Our Cities research group strives to address critical urban challenges through a creative and collaborative approach. The group utilises a range of inventive visual and design-based methodologies at the intersection between the arts, humanities and social sciences, to tackle the most pressing social, economic and environmental issues that cities are facing today. These in turn relate to urban transformation, community cohesion, grass-roots activism and the interpretation of urbanity.
Cities actively fosters a co-productive approach to urban research, working in partnership with a diverse range of academic and non-academic, community-based and civic institutions, in London and internationally. Academic partners include Glasgow University, The Berlage (TU Delft), Université Libre de Bruxelles, The Bartlett School of Planning (UCL), Oxford Brookes University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In London and the UK, the group has collaborated with organisations including the Federation of Small Businesses, Make UK, We Made That and Architecture 00), and community groups and local authorities such as Just Space, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington and Southwark councils, Vital OKR and Southwark Planning Network. Overseas partnerships include local authorities, civil society organisations, and research centres and networks in Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland. Our ties with Brussels are particularly strong, comprising Departement Omgeving Vlaamse, Citydev, Bouwmeester Maitre Architecte, Architectuur Platform and Architecture Workroom Brussels.
The Cities group is actively engaged in promoting knowledge exchange within and beyond academia, and driving change through community engagement. It is closely aligned with the London Met Lab: Empowering London initiative to address key challenges facing the capital, particularly with regards to the environment, where its award-winning Rewild My Street campaign is inspiring urban residents to transform their homes, gardens and streets for wildlife. The group works across disciplines, having links with the University’s School of Social Sciences and Professions and Finding Ecologies research group.
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