albarran, Prithvi Singh, Serena Smith, Ting Chi (Aqua) Tai, Pin Tan, Dorisz Vatali, Nishad Sunil Vichare, Kendall Vowels, Cimarron Woods, Ishan Yadav, Kehan Yang
EVENTS PLAY AN essential role in the business, cultural and sporting life of all countries. In a rapidly-changing world, the course is at the cutting edge of events research and development.
Marathon, Notting Hill Carnival and London Fashion Week, and renowned one-off mega events such as the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics games and the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and home to event companies with the technical expertise to host online events as well, London is a world leader in this dynamic industry.
In recent years an exciting new profession has emerged with event planners designing and organising a diverse range of events, and marketing the great variety of destinations and venues in which they take place. More recently still, we’ve been examining the impact of lockdowns and the move to online and virtual events with great interest. This course is specifically designed for people who want to enter or make further progress in, management-level careers in this fast-expanding field and London, widely recognised as a world events capital, is an ideal place in which to study it. As a regular host of world-class sports and culture events such as Wimbledon, the London
This course explores the strategic development, design and logistical organisation of many different types of event. Students research how events and conferences contribute to enriching the lives of communities and improve communications in business, politics and professional life. The course is taught by experienced academics and industry practitioners, providing valuable insight into this exciting industry sector.
Masters | MSc Air Transport Planning and Management
Nigel Dennis (Course Leader), Anne Graham, Andrew Cook, Frances Kremarik Nigel Dennis is the course leader and a specialist in airline economics, forecasting, scheduling and marketing; he has served on international committees including those of the Transportation Research Board in the US and the Association for European Transport. Anne Graham is a specialist in airport economics, finance, management and aviation issues related to tourism; she is author of the book Managing Airports published by Butterworth-Heinemann. Andrew Cook leads the department’s air traffic management research and sits on national and international ATM committees; he also lectures on air transport market research and data analysis. Frances Kremarik assists with the day-to-day running of the course and specialises in airline networks and the North Atlantic market as well as air travel statistics and surveys.
MSc Air Transport Planning and Management THE MSC AIR Transport Planning and Management is a very practical course that brings together academic content with a large number of specialist contributors from the aviation industry. It is uniquely taught in block mode where students attend for modules of five days’ duration, making it very accessible to part-time students working in the aviation industry both in the UK and internationally. Additional activities are arranged for fulltime students in-between the module blocks, including tutorial and discussion sessions, guest lectures and visits to airport facilities and outside events.
three taught option modules, currently from a choice of four: Airport Finance and Strategy; Air Transport Policy and Planning; Airline Marketing and Business Models; and Air Traffic Management, Scheduling and Network Planning. Students also have the possibility of a free choice module from another suitable programme in place of one of the three options. Most modules include a group workshop or business game in which students apply their knowledge to work as a team in a competitive environment.
Students take three taught core modules: Air Transport Economics; Air Transport Management and Operations; Air Transport Forecasting and Market Research; and
The Research Dissertation is also a core module undertaken in the second half of the study period. A wide range of aspects of the aviation business can be studied and previous dissertations have covered subjects as specialised as the future of airline catering, demand for commercial space travel, flight booking and payment systems, and the potential for a new supersonic aircraft as well as more mainstream topics such as a business plan for a new start up airline, choice of a new hub for a cargo operator, scope for night time flights on short-haul routes, evaluation of rival commercial aircraft, and environmental implications of airport development.
Guest Speakers: Carole Blackshaw (aviation consultant), David Bowen (SESAR Joint Undertaking), Robert Boyle (formerly IAG), Guillaume Burghouwt (Schiphol Group), Jon Clyne (Civil Aviation Authority),
Nick Fadugba (African Aviation Services Ltd), Laura Faucon (Virgin Atlantic), Jerry Foran (British Airways), Kelly Ison (American Airlines), John Twigg (formerlyManchester Airports Group)
Students come from a range of disciplines (first degrees have included Economics, Geography, Engineering, Languages and Music). No prior knowledge of the air transport industry is assumed but a passion for aviation is one of the best qualifications taken in conjunction with a formal academic background or equivalent appropriate work experience.
38
MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management | Masters
Marzena Piotrowska (Course Leader), Julian Allen, Jacques Leonardi, Maja Piecyk, Allan Woodburn Marzena Piotrowska is Research Fellow and lecturer whose primary research interests focus on city logistics, urban freight consolidation and transport policy. Her current research centres on the role of urban freight consolidation facilities in supporting sustainable city logistics. Julian Allen is Senior Research Fellow. His research interests include the role of transport policy in reducing the negative impacts of logistics operations, developments in retailing and their relationship with logistics and transportation systems, and the history of freight transport. Jacques Leonardi is Senior Research Fellow with 19 years’ experience in developing, testing and evaluating sustainable logistics solutions. His research focuses on supply chain energy and global logistics, applying survey methods to evaluate new technologies and policy impacts. Maja Piecyk is Professor in Logistics. Her research interests focus on the optimisation of supply chain networks, GHG auditing of businesses and the sustainability of freight transport operations. Piecyk is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK). Allan Woodburn is Principal Lecturer in Freight Transport and Logistics, with 25 years’ teaching experience, and often working on industry research and consultancy. His research focuses on different aspects of rail freight including policy, operations, sustainability and efficiency.
MSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management Students: Berlinda Adu, Mariam Agbeti, Altahir Ali, Efua Annan, Anas Azmi, Shubham Borude, Ramesh Dhanapal, Ileka Harriet Edyegu, Levan Eloshvili, Amr Fawzy, Edward Bou Habib, Oluwaseun Jacob, Joe Jessener, Linda Mazzi,
Thanh Nguyen, Arjun Ravi, Eshwar Venkatesan, Lidia Yarovaya Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert): Arian Ahmetaj
THE MSC LOGISTICS and Supply Chain Management was introduced in 1998 and is one of the longest established logistics postgraduate courses in the United Kingdom. The course has been designed to combine logistics concepts and principles with ‘real world’ experience, with a particular emphasis on issues relating to freight transport (i.e. product flow) within the supply chain. The course delivery encourages reflective and critical thinking in helping students to extend existing skills and competencies. In particular, students are given guidance on developing their skills for undertaking personal research, and a considerable amount of time is spent by the student on personal study for the Research Dissertation.
Modules use a variety of teaching and learning methods including academic lectures, seminars, tutorials, case studies, guest speakers, site visits, small group exercises, and group and individual presentations.
The course can be taken full-time over 12 months or parttime over 2 years, starting in September. We also offer a Logistics and Supply Chain Management Postgraduate Diploma and a Logistics and Supply Chain Management Postgraduate Certificate. The Diploma usually takes one year to complete full-time, while the Certificate usually takes six months to one year to complete part-time. Each taught module occupies a three-hour slot per week.
The course team is highly active in freight-related research and consultancy projects, with a particular focus on freight transport efficiency and sustainability. The curriculum is updated regularly based upon our research which ensures that the course content and overall strategy reflect current issues in logistics practice, preparing students for careers in this area. We work closely with clients and project partners in both the private and public sectors.
The course attracts a diverse, international group of students, which is of a particular benefit to a programme that focuses strongly on international logistics and supply chains. Over the years, students on the course have come from all parts of the world and have brought a huge variety of educational and professional experience, and gone on to work with companies including: L’Oréal, SCS Railways, DHL, Maersk Logistics, Volvo Logistics and IKEA.
Masters | MSc Transport Planning and Management
Enrica Papa, Rachel Aldred, Mengqiu (Matthew) Cao, Tom Cohen, Luz Navarro Eslava, Jeff Howard, Ersilia Verlinghieri, Holly Weir Enrica Papa is Reader in Transport Planning and course leader of the MSc. Her main research interest is in sustainable accessibility planning.. Rachel Aldred is Professor in Transport and leader of the Active Transport Academy. Mengqiu (Matthew) Cao is a Senior Lecturer in Transport at the University of Westminster. He has worked in both academia and industry. Tom Cohen is a Senior Lecturer in Transport at the University of Westminster. His research interest is in Transport Policy. Luz Navarro Eslava is a Doctoral Researcher in Transport Planning at the University of Westminster. Jeff Howard is a Doctoral Researcher in Transport Planning at the University of Westminster. Ersilia Verlinghieri is a Research Associate in Urban Mobility at the University of Oxford. Holly Weir is a Doctoral Researcher in Transport Planning at the University of Westminster.
MSc Transport Planning and Management THE MSC TRANSPORT PLANNING and Management course aims to develop the students’ abilities to initiate and undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis and research in the areas of transport policy, planning and operational management.
skills. The course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and graduates are exempt from the Institute’s exams. The Course also forms part of the pathway to the Transport Planning Professional (TPP) qualification.
The course intake is diverse in terms of background and sector experience. Students without experience in the sector are enabled to equip themselves with knowledge, techniques and methodologies required to take policy decisions or to provide the necessary information/ knowledge for others to take such decisions. They benefit from learning from the experiences and knowledge of part-time professional students, who in turn benefit from the opportunity to critically reflect on their own practice, and examine transport, policy and planning issues from a wider perspective than their present employment.
Students following this course develop a critical, in-depth understanding of key transport issues, alongside the skills that will help them progress careers within the sector. The course team is in regular contact with key employers, many of whom regularly both sponsor current employees and employ our recent graduates. Such employers regularly provide information about vacancies and come into the University to speak about the opportunities that they offer. Some offer to partner with full-time students on key dissertation topics of interest, for example providing data for analysis, which can be an excellent route into the industry.
The overall objectives are to provide all students with a stimulating academic environment within which to study transport issues, to ensure students are aware of current transport policy and planning issues and to prepare them for a wide range of potential employment within the transport sector by developing relevant transferable
40
Many of our graduates have progressed to senior levels in management and policy-making, within transport operators, public bodies, consultancy companies and nongovernmental organisations.
MSc Transport Planning and Management | Masters
MSc Transport Planning and Management Theses 2021
Samuele Bacci
The Path Towards Shared Autonomous Mobility: A qualitative analysis of the status of development of public transport-shared autonomous vehicles integrated systems This dissertation investigates the role shared autonomous mobility (SAM) can play in supporting a shift away from the private car and increase public transport ridership. The focus is on the potential impacts of SAM and on the operational characteristics the new services will need to promote sustainable mobility.
Faosat Bolaji
What Influences Resident’s Choice of Car-use as a preferred modal choice? Investigating current behaviour and future trends using Enfield as a case study, this thesis aims to investigate the reason why residents in this north London borough use the car as their preferred choice of travel, why there is a steady rise in car use/ownership, and if it will continue with this trend.
Andrei-Razvan Botina
Quantifying the Societal Impacts of Introducing Cargo Bikes and MicroConsolidation Centres in Urban Last-Mile Logistics This research evaluates the potential of using cargo bikes to replace diesel vans when the distance between the pick-up and delivery area is increased to the upper limit of the distance considered as the last mile.
James Craft
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods: Is it really a case of a loud opposing minority vs a silent supporting majority? This research aims to investigate the biggest perceived positive and negative impacts of the implementation of PFS in Canonbury East using responses to Islington Council’s Commonplace online interactive tool.
Ethelmark Durant
Exploring the Extent of Transport Disadvantage for Low-Income Essential Workers: The case of Barbadian nurse This dissertation questions the existing mobility experiences of nurses in Barbados, to ascertain whether these individuals are, and will continue to be, socially disadvantaged by transport policies.
Maximillian Hayward
Exploring the County’s Existing Infrastructure and Future Plans to Enable the Uptake of Electric Vehicles This paper questions what is necessary to increase the electric vehicle charging infrastructure: greater influence from national government; pressure from local government; and what increase in funding, resources and knowledge is necessary to improve the grid’s reliability and ensure charging points are installed in sufficient numbers and in convenient locations.
Ben Sankey
Using Strava Data to Assess the Impact of London’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods on Cycling Rates Between February/March 2020 and February/March 2021 Looking at eleven London boroughs with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, an intervention and control area is selected in each borough to compare rates of change of cycling between the two areas.
Timothy Vickers
‘Walking is just obvious isn’t it?’ What are the most important level of service factors for walkers in Surrey? This research sets out to understand how different service factors impact a walker’s experience in Surrey, effect their choice of route, or if they serve as a barrier to walking.
Daniel Watts
A Methodology to Create a Work-from-home Trip Generation Indicator: An application in England and Wales This dissertation exploits the consequence of this pandemic to produce a methodology that creates a WFH trip generation indicator, which can be applied to current demand forecasting processes. The dissertation was awarded the 2021 Best Dissertation prize, sponsored by WSP.
Masters | MSc Transport Planning and Management
Andrei-Razvan Botina
Quantifying the Societal Impacts of Introducing Cargo Bikes and Micro Consolidation Centres in Urban Last-mile Logistics
THIS RESEARCH EVALUATES the potential of using cargo bikes to replace diesel vans when the distance between the pick-up and delivery area is increased to the upper limit of the distance considered as the last mile ( up to 10 km/miles). The study considers possible future operations of Pedal Me by creating a realistic case study that allows testing the performance of integrating a micro consolidation centre (MCC) with cargo bike deliveries. Using routes simulation, the study compares the performance of cargo bikes, diesel van and cargo bikes integration with a micro consolidation centre. It was established that to deliver 86 jobs, cargo bikes saved around 5 hours and reach an average speed 1.65 times higher than diesel vans. Additionally, cargo bikes produce 5.2 times less CO2 and help save 317.56 g NOx and 87.23 g PM. Besides environmental benefits, the shift from vans to cargo bikes can also free public space and decrease congestion as they use nine times less space to deliver a parcel. It is also determined that integrating a micro consolidation centre can further improve cargo bikes operations when the e-van operates at full capacity ( i.e., multiple jobs in a day) or when the e-van operations are moved during the night.
42
The study is also put in the broader context provided by the literature and examined in comparison to other findings. It ends with a critical analysis of its limitations and some ideas for future research.
MSc Transport Planning and Management | Masters
Daniel Watts
A Methodology to Create a Work-From-Home Trip Generation Indicator: An application in England and Wales
THIS DISSERTATION EXPLOITS the consequence of the COVID pandemic to produce a methodology that creates a Work-from-Home trip generation indicator, which can be applied to current demand forecasting processes. The analysis found that the change in GDP alone cannot account for the reduction in observed trips across different lockdown scenarios from the case study area (Gravesend, Kent).
Moreover, when a bespoke WFH score for the study area was included in the formula, calculated by manipulating Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) published ‘ability to WFH scores’, car commuter trips were found to be more accurately forecasted. Through statistical testing using the GEH methodology, four indicators and their estimated flows were compared to observed flows to establish the best performing indicator. Separate to this, statistical and spatial analysis also found that ONS ‘ability to WFH scores’ were agreeable with current research in the impact occupation has on WFH. Furthermore, when applied to electoral wards across England and Wales, the spatial pattern of ability to WFH correlates well with relevant literature related to location and WFH rates. These outcomes are important because homeworking has become and will likely remain more popular than prepandemic. The findings suggest that current forecasting techniques engender inaccurate forecast demand estimates that exclude the impact of homeworking on car commuter trips. Without including a WFH trip generation indicator to account for this impact, the forecast demand process utilised in England and Wales will remain inherently inaccurate.
Masters | MA Urban and Regional Planning
Johannes Novy, Andrew Boughton, Bill Erickson
Johannes Novy is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and holds a PhD in Urban Planning from Columbia University, New York. In addition to his work in teaching and research, he is a founding member of the Berlin collective u-Lab, Studio für Stadt und Raumprozesse, and a member of the board of trustees of the International Building Exhibition Stuttgart Region IBA2027. Andrew Boughton is a Lecturer in Planning with more than 35 years of practitioner experience in the UK and overseas as an Architect, Chartered Planner, and Planning Inspector. Bill Erickson is a Principal Lecturer and architect with extensive experience in urban design. He has practiced in Australia, Italy and the UK.
MA Urban and Regional Planning THE MA URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING provides students with the skills, knowledge and abilities required to work professionally as spatial planners in a variety of private, public and third sector/community settings. The course explores planning in a variety of contexts and scales, but focuses particularly on planning in and for towns and city regions in the UK. The course is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and covers both the spatial and specialist elements of the RTPI requirements for initial training in planning. Students are taught by qualified and dedicated staff who possess vast industry, research and teaching experience and moreover, they benefit from studying in a genuinely interdisciplinary academic environment with excellent industry links in the heart of London.
44
The main aim of the course is to produce critically minded, well-rounded and highly employable graduates who will excel in a wide range of professional fields and possess the skills and competencies required to address the diverse challenges and opportunities associated with contemporary spatial development and planning. The diversity of the relevant content and themes of the Master's programme is also reflected in the final theses of the graduates of the class of 2020/21, which cover topics as diverse as: planning and mental health; stadium-led urban regeneration; crime prevention through environmental design; gamification in urban planning; and housing and social justice in the city.
MA Urban and Regional Planning | Masters
MA Urban and Regional Planning Theses 2021
Clare Bambury
Can Urban Planning Improve Personal Health? A study of the link between the built environment and improving personal health
Myles Bartoli
Exploring the Extent of a Bergsonian Form of Law within English Planning Law
Ethan Bonthron
BtR or Worse? An exploration of the additionality benefits associated with Build to Rent developments
Mirela Chirac
Rethinking Public Open Space: Planning climate change resilient public open spaces for elderly people in Kingston upon Thames
Amber Corfield-Moore
Neoliberalism and Decarbonisation of the UK Energy Sector
John Cully
Have the Stadium Redevelopments at Wembley and the Emirates been a Benefit for the Local Community?
Joshua Daruvala
Do Local Planning Authorities have an Underlying Negative Attitude Towards Class Q Development?
Hollie Hawkins
An Exploration on the Local Authority Planners’ Perspective on the Challenges of Providing Custom and Self-Build Plots
Alex Howard
The North London Derby: A comparative study into stadia-led development as a catalyst for residential development
Thomas Howe
Generation Rent in Hertfordshire: Assessing the barriers to housing transitions for young people in Hertfordshire
Jordan Johnny
Just Serve the Notice: An exploration of enforcement action in England
Clara Loveland
An Exploration of Local Authority Planners' Perspectives on Place Attachment
Sarah-Jane Martins
An Investigation into Whether the Green Infrastructure Strategy in Hertfordshire can Promote Mental Health and Well-being in Young People and their Families
Abbie McGovern
Katherine Dowle
Infill Development as an Approach to Council Estate Regeneration: A review of the impacts on households in the London Borough of Southwark
Stephen Flynn
Examining the Appropriateness of Urban Resilience for the Regeneration of Council Estates amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Use of a Citizen Assembly as a Public Participation Tool in Urban Planning: Lessons from Romsey, Hampshire Neighbourhood Planning in Greater Norwich
Hannah Garlinge
Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: Investigating its implementation in planning major residential developments in the Canterbury District
Hayley Nixon
Kevin O'Hanlon
A Documentary Policy Research Study: What is the future of ‘transport poverty’ and bus service provision in rural areas in the UK?
Ellie Petrow
Are Recent Urban Extensions in Crawley Socially Sustainable?
Matthew Prescott
Levelling Up Planning: The potential of commercial video games for the town planning profession
Laura Richardson
Exploring the Knowledge of Green Infrastructure among Development Management Planners
Aaron Roberts
The Only Way is Up: An exploration of the upward extension PDRs through the perspectives of public and private planners
Andrew Rudlin*
Providing the Housing which London needs: Lessons and ways ahead from international cities
Zara Seelig
The Future of Burial: Changing the perception and maximising the functionality of burial spaces
Samantha Simmons#
Mental Health and the Built Environment: Exploring the role of planning practice in delivering mentally healthy places
Emily Stainer
The Significance of Private Amenity Space for Wellbeing: A case study of Welwyn Garden City
Harriet Todd
Delivering Change for Better or Worse: Exploring conflict between national and local housing affordability policy in the south of England
Hayley White
Is Westminster City Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy Receiving Sufficient Funding to Support Development? * 2020-21 RTPI Award for best MAURP/IPSD Dissertation with an international outlook 2020-21 RTPI Award for best MAURP/IPSD Dissertation
#
PRACTICE & STUDY
Practice & Study | RIBA Part 3
RIBA Part 3 Alastair Blyth, Wilfred Achille, Susanne Bauer & Stephen Brookhouse
THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE + CITIES runs the largest RIBA Part 3 programme in the UK. It is developing a Live Design Practice, as well as a young professionals mentor scheme, where recent Part 3 graduates mentor current course students who will also be involved in other architecture programmes. The students come from a wide variety of backgrounds including overseas schools of architecture. Architects who trained outside the UK also attend the course to gain an in-depth understanding of the complexities of UK practice. Following the requirements of the ARB/RIBA Professional Criteria, Part 3 is structured as a series of building blocks with clear assessment points throughout the year. The lectures, delivered by industry experts, and this year delivered online, allow students to balance attendance with work commitments and are recorded for easy future access.
Students’ professional development in the workplace is supported by a team of 40 professional tutors – all architects in practice – who provide one-to-one tutorial guidance on project-based coursework. Professional examiners consistently comment on the high, critical standard of the coursework which we attribute to the structured tutoring system where students are challenged to think about practice differently. The different student backgrounds, as well as the types and number of practices represented on the course, along with the tutors and examiners gives an unprecedented reach into the architectural profession. This enables the course to both draw from the breadth of practice experience as well as contribute to it. The Part 3 Course was validated by the RIBA for a further five years in November 2017 and the Visiting Board gave it a Commendation citing its scope and delivery, dedicated Chair of Professional Practice and dedicated administrative support. It was revalidated by the University in 2018. Alastair Blyth
Wilfred Achille is Co-Course Leader. Wilfred completed a major study on Broadwater Farm, Tottenham after the eighties riots. Founder of Mode 1 Architects specialising in estate remodelling projects and urban regeneration, he is developing new Turn-key solution business models for architectural practice. Alastair Blyth is Assistant Head of School and Co-Course Leader. He spent ten years in the Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD developing a research programme on learning environments. Publications include books on Briefing (Routledge, 2001, 2010); and education environments (OECD 2009, 2012). He collaborates with architectural practices in Sydney and Mexico on school building projects. Susanne Bauer is Senior Lecturer in the Professional Practice in Architecture and the Architectural History and Theory courses. She has practiced in offices in the UK and Germany, including Foster + Partners and AHMM, and previously taught at Norwich University of the Arts and Birmingham City University. Stephen Brookhouse is a Principal Lecturer and Module Leader for English law, regulations, construction procurement and contracts. He is a chartered architect with over 20 years' experience in practice has authored the first two editionas of the Part 3 Handbook as well as Professional Studies in Architecture: A Primer.
48
RIBA Part 3 | Practice & Studies
Lecture-based Modules The two lecture-based modules are delivered during the first semester. The lecture programmes are delivered by differing industry experts, including construction lawyers, construction managers, architects and surveyors, and are
repeated to allow students to balance attendance with work commitments. Lectures are video recorded for easy future access. Each series concludes with an open book written exam.
Architectural Practice Management
English Law, Regulations, Construction Procurement and Contracts
This module is delivered as an intensive short course in January with a written examination held in May. The 12 lectures cover general management, marketing, and practice management as well as managing health and safety, different forms of architectural practice and the role of the professional and regulatory bodies.
This module is delivered as a programme of evening lectures from September to December with a written examination held in January. The module starts with an overview of the English legal system, the regulatory framework that architectural practitioners work with, the procurement of construction projects, the range of contracts used in practice and dispute resolution. Throughout the course students are encouraged to place the issues covered in the context of their practice as well as other experience they will have had.
Fadwa Mezughi
Practice & Study | RIBA Part 3
RIBA Part 3 Work-based Modules These are supported by a team of 38 professional tutors – all architects in practice – who provide one-to-one tutorial guidance and act as the students’ professional studies advisors for the year. Tutors arrange a mix of group and individual tutorials as well as provide individual advice
by email where needed. The work-based modules are also supported by a lecture programme. Students may defer submission of the coursework for the work-based modules for either six or twelve months to enable them to respond to their workplace context
Professional Development and Experience
Oral Examinations
This work-based module tracks and supports the student’s professional development in the workplace. A student’s professional development is discussed with their Professional Tutor who provides guidance on the professional Curriculum Vitae and the Career Evaluation as well as guidance on preparing for the oral examination. Coursework, comprising the CV, Career Evaluation and PEDR sheets, is submitted in June and assessed in July. Students are required to complete PEDRs for the duration of the course and the PEDR sheets are reviewed on a quarterly basis.
Oral examinations for both modules take place in early September, with interviews generally lasting 45 minutes. Professional Examiners are paired and will see six students over a day. Their role is to assess the candidate’s performance at oral only and the interviews are based on the Professional Case Study and the Professional Development coursework submitted. The written coursework will have been marked already and the examiners will see the feedback given to students.
50
Matthew Bloomfield / Allies and Morrison: Stratford Waterfront sketches
RIBA Part 3 | Practice & Study
RIBA Part 3 Work-based Modules contd
The Professional Case Study The aim of the module is to bring together student’s knowledge of practice including management, legal frameworks, procurement and critically analysis in the context of a construction project drawing substantially on their own experience. It aims to build on the theory studied in the lecture-based modules, and provide an opportunity to make professional judgements. The case study covers the practice, the design team, appointment, regulatory framework, procurement, and the construction stage. Students are asked
Matthew Bloomfield / Allies and Morrison: Stratford Waterfront site construction
to analyse their project against best practice, and make recommendations for future practice based on their analysis. Students submit a draft case study in March and receive formative assessment and feedback in April. The final coursework is submitted in June and assessed in July. Guidance is given on preparing for the oral examination which takes place in September.
Practice & Study | Professional Development
Live Design Practice: Community Hub, Leyton
THE LIVE DESIGN PRACTICE is a new initiative which will give students at different levels and from all courses across the school the opportunity to take part in live projects, but also provide basis for research into innovation in practice. It is a neutral space where we can bring together people from planning, architecture, interiors, architectural technology, transport and tourism to work together. The initial project is a QHT-funded mean-while Live Community Hub in Leyton, in partnership with Waltham Forest Council, local youth organisation MVP Media, and the local community. Students gain direct, hands-on experience of the planning and construction process, both enhancing and broadening their range of skills, and developing their confidence through dealing with stakeholders and construction professionals. The project aims to be a beacon of community engagement inspiring children and young people. In addition, local outreach exhibitions organised by Wilfred Achille, Part III course leader at the University of Westminster, promotes architectural education from and for black and ethnic minority parts of the community, engaging the people who usually would not have access to academic environments. Live projects involve participatory activities that can bring together diverse stakeholders. Significantly,
the projects have a tangible physical aspect which makes participation exciting, engaging and, most importantly, empowering. Our innovative approach is to use Live Projects as a way to understand issues and ask questions. We introduce new ways of working collaboratively across sectors and take our multidisciplinary skills within academia and use these in live projects to serve communities and have a positive impact on society whilst introducing students and staff to alternative practice. This project derives from the previous 1:1 pavilions students built. Students engaged in public consultation in collaboration with the council to better understand the needs and aspirations of locals. They then developed designs for a visionary community hub based on this initial research, to create a place that supports activities for young people in the area as well as offering the university a space to exhibit work on a continuous basis, reaching out to the local community. Live projects provide a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between spatial, political, financial and social factors in connection with our lived urban experience. There is the possibility for practical and tangible outcomes, which can be communicated to a wide range of audiences in an engaging way. Maria Kramer Project Lead
52
(clockwise from top left) Jason Jones: Axonometry of the site; Maria Kramer: Photos of Woven Pavilion at Marylebone Campus; Site visit with students from DS(3)2; Juwana Noori: Student proposal of structure; Saima Roof: 3D structural sketch model; Atefeh Arefcheh: View from High Street, student proposal
Professional Development | Practice & Study
THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE + CITIES is a research active school and generates a large proportion of the University’s research income. In March 2021 we submitted the work of 77 researchers, amounting to 159 outputs and 5 impact case studies to Unit of Assessment 13 of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). This was the highest number submitted by any school in the University. Results of this exercise, which ranks our research outputs, research impact and research environment against those of our peers in the UK, will be released in 2022.
Since completing our submission to the REF, staff and PhD researchers in the school have been reorganised into five thematically-driven research groups and three research centres, with an additional research centre being established. These groups and centres, detailed on the next page, aim to provide a supportive environment for researchers, facilitate new research collaborations and knowledge exchange activities and increase research income and output.
For further details about our research groups, visit: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/research
Lindsay Bremner SA+C Director of Research
54
RESEARCH
Research | Groups
RESEARCH GROUPS
Architectural Humanities
Place and Experience
Founded on humanities-based methods, and including interdisciplinary arts and social science approaches to research, members of the Architectural Humanities Research Group address contemporary critical questions about architecture and its contexts.
The Place and Experience Research Group focuses on tourism and events research with specialisms in city tourism and mega events, the tourist and destination community experiences, and sustainability. Convened by Stroma Cole and Ilaria Pappalepore
Convened by Kate Jordan and Davide Deriu.
Emerging Territories The Emerging Territories Research Group focuses on societal and environmental challenges faced by cities and territories in relationship to evolving notions of sustainability and resilience, looking particularly at climate change, effective governance, diversity and social inclusion.
Transport and Mobilities The Transport and Mobilities Research Group covers a diverse range of aspects of transport and mobility, including city mobilities, active travel, freight, infrastructure investment, networks, accessibility and transport equity. Convened by Gerald Gurtner and Enrica Papa
Convened by Krystallia Kamvasinou and Giulio Verdini.
Making and Practice The Making and Practice Research Group brings together design practitioners who demonstrably innovate in their field, with academics and teachers who study and use design methods and processes within their research. Convened by Paolo Zaide and John Zhang.
56
In addition to these five groups, the school hosts the Active Travel Academy led by Rachel Aldred, the Max Lock Centre led by Tony Lloyd-Jones, and ProBE, led by Christine Wall and Linda Clarke, a joint initiative between the School of Architecture and Cities and the Westminster Business School. Additionally, Andrew Cook is in the process of establishing an Air Traffic Management Research Centre.
Groups | Research
Research | Expanded Territories
Monsoon Assemblages Lindsay Bremner Principal Investigator: Professor Lindsay Bremner Post Doctoral Research Fellow: D r Beth Cullen (anthropologist) Research Fellow: C hristina Geros (architect, landscape architect) Research Associate: John Cook (architect) PhD: Harshavardhan Bhat (political scientist) and Anthony Powis (architect) MArch Studio DS18: Aligned with the project 2016-2019
MONSOON ASSEMBLAGES WAS a five-year interdisciplinary research project funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant based in the School of Architecture + Cities at the University of Westminster from 2016 to 2021. It investigated the impacts of changing monsoon climates in four of South Asia’s rapidly growing cities – Chennai, Delhi, Dhaka and Yangon. The project was undertaken at a time when climate change and urban development conspired to produce unlikely futures for urban survival. Extreme weather events, all attributed to the monsoon’s capricious nature, were resulting with increasing frequency in water shortages, power failures, floods, outbreaks of disease, damage to property and loss of life. In responding to these events, the project challenged the dominant view of the monsoon as a meteorological system outside of and distinct from society. Instead it proposed that the monsoon was hybrid of intra-acting of physical and social dynamics entangled within historic lived environments, whose operations could be used as models for thinking and designing with. An interdisciplinary team of spatial designers and environmental humanities scholars was brought together around the operative concept of Monsoon Assemblages. The aim was to produce knowledge of and design strategies for urban environments as more-thanhuman, monsoonal systems that operated across multiple scales and through media that are indivisibly natural, social, political and technological.
58
Monsoon Assemblages was a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 679873), 2016-2021.
In responding to conditions in South and Southeast Asian cities, Monsoon Assemblages challenged the concept of climate change adaption and replaced it with the concept of climate co-production. Adaption, understood as a process adjusting social, environmental and economic systems to alleviate the adverse effects of climate change, perpetuates a dichotomy between society and climate as separate bounded domains stacked up against one another. This contradicts the basic premise of anthropogenic understandings of climate change, that human agency is inextricably bound up with it across multiple scales. Humans do not simply adapt to climate change, they actively produce it. From this followed the project’s proposition: to take up what it meant for the spatial design disciplines and environmental humanities to think about monsoons, not as something to climate-proof against, but as something to co-design buildings, infrastructure, cities and territory with. This went beyond familiar socio-spatial categories of urban form dominated by terra firma and instead introduce the idea of cities as fluid, watery, seasonally variable sites of contestation and negotiation between people, animals, plants, land, sea and air. Interactions between the monsoon, the earth, human and non-human agency became a resource for new agendas for design.
Expanded Territories | Research
(left) Raymonde Bieler: The Chaung Gyi Archipelago: Erosion and deposition study, Ayeyarwady River, Myanmar, to create new land for displaced peoples. [DS18 2018/19]; (right) Fiona Grieve: The Energy Tribunal: Harnessing heat generated by the oil pipeline linking China to the Bay of Bengal across Myanmar for community use. [DS18 2018/19]
Research | Architectural Humanities
Falling Away – Catherine Yass at Ambika P3
Davide Deriu Vertigo in the City: www.westminster.ac.uk/blogs/vertigointhecity Falling Away: Catherine Yass at Ambika P3: https://issuu.com/clarehamman/docs/falling-away_digital
THE EXHIBITION FALLING AWAY brought together a series of vertiginous film installations by Catherine Yass in Ambika P3 (22 October - 20 November 2021). The first retrospective of the artist’s extensive body of work, it spanned the past two decades and included a new piece made in response to the impact of COVID-19 and global warming. Ambika P3’s vast subterranean space invited audiences to experience the disorientating effects of Yass’s films, which portray architecture in a state of construction, abandonment or demolition. By engaging with our perception of verticality, these works address the relationship between material structures and the powers and institutions that embody them. The exhibition drew attention to the vital role of public services, whose fragility has been exposed by the ongoing pandemic. More broadly, it addressed the conditions of social and psychological instability in which we currently live.
film-maker and Ambika P3 curator Michael Mazière. This collaborative project was informed by Deriu’s research into Vertigo in the City and by Maziere’s interdisciplinary curatorial practice. A catalogue comprising nine essays by art writers, historians and critics, as well as by the curators themselves, was published in print and digital forms (open access). The public programme centred on the exhibition included a symposium and school workshops. This exhibition was generously supported by Arts Council England, British Academy, University of the Creative Arts, University of Westminster’s Research Communities and CREAM (Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media).
Since its inception, Ambika P3 has been developing innovative methods for forming a distinctly experimental art site, rather than a gallery or cinema. This exhibition further questioned the multiple relationships between artist, image, space and viewer, as well as the collaborative role of the curator as designer and co-producer. Falling Away was co-curated by Davide Deriu, Reader in Architectural History and Theory, together with
60
Catherine Yass: Still frame from ‘Lighthouse’ (2011)
Emerging Territories | Research
Water Insecurity and Gender-based Violence: A comparative study of Indonesian and Peruvian women
Stroma Cole
British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Grant 400136
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE (GBV) is one of the most prevalent public health threats in the world today, with as many as one out of every four women affected. As water insecurity continues to grow, will women be at greater risk from domestic violence? Working at the intersection of SDG 5 and SDG6 this research explores the interconnection. Specifically, we have extended HWISE (https://hwise-rcn.org/), a crossculturally validated, internationally used scale to explore household level water insecurity and added a section dedicated to GBV. The quantitative survey in Sumba has shown a strong association between household water insecurity and GBV
:Elderly Woman has to climb 114 steps to fetch water, Sumba, Indonesia
Binahayati Rusyidi (Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia), Paula Tallman (The Field Musem Of Natural History, US), Gabriella Salmón (Pontificia Universidad Catolica Del Perú)
– in fact, in water insecure areas women are three times more likely to suffer from GBV. And we have many stories from women to back up the statistics. The project is ongoing. We are in the process of running participative workshops with health and water management practitioners to explore policies and practices that can help reduce women’s vulnerability and increase their resilience. This research is funded by the British Academy and is a collaboration between international academics, international and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and practitioners, in Peru and Indonesia.
Research | Transport and Mobilities
Experimenting with City Streets to Transform Urban Mobility (EX-TRA)
Enrica Papa Emilia Smeds Tom Cohen
Read more at: https://www.ex-tra-project.eu/
ACROSS EUROPE, CITIES are trying to radically reduce their reliance on car-based mobility in order to address sustainability challenges. The EX-TRA project is studying experiments with city streets that are being undertaken in London, Amsterdam, Ghent, Munich, Bologna and Milan: temporary changes in street use, regulation and/or form, aimed at exploring systemic change towards a ‘post-car city’.
In this moment, where decisions regarding the postCOVID future of experimental interventions are being considered, capturing a diversity of values and perspectives is crucial. Dominant approaches to evaluating street space privilege expert-defined urban design criteria and quantitative metrics. EX-TRA seeks to decolonise knowledge production, by uncovering the value of nonexpert and non-technocratic knowledge.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust this mode of governing mobility and public space into the limelight. The experiments studied in London include a School Street and a parklet and Mobility Hub implemented in 2020.
To do this, the project uses an ethnographic and inductive method focused on storytelling. This includes data collected from a Commonplace digital engagement platform, focus groups and interviews. Instead of imposing pre-existing ‘expert’ concepts and values top-down, the aim is to build the capability of affected communities for assessing street experiments, through participatory evaluation.
The team at the University of Westminster is focused on understanding local people’s perceptions of street experiments. Linked to a discourse of ‘emergency’ in 2020, many experiments were implemented rapidly without much prior debate about the role of streets in a good city. However, as experiments are designed to be temporary, they also allow urban dwellers to imagine – with their own eyes – what the function of streets could be in the future.
62
This 3-year project (2021-2024) is funded by the ESRC, via the JPI Urban Europe ERA-NET Co-Fund, along with university partners and funding agencies in 5 other European countries.
School Street in Lambeth, London: experiment with closing the street to provide more space for people, rather than traffic [photo © Paul Tanner + Sustrans]
Transport and Mobilities | Research
Understanding the impacts of station closures on Londoners’ travel during the pandemic is essential for policy-makers and planners
Mengqiu (Matthew) Cao Zhang, Y. and Cao, M. (2020). 'How will transit station closures affect Londoners?', Focus, 22(10): 52-53.
TO SLOW THE spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, London introduced a series of social distancing measures, such as encouraging people to work from home and prohibiting outdoor gatherings. In terms of public transport, Transport for London (TfL) has been running a reduced transit service. On 4th May 2020, TfL announced that 42 stations in London which have no interchanges with other lines would be closed. Of those stations, 36 are located in Inner London, such as Covent Garden and Hampstead stations, while six are in Outer London, such as Heathrow Terminal 4 and South Wimbledon station. However, little was known about how the station closures would impact Londoners’ travel and which areas are more likely to be affected. This research draws upon TfL’s NUMBAT open-source data to explore how the closed stations are connected to other areas in London. Overall, although TfL’s station closures would directly affect 19.38% of transit-users, the majority of travel demand can still be met during the lockdown period, because most of the closed stations are concentrated in Inner London where station density is relatively high, and alternative transit lines or stations are available for passengers to use in order to fulfil their travel requirements. In the case of some of the closed stations – for example, Covent Garden and Charing Cross – there are more than two alternatives. In terms of spatial distribution, the journeys that are directly affected seem to be mainly those concentrated in the areas between Central and East London, and Central and South London, which account for nearly 5.13% of the total transit travel volume. To sum up, in general, the station closures have not had a major impact on Londoners’ travel.
Westminster tube station during the COVID-19 pandemic
Research | Place and Experience
(2020) Green Space use for People’s Wellbeing During COVID-19; (2021) Adaptation of the Public Realm to COVID-19 and the Impact on Future Planning and Design of Sustainable and Healthy Cities Krystallia Kamvasinou Rachel Aldred Nina Smyth (Psychology, School of Social Sciences)
DURING THE COVID-19 pandemic, we surveyed people’s experiences in public green spaces in London as well as changing travel and exercise habits, and their impact on wellbeing. Our online questionnaire survey, which run from early June to end of July 2020, was completed by around 1000 Londoners across many Boroughs. The findings support the value of green space under COVID-19 and point to the need to address issues of perceived risk, physical distancing and capacity. While overall levels of physical activity were similar pre- and during COVID-19, there was substantial churn among our sample – some increased and some decreased their physical activity. This is important if policy can encourage both
Year 2020 2019
Number of participants
300
groups to sustain or resume healthy habits, for example through safer spaces and better space management. Further research in 2021 (using focus groups and a followup online survey) explored the impact of temporary park and street adaptations during the pandemic. While parks’ capacity was stretched to accommodate increased movement and activities often incompatible with each other and with environmental protection, certain streets became slower and greener, and the locus of socialisation outdoors, with cyclists replacing cars and parklets replacing parking spaces. Such changes can have longterm implications for climate, health and wellbeing in postpandemic cities.
Activity
2020
2019
Change
25%
23%
2%
20%
16%
4%
81%
71%
10%
15%
15%
19%
22%
3%
7.6%
11%
3.4%
25%
26%
200
100
0 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Days spent in public green space
64
Use of green space: graphs comparing 2019 and 2020
Place and Experience | Research
Climate Urbanism in the Post-Pandemic World. The case of East London
Giulio Verdini Verdini, G., Dean, C. (forthcoming), ‘Climate urbanism in the post-pandemic world: Mapping vulnerabilities and exploring community activism in East London’. In: Giorgi et al., Design for Vulnerable Communities, Springer.
Video presented at 'Youth 4 Climate': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Ix63EO0Nw
THIS PROJECT AIMS to understand potential future avenues to rethink a climate resilient post-pandemic city. By exploring the case of the River Lea in East London, a group of students interviewed local people involved in a number of projects of community engagement along the river. The video shows their initiatives to actively use the green and public spaces of this neglected part of the city, in the aftermath of the second lockdown.
The theoretical underpinnings of the video derive from the SCUE-funded project: De-colonising urban and architectural curricula to enable effective climate actions (2019-2021), with the aim to tackle together climate concerns at city level with issues of inclusion of affected communities. The final report of the project was presented at the IPCC / UN-HABITAT / GCoM Innovate for Cities Conference, in the panel session ‘Climate justice in urban pedagogy and practice: Towards an inclusive and context-sensitive green recovery for cities’ (14 October 2021), chaired by Giulio Verdini with guests from USA, Tanzania, Morocco, Albania, Australia, South Africa. ( i4c.conference.evey.live/conferences/innovate-4-cities/stage/ parallel-session/session/327)
The video is an outcome of the Year 2 BA Designing Cities ‘Climate Urbanism Studio’ run by Giulio Verdini and Corinna Dean. It was featured at the ‘Youth for Climate’ event at the Pre-COP 26 in Milan in September 2021, titled ‘Youth and Communities for Climate Change Challenges’, and during the Sustainability Month organised at the University of Westminster in October 2021 ahead of COP26 in Glasgow. (https://www.westminster.ac.uk/events/ climate-urbanism-studio-regenerating-east-london)
The River Lea in East London
Research | ProBE
Building it Green – Learning from good practice examples in Europe
Linda Clarke https://buildingtrades.ca/workforce-dev/building-it-green/
BUILDING IT GREEN, an important research project of the Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment, is part of a 4-year (2021-2025) research and development programme, led by Canada’s Building Trades Union (CBTU) and funded by the Canadian government. The aim of the programme is to ensure that the construction workforce is equipped with the expertise necessary to deliver zero energy buildings. ProBE is investigating good practice examples of climate and energy literacy in vocational education and training (VET) for apprentices and trainees and the current construction workforce. The examples will be drawn from UK and selected European Union countries, including Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany, in particular occupations such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers and insulators. These cases will be analysed to evaluate:
The findings of the European-based research will inform the development of climate literacy in Canada and internationally. The outcomes will be disseminated and shared widely and provide a resource for training providers, educators, trade unions and employers. The European component of the project is led by Professor Linda Clarke and Dr Melahat Sahin-Dikmen, accompanied by Professor Christopher Winch (Kings College, London). The team has long experience and expertise in employment and vocational education and training (VET) in the construction sector across Europe and recently completed a study on VET for low energy construction in ten European Union countries.
▪▪ how climate and energy literacy has been incorporated into curricula ▪▪ whether and how occupational interfaces are addressed and interdisciplinary learning across different occupations facilitated ▪▪ the extent to which curricula seek to develop competences such as communication, teamworking and self-management ▪▪ the challenges and barriers to developing and delivering curricula ▪▪ the role of stakeholders, including trade unions, employers, colleges and municipalities, and the ways in which these collaborate in developing and delivering effective VET in zero carbon construction. 66
(left) Trainee, Spain; (right) Model of house in NZEB training centre, Waterford, Ireland
ProBE | Research
Collective Building and Design: Works, processes and memories
Christine Wall
COLLECTIVE BUILDING AND DESIGN (CBD) was a worker’s co-operative of architects and builders based in inner London which operated successfully for over twenty years. As well as small-scale house conversions, they also designed and built substantial community projects such as the Huddleston Centre, a distinctive conversion of a disused church for the voluntary group Handicapped Children in Hackney. They were founded in 1974, a period when there was legal support (Industrial Common Ownership Act), financial and organisational support (ICOM and ICOF) and local support (CDAs) for worker’s
co-operatives. Co-ops also flourished in the vibrant alternative counter-cultural environment originating in the socio-political upheavals of the 1960s. Despite this supporting infrastructure there were very few building coops and CBD is significant for its success and longevity. This project aims to reinstate the history of twentieth century building workers’ co-ops into the history of the built environment in UK. Using CBD as a case study, a number of oral history recordings will be assembled of ‘insider’ accounts of collective, co-operative working in built environment occupations. Interviews are important to allow a multiplicity of viewpoints, including: the effect of working in CBD on subsequent working life; the problems and strengths of collective working; and the opportunity to articulate, and reflect, on the experience of working in a non-hierarchical collective. Alongside the oral history recordings, through documentary research a full record of CBD’s built and unbuilt works will be collated, and an accessible repository created to highlight the co-op’s collective working practices, designs and built output. In collaboration with the wider project, TF/TK and Production Studies, a booklet on CBD will be produced. With the agreement of the participants, a suitable, and sustainable, archive for the deposit of the oral recordings and other material will be found to provide wider access in perpetuity.
The Huddleston Centre Hackney [photo: Jonathan Charley]
Research | Max Lock Centre
Max Lock Centre Tony Lloyd-Jones
THE MAX LOCK CENTRE is an international development research unit drawing on planning and urban and environmental design expertise across the School of Architecture and Cities and wider development-related expertise across the University. It has been investigating planning and design for sustainable and inclusive development mainly in developing countries since the mid-90s. The Centre this past year led research on ‘COVID-19 and Climate Change Challenges to Equitable, Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Development in the Global South’. A Global Challenges Research Fund-sponsored scoping study, this explored the experience of the pandemic from an urban planning and environmental science perspective. A team of 11 researchers, all graduates from our postgraduate international planning and urban design programmes, carried out case studies in urban settings across the globe, from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea and Manila in the east, though New Delhi and
68
Bangalore to Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Buenos Aires in the west. Parallel studies were carried out in L’Aquila, Italy, and the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London. Learning from the COVID-19 experience, the study explored practical policy recommendations for improvements to managing COVID and COVID-type outbreaks at the local and urban scale, particularly as they impact on the poor and socially excluded in developing world cities, and as they interact with climate change concerns. A UK Aid-sponsored planning study earlier in the year, carried out in the city of Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State in south western Nigeria, included an examination of the city’s wider landscape, a major tourist attraction, its ‘blue-green infrastructure ‘and planning response to growing climate change and flood risk concerns. This was presented as part of the School’s Cities Climate Action Taskforce (ArCCAT) exhibition of staff and student work addressing UN Sustainability goals on Marylebone Campus in the run-up to COP26 conference on climate change.
Max Lock Centre | Research
Abeokuta Master Plan and Guidelines for Urban Renewal Abeokuta Master Plan and Guidelines for Urban Renewal Max Lock Core Team: Tony Lloyd-Jones, Federico Redin, Bill Erickson, Ripin Kalra, Nandini Dasgupta
With partner inputs from: Lookman Oshodi, Dominic Gusah, Sam Adenekan, Saadu Dahiru, Mark Wadsworth, Dr Mike Theis, Fanan Ujoh, Rabih El-Fadel, Stephanie Edwards, Ekaete Bassey, Dr Nicholas Miles, Darshana Chauhan, Taiwo Ajala, Dr Muyiwa Agunbiade, Dr Temilade Sessan, Dr Dotun Adikile, James Stewart and Rotin Adewunmi
THE ABEOKUTA URBAN Master Plan is a dynamic long-term planning tool created as part of UK Aidsponsored Future Cities Nigeria (FCN) to create targeted interventions to encourage sustainable development, increase prosperity and alleviate urban poverty in this city in south-western Nigeria.
This study explored baseline conditions in the city’s wider metropolitan area. The Max Lock team designed and led the implementation of a series of GIS spatial analysis and mapping exercises, documentary reviews and field surveys to explore the socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental landscape. Principal concerns that were highlighted include rapid informal development of the city, increased frequency of flooding related to climate change and the desire to preserve the historic Afro-Brazilian architecture and heritage that is still prevalent at the core of the city.
(left) Photographs of city of Abeokuta, Nigeria
Research | Active Travel Academy
Still I Ride: How Women of Colour are challenging discourses in and through cycling Dulce Pedroso
FOR A WOMAN of colour, cycling can mean a double cloak of invisibility. Her experience is already often erased in society, which privileges whiteness and maleness, and she is not seen in cycling representations, which has tended to peddle narrow narratives about cycling and cyclists. If you already experience othering because of your gender and race, the decision to cycle in a car-dominant culture may seem like choosing to be further marginalised. The ‘Still I Ride – How Women of Colour are challenging discourses in and through cycling’ project by Dulce Pedroso, funded by the Justice in and for Active Travel initiative and supported by Beryl Bikes, applies a critical discourse analysis lens into representation, gender and race in cycling. The research was based on ‘rolling ethnography’, a go-along method which meant riding and speaking with nine women of colour cyclists in five UK cities. The interviews focused on representations of cyclists as well as on how material things – gear and kit, for example – and activities – such as training trips to Mallorca – reinforce dominant discourses in cycling and how these entangle with discourses around gender and race. The project uncovers how gender in cycling is often experienced in fairly material and practical terms (when and how you cycle and what kit and gear is available or considered appropriate), while race and ethnicity-based exclusion may manifest in a feeling of not belonging (based on who you are). When the two compound with the dominant cycling culture, this can lead to discursive exclusion encapsulated in the comment Shu, a road cyclist in London, received from a white male cyclist: ‘is your hijab even aerodynamic?’
70
https://shows.acast.com/ata-podcast/episodes/still-i-ride-1-how-women-ofcolour-are-challenging-discourse
The project borrows from cultural, intersectional and black feminist theories to account for different ways women of colour, as an underrepresented group in cycling, challenge dominant discourses. At the project’s heart is the belief that narrow narratives do not just exclude groups of people but also serve the status quo that normalises driving and helps make sure that the dominance of cars in cities is never seriously called into question. It is therefore not just for women of colour or other underrepresented cyclists to do the work, because challenging dominant discourses benefits everyone – except those who are benefiting from the marginal status of cycling. ACTIVE
TRAVEL ACADEMY
Shu [© Dulce Pedroso]
Active Travel Academy | Research
The Promise of Low Carbon Freight : Benefits of cargo bikes in London
Verlinghieri, E., Itova, I., Collignon, N., Aldred, R. (2021). The Promise of Low Carbon Freight : Benefits of cargo bikes in London, (August 2021) [available: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d30896202a18c0001b49180/t/ 61091edc3acfda2f4af7d97f/1627987694676/The+Promise+of+LowCarbon+Freight.pdf]
FREIGHT TRANSPORT CONTRIBUTES significantly and increasingly to climate change. Further than that, in urban areas, goods vehicles contribute to deteriorating public space quality, air quality, and other road users' safety. In the next years, the growing demand for home deliveries is predicted to worsen the situation, which will not be contained by shifting to less polluting vehicles alone. Using as a case study Pedal Me, a new freight cycle company, our study provided a new analysis of the logistics potential of cargo bikes offering an alternative to vehicle delivery in London. Cargo bikes are becoming popular and are a promising alternative to reliance on delivery vans. However, very few studies have looked in details at the benefits associated with switching from vans to cargobikes for deliveries in urban areas. Using wide GPS datasets and routing software, we compared routes taken by Pedal Me cargo bikes with
Ersilia Verlinghieri Irena Itova Nicolas Collignon Rachel Aldred routes that vans would have to take to deliver the same parcels. We found the service performed by the Pedal Me freight cycles was an average of 1.61 times faster than the one performed by vans. But cargo bikes weren’t just more efficient; in the 98 days of work we sampled, they saved over 5.5 kg of NOx and a total of 3,896 Kg of CO2, the same amount of CO2 needed to fly 17 times from London to Rome and back, showing that cargo bikes can provide a more efficient urban logistic service without generating many of the externalities currently associated with van deliveries. The study has been extremely well received in the local, national and international press, as well as by policymakers and practitioners. The study is part of a broader project titled ‘Car-Free Megacities’ run by the Active Travel Academy in partnership with the climate action charity ACTIVE Possible, and funded by the KR foundation.
TRAVEL ACADEMY
(clockwise from top left) Active Travel Academy team; one of the Derivas London walks exploring green space and waterways [Photo: Derive Lab]; Research walk choreography; Active Travel Academy Media Awards 2020
PHD STUDENTS IN the School of Architecture + Cities are engaged in wide-ranging areas of research that fall within and across the School’s five research groups: Architectural Humanities; Emerging Territories; Making and Practice; Place and Experience; Transport and Mobilities. Recently completed theses have made pioneering contributions to global scholarship on climate change, active travel, childhood mobility, public space and heritage policy. In addition to standard PhDs, we continue to supervise students working towards PhD by Published Work and PhD by Practice. The practice and published
work models offer routes into postgraduate study for outstanding professionals with an established body of work and have also helped to forge valuable connections with industry. This year, the School built on its success in securing PhD funding by winning a competitive Quintin Hogg Trust studentship for an innovative crossdisciplinary project supervised by staff in both the School of Architecture + Cities and the Westminster School of Arts. Our thriving PhD community continues to raise the profile of the School’s inclusive research culture, through international conference papers, symposia, publications and collaboration with external partners. For further details about our PhD programme, visit: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/ research-degrees/thinking-of-doing-a-phd
Kate Jordan PhD Coordinator
72
PHD
PhD candidates, 2021
Ameera Akl
Asa Henry Patrick Thomas
Anthony Powis
Hala Alnaji
Gabrielle Higgs
Matthew Priestman
Katherine Bartlett
Jeffrey Howard
Dawn Rahman
Ross Bennett-Cook
Irene Itova
Fred Raphael
Roberto Bottazzi
Sughandi Jayaraman
Mai Sairafi
Athena Brook
Prajakta Kalamkar
Angeliki Sakellariou
Amy Butt
Katja Kapanen
Rofayda Salem
Alain Chiaradia
Frances Kremarik
Rick Schumaker
Penny Clark
Matthew Marson
Megan Sharkey
Lida-Evangelista Driva
David Mathewson
Rachel Simmonds
Mehrdad Ebadi Borna
Joao Matos Da Silva
Lorna Stevenson
Didem Ertem
Fatemeh Mohamadi
Cristina-Alexandra Trifan
Minerva Fadel
Nicola Murphy
Holly Weir
Tumpa Fellows
Anishka Narula
Carine Woiezechoski
Jennifer Fernando
Simona Palmieri
Mengran Zhu
Karen Fitzsimon
Luis Pinto
Shengkang Fu
Marzena Piotrowska
74
PhD | Research
Karen Fitzsimon Supervisors: Harry Charrington, Kate Jordan
The Impact of Preben Jakobsen's Design and Planting Theories: An investigation of his landscape architectural practice 1961-1998 PREBEN JAKOBSEN (1934-2012) was a Danish landscape architect and educator who, from 1961, spent his professional life working in the UK. With a deep belief that landscape design is an art form, he was renowned for his ability to employ an exceptional knowledge of plants to create dynamic sculptural designs. Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen, Jakobsen was employed initially by Eric Lyons's (1912-1980) Mill House Studio, where for eight years he contributed to the special quality of the acclaimed Span housing schemes in the south-east of England. Thereafter he established Jakobsen Landscape Architects. While the practice worked across a range of landscape typologies it established a specialism in the expanding genre of commercial office developments. In 1993, in recognition of his contribution to the profession, Jakobsen was awarded the Landscape Institute's rarely issued Gold Medal. However, no posthumous studies of Jakobsen exist, and his legacy in relation to landscape design and
theory has been neglected. Furthermore, as recognised by Historic England (2020), the Twentieth Century Society and others, landscape creations of this period, including those by Jakobsen, are particularly at risk from neglect or redevelopment. Through the lens of Jakobsen, this project extends scholarship about late twentieth-century British landscape architectural practice, and its contribution to builtheritage. With access to Jakobsen's archive and family papers in the UK and Denmark, and by employing fieldstudies and oral histories, this research investigates how Jakobsen's Scandinavian heritage and education provided him with a design approach that attracted key proponents of modernist English architecture. It considers how his practice was an expression of his design and planting theories, and postulates that within the history of postwar British landscape design, Jakobsen was a principal and influential modernist who had an impact on contemporary landscape practice.
Amphitheatre at Sun Life of Canada, Basingstoke (1984-1986) by Preben Jakobsen. The site is now known as Matrix House and since 2020 is subject to a Certificate of Immunity from listing , rendering the designed landscape vulnerable. [© Karen Fitzsimon]
Research | PhD
Ana-Sabina Cioboata Supervisors: Giulio Verdini, Johan Woltjer
Wellbeing and Urban Regeneration in China: Towards a ‘People-Centred’ urban agenda
FOLLOWING FOUR DECADES of reform, China has lifted millions of people out of poverty. Nevertheless, the social costs of the country’s growth-oriented agenda have long been scrutinised, with phenomena such as rapid urbanisation being one of the most transformative forces in this process. Under the umbrella of quality of life improvements, state-led urban regeneration projects have been criticised for their focus on selective physical upgrading, large-scale demolition, and relocation. However, recent paradigm and policy shifts are pointing towards increased governmental interest in promoting wellbeingoriented urban development: a response aligned with global efforts to define new directions for evaluating human progress.
the convergence between the legacy of collectivism and the rise of individualism. This is followed by a review of Chinese urban regeneration mechanisms in the last three decades, focusing on three case studies from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. Finally, the study explores the ways in which practitioner understandings of wellbeing are being materialised into current practices, revealing the emergence of new actors, innovative governance mechanisms and place-based solutions.
This research project therefore identifies the need for further inquiries into current urban regeneration approaches in China. It also addresses the necessity to construct new assessment frameworks, tailored to the political, socio-economic and cultural specificities of the country. In this sense, the thesis explores how the concept of ‘wellbeing’ is understood and integrated in the context of current urban regeneration schemes in China. Towards this aim, the research employs qualitative methods such as systematised literature reviews, interviews and observation. It begins by constructing a theoretical framework for wellbeing in urban transformation, where wellbeing happens at the nexus of processes and sociospatial outcomes of regeneration. The framework is contextualised by analysing engagements with the concept of wellbeing in China, revealing a complex picture of urban China in transition – one where wellbeing lies at 76
Ever-shifting urban landscape, Shanghai
PhD | Research
Didem Ertem Supervisors: Krystallia Kamvasinou, Ilaria Pappalepore, Andrew Smith
Reimagining Leisure: Small-scale events and everyday multiculture in public parks
CITIES ARE SOCIAL products of the shared and conflicting claims of the multifaceted groups, institutions and organisations they host. Their public spaces hold a premise of equal rights to the city and its making. However, profit-driven transformations of contemporary urban public spaces that enable consumerism and control have been a predominant factor in disassociating public space from its connotations of democracy, equality and inclusivity (Madden, 2010). When the UK put in place lockdown-measures in March 2020, public interactions which knit together city dwellers underwent temporary but drastic restrictions. Despite the limitations on the modes of civil activities, social distancing precautions also imposed interruptions on the consumerist occupations of public spaces. In the course of the gradual easing of safety measures and disruptions of private events, small-scale gatherings in public greenspaces gained prominence. Now, the study of informal sociabilities and active co-existence in public parks holds a greater potential to reimagine public spaces, and their premise of equality that spans across difference.
Distinct to public parks are their associations with leisure, which renders them not merely as essential realms of public use, but also as spaces of preference (Neal et al., 2015). This highlights the materiality of these spaces, personal experiences and histories of their users, structural inequalities they reflect and reproduce, and the ways in which they cultivate social norms. Yet to be further examined is how these quotidian acts of elective place-making can be extended in the post-lockdown realities of cities. Accordingly, this thesis aims to explore the community gatherings prevailing and emerging in Finsbury Park, the alterations in sociabilities, and their spatial reconfigurations. Without aiming to bypass the constitutional arrangements of inequality, it undertakes a study of small-scale events, and the in situ experience of diversity in the park, using the lens of conviviality (Gilroy, 2004). By documenting under-investigated informal sociabilities in Finsbury Park, the project intends to prompt further interest in new practices and policies which encourage inclusive, collective actions.
Slackliners teaching the sport to curious passers-by, Finsbury Park, June 2021
Research | PhD
Holly Weir Supervisors: Rachel Aldred, Ben Shaw
Phenomenal Landscapes: Exploring children’s neighbourhood mobility and their experiences within three east London neighbourhoods CHILDREN ARE NOW seen less in public space and spend less time outdoors than ever before. They can also often be restricted in their movements when they are allowed out, with less ‘independent mobility’ than in the past. This study explores children’s neighbourhood mobility in Hackney, east London. It explores children’s own experiences within their neighbourhoods at different times of the year, focusing on their use of the public places and spaces within these both for travel and play. It seeks to understand how children themselves feel about their mobility, drawing from the field of environmental psychology and taking a child-centred approach to the work. The children in the study had high levels of active travel, moving around their neighbourhoods mostly on foot and knew them well. Being physically independent was less important to them than the level of autonomy that the children had in their use of their neighbourhoods. Being able to get around on foot helped them to develop this autonomy, even when accompanied by an adult, and these early experiences of active travel were shown to support the development of a child’s future independent mobility. The study found that the built environment plays an important role in children’s use of their neighbourhoods, particularly the threshold spaces outside of a child’s home, the transitory spaces supporting active travel around a neighbourhood and the destination spaces, or places to
78
go. However, the built environment does not function in isolation. It was found that the interaction of other factors, such as social and cultural influences, individual characteristics, the school environment and the children’s relationship with the natural environment were what influenced children’s behaviour. The themes of permission and motivation are used to highlight the different levels of influence and how these factors interact to influence children’s behaviour and use of space. Social Class Gender Perceptions of Safety
Ethnicity Individual
Social, Cultural & Political Influences
Parents
Community
Siblings
MOTIVATION
PERMISSION INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR
School
Friends
Nature Connection
SPACE
Previous N’hood Experience
Destination
Threshold
Transitory
Systems map of factors influencing children’s neighbourhood mobility
PhD | Research
Dawn Rahman Supervisors: Rachel Aldred, Tom Cohen, Ersilia Verlinghieri
Mad or Magnificent? Mothers who cycle with their children in the UK
WHILE MUCH RESEARCH has been undertaken on gender and mobility, there is currently limited literature on motherhood and mobility, despite acknowledgment that the presence of children affects how mothers travel. Even less is known about mothers who cycle with their young children in the UK for utility journeys, the type of experiences they have and the barriers they encounter.
The low numbers of mothers cycling with their children in the UK, as evidenced by the National Travel Surveys (carried out each year) paints a somewhat bleak view. However, anecdotal evidence from social media appears to show a growing number of mothers in the UK cycling with their children for utility journeys. This is supported by an increase in membership of online groups, websites and blogs related to cycling with children. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted levels of cycling must also be considered. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, my research aims to understand the experiences of mothers in the UK cycling with children under the age of 11 for utility journeys. Exploring the experiences of mothers that currently cycle with children will help gain an understanding of how they are navigating the various barriers often cited as reasons not to cycle. A particular gap in existing research includes an understanding of the differences between bicycle configurations and the various issues mothers face when using either: 1) ‘child carrying bicycles’ such as cargo bikes; child bike seats or trailers added to an adult bicycle; and 2) ‘independent cycling’, where mothers and children cycle together but each person rides their own bicycle. There are also gaps in research relating to how geographical location impacts the ability to cycle with children, and so the research will look at the differences between cities, large and small towns, and rural areas.
Mother and child cycling
Research | PhD
Anthony Powis Supervisors: Lindsay Bremner, Beth Cullen
Thinking with Groundwater from Chennai: Materials, processes, experimental knowledge THIS THESIS LOOKS at the multiple, specific and contradictory ways in which the materiality of groundwater is understood and intervened in: different knowledges and knowledge practices as ways of knowing groundwater in Chennai, South India. First, I ask what groundwater is and how I might approach it. Through a series of case studies, I develop a methodology for researching groundwater, confronting the problem of how to research something I cannot access. By talking to people who access groundwater in different ways, I assemble multiple and contradictory accounts in a way that acknowledges and keeps hold of the intra-active tension between materiality and representation. My means of access are the multiple ways that these interlocuters work with groundwater, as well as my own practices of thinking, drawing and writing as further means of grasping at something always at a distance.
80
Through this I ask, what knowledges exist? How are these different knowledges co-produced, and how are they enacted or re-inscribed through scientific, professional and everyday practices? How, therefore, can thinking with groundwater from Chennai help to read changing city and changing climate together? The format is processual and iterative: research methods, analysis and theory coevolve, and each chapter is an experiment with ways of knowing groundwater. Throughout these different points of view, it is impossible to say quite what groundwater is, other than a set of relations that move in and between urban climates. These relations appear and are drawn into focus as registers through which to bring together accounts of diverse phenomena and ways of living in conditions of unstable hydrogeological emergence. Instead of a discernible object, I begin to make sense of groundwater as a relational substance; one which is not background to the city’s ongoing reproduction, but is both substantially altered by and co-constitutive of lively urban assemblages.
The groundwater assemblage (v2), 2018
PhD | Research
Mehrdad Borna Supervisors: Krystallia Kamvasinou, Rosa Schiano-Phan
Designing Healthy Cities: The impacts of urban form on concentration of air pollution at pedestrian level
IN 2010 THE World Health Organisation stated urban air pollution as a critical public health problem. The same report accentuated that nearly 4.2 million deaths per year worldwide were caused by the effects of urban outdoor air pollutants. For instance, in a developed city like London, there were more than 9,000 early deaths in 2015 caused by the pollutants such as Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Particulate Matter (PM10, PM2.5) and Ozone (O3). Considering the above, this study postulates that there is an association between urban form and urban air quality. Therefore, the core focus of this research is to highlight potential improvements that can be achieved
through the manipulation of urban form which is thought to stimulate a more positive impact on the formation of urban microclimates which can increase the dilution and dispersion of urban air pollutants and respectively reduce its adverse impact on human health. In so doing, this research piloted a study on The Regent’s Place which is located adjacent to one of the most polluted roads in London (Euston Road). The study began with administering detailed fieldwork and spot measurement of both pollutants and microclimatic parameters, which was followed by modelling a variety of real-life scenarios by using computational simulation studies for validation and prediction. The results of these studies will aid the production of a more comprehensive urban design guidance capable of dispersing and reducing concentrations of road traffic and non-road traffic related air pollutants in active urban pockets. In this respect, the timing of this investigation is of particular importance, especially as a result of rapid urban population growth and construction of tall buildings in dense urban centres which have worsened and increased the concentration of urban air pollution.
ENVI-met simulation of PM 2.5 concentration at pedestrian level at Regent Place Plaza, Euston Road, London, 3 August, 2018, 13:00
School of Architecture & Cities | Staff
Staff 2020-2021
82
Vasilija Abramović
Luke Bowler
Christopher Daniel
François Girardin
Josef Jammerbund
Wilfred Achille
Lindsay Bremner
Ana de Oliveira Araujo
Inan Gokcek
Kate Jordan
Yota Adilenidou
Florian Brillet
Corinna Dean
Nasser Golzari
Maja Jovic
Sam Aitkenhead
Christopher Bryant
Dusan Decermic
Joana Goncalves
Gabriel Kakanos
Dimah Ajeeb
Kevin Burchell
Luis Delgado Muñoz
Anne Graham
Ripin Kalra
Rachel Aldred
Toby Burgess
Nigel Dennis
Alisdair Gray
Rim Kalsoum
Roudaina Al Khani
Mengqiu Cao
Davide Deriu
Sean Griffiths
Krystallia Kamvasinou
Julian Allen
Paolo Cascone
Zoe Diakaki
Thomas Grove
Iman Keaik
Ana Araujo
Harry Charrington
Richard Difford
Eric Guibert
Neil Kiernan
Ian Arnott
Hayley Chivers
Ursula Dimitriou
Gerald Gurtner
Jennifer Kingston
Gulru Arvas
Cristina-Raluca Cirstoc
Lucy Dinnen
Michael Guy
Michael Kloihofer
Alessandro Ayuso
Tom Cohen
Christopher Dite
Johannes Hagan
Maria Kramer
James Baldwin
Stanley Cohen
Izabela Dozic Frost
Jonathan Hall
Simona Krasauskiene
Mark Bannister
Stroma Cole
Kirti Durelle
Clare Hamman
Frances Kremarik
Peter Barber
Jim Coleman
Liz Ellston
Eleni Han
Debby Kuypers
Tessa Barraclough
Hannah Constantine
Elisa Engel
Lindsey Hanford
Diony Kypriaou
Scott Batty
Andrew Cook
Bill Erickson
Stephen Harty
Gillian Lambert
Susanne Bauer
John Cook
Elantha Evans
Matthew Haycocks
Constance Lau
Nick Beech
Paul Cook
Helen Farrell
Holly Hayward
Benson Lau
Carine Berger
Matthew Cousins
Tumpa Fellows
Andrzej Hewanicki
Chung-Tai Lau
Alastair Blyth
Jonathan Coventry
Stefanie Fischer
Claire Humphreys
Chantal Laws
Stefania Boccaletti
Brian Crawford
Annette Fisher
Louise Humphreys
Katherine Leat
Mehrdad Borna
Robin Crompton
Riccardo Fregoni
Edward Ihejirika
Dirk Lellau
Roberto Bottazzi
Paul Crosby
Suzanne Gaballa
Clare Inkson
Jacques Leonardi
Hocine Bougdah
Beth Cullen
Carlton Gajadhar
Bruce Irwin
Chris Leung
Andrew Boughton
Miriam Dall’Igna
Christina Geros
Sho Ito
David Littlefield
Anthony Boulanger
Tomazs Dancel-Fiszer
Anna Gillies
Caroline Jackson
Gwyn Lloyd
Tony Lloyd-Jones
Michael Neuman
David Porter
Sumita Singha
Tsz Wai So
Ian Lowden
Natalie Newey
Anthony Powis
Andrew Smith
Christine Wall
Lola Lozano Lara
Andreea-Laura Nica
James Purchon
Angus Smith
Jean Wang
Evangelia Magnisali
Johannes Novy
Kartikeya Rajput
Paul Smith
Richard Warwick
Arthur Mamou-Mani
Jennifer O’Riordan
Kester Rattenbury
Neda Soltani
Richard Watson
Balveer Mankia
John O’Shea
Lucy Reader
Joana Soares Goncalves
Victoria Watson
Tony Manzi
Alice Odeke
Federico Redin
John Somers
Zhenzhou Weng
Andrei Martin
Jamie Ogilvie
Lara Rettondini
Ro Spankie
Jamie Whelan
David Mathewson
Chiara Orefice
Paul Richens
Afolabi Spence
Andrew Whiting
Warren McFadden
Samir Pandya
Katy Roberts
Michael Spooner
Camilla Wilkinson
William McLean
Enrica Papa
Irene Roca Moracia
Emmanuel Stellakis
Daniel Wilkinson
Alison McLellan
Ilaria Pappalepore
Michael Rose
Kenneth Stevens
Elizabeth Wilks
Michael McNamara
Paresh Parmar
Shahed Saleem
Nancy Stevenson
Julian Williams
Joanna Meehan
Deborah Pearce
Izis Salvador Pinto
Rachel Stevenson
Nicholas Willson
Marina Mersiadou
Mirna Pedalo
Era Savvides
Bernard Stilwell
Johan Woltjer
Tabatha Mills
Marianne Pedersen
Rosa Schiano-Phan
Ben Stringer
Jonathan Wong
Stuart Mills
Diana Periton
Amedeo Scofone
Allan Sylvester
Allan Woodburn
Fatemeh Mohamadi
Emma Perkin
David Scott
Jane Tankard
Andrew Yau
Md Mohataz Hossain
Ross Perkin
Robert Scott
Graham Tanner
Paolo Zaide
James Morgan
Callum Perry
David Seex
Mireille Tchapi
John Zhang
Sadie Morgan
Sue Phillips
Yara Sharif
Adam Thwaites
Fiona Zisch
Rebecca Mortimore
Catherine Phillips
Peter Sharratt
Alessandro Toti
Rachel Moulton
Maja Piecyk
Geoffrey Shearcroft
Cristina-Alexandra Trifan
Bongani Muchemwa
Stuart Piercy
Conor Sheehan
Sophie Ungerer
Richa Mukhia
Marzena Piotrowska
Elite Sher
Juan Vallejo
Rutendo Musikavanhu
David Pitfield
Sarah Shuttleworth
Giulio Verdini
Robert Nathan
Ben Pollock
Peter Silver
Filip Visnjic
We wish to thank the following organisations for their support:
T H E JAM ES P H I L L I P S F O U N DAT I ON
MORE 2021
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE + CITIES
A+C
University of Westminster 35 Marylebone Road London NW1 5LS Tel 020 7911 5000 x3165
www.westminster.ac.uk iv