City Depth

The third in a series of interdisciplinary workshops asking how the built environment shapes our capacity to exercise autonomy in cities.

About this event

Join us at the third in a series of four interdisciplinary workshops questioning how the spatial, temporal and psychological ordering of space in the built environment shapes people’s capacity to exercise their autonomy within our cities. Exploring depth and autonomy at a city scale, by investigating how depth structures might function at multiple levels, and how it might be put to work in the planning of our cities and policy that defines this.

Through informal presentations of research at the workshops, we will explore the nature of spatial order, and the relationship between people and their environments from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. We aim to establish common ground; understand the nature and breadth of existing research into spatial ordering; define shared concepts and to begin to explore conceptual and normative issues around architecture and urban design.

Speakers

Birgit Hausleitner is a Lecturer of Urbanism at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). She investigates the urban morphological and socio-spatial conditions that facilitate, introduce or improve, combinations of living and working. Her most recent projects include Cities of Marking, a research project exploring the future of urban manufacturing in Europe with the focus on Brussels, London and Rotterdam, and Liveable Manufacturing, a research project concerned with manufacturing as part of mixed-use areas in Amsterdam.

Fiona Scott is an architect and director of Gort Scott, a London-based architecture and urban design practice. She recently completed a piece of research and guidance for the Mayor of London called “High Streets and Town Centres; Adaptive Strategies” and is currently one of the Mayor's Design Advocates and an external examiner for Cambridge University.

Nicola Bacon is co-founder of Social Life, a specialist centre of research and innovation about the social life of communities. She advises central and local governments, foundations and third-sector agencies in the UK and internationally, with a focus on innovation, and embedding fresh approaches to public policy and service delivery to tackle inequality and disadvantage.

Francesca Froy is based at University College London – UCL’s Space Syntax Lab. Her ongoing PhD explores the role played by urban morphology in generating agglomeration economies, with a particular focus on Greater Manchester and its clothing and textiles industries. She has led international studies on local economic development for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and recently co-edited a special edition of the Local Economy Journal on place-based industrial strategies.