29 January 2013
CANCELLATION of Going Green: How cities are leading the next economy
6-30pm, 7 February 2013
We are having to reschedule the event jointly organised by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and LSE Cities. The event will now take place in summer 2013 and details will be sent out in the near future.
On 30 January LSE Cities’ Austin Zeiderman presented on the politics of risk in Bogotá at the Comparative Perspectives in Urban Risk Governance, in Paris. The seminar was organised by Cities Are Back In Town.
For full details of the event, visit the website here.
25 January 2013
On Saturday 26th January 2013, Theatrum Mundi participated in Frankfurt Positionen: ‘Currencies and Collectives’ at Frankfurt LAB. The event was a performative conference produced by the Weltkulturen Museum, the Städelschule and Frankfurt LAB.
Professor Richard Sennett joined Axel Honneth, Professor of Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt to discuss ‘Recognition and Presence’.
The conference itself asked leading thinkers and practitioners from the fields of architecture, urban planning, contemporary art, curating, fashion and literature to respond to the question: “Where and how can meetings and modes of exchange be developed that lead from a disposable trade in goods and ideas towards a prototype form of continuity and common ground?”
For more details, visit the Theatrum Mundi website or download the programme.
24 January 2013
The new book from the Institute for Mobility Research, Megacity Mobility Culture: How Cities Move on in a Diverse World, features a chapter, “Trends and Challenges: Global Urbanisation and Urban Mobility” by LSE Cities Executive Director, Philipp Rode.
Megacity Mobility Culture is based on a discussion of the diversity of megacities worldwide. Experts from megacities around the world each take the reader on a journey to their own city and its mobility culture, giving a deeper insight into the unique evolutionary paths of mobility that these places have taken, and what lies before them. While acknowledging the overwhelming diversity of cities worldwide, the authors also identify common denominators behind the evolution of urban transport systems – seven temperaments which are found in a unique mix in any given city, defining the character of its mobility culture.
For more information on the book, please visit the Springer website, where you can also preview the contents.
23 January 2013
LSE Cities’ Research Fellow Suzi Hall and Max Nathan of LSE’s Spatial Economics Research Centre presented this week alongside Ian Stephens of branding consultancy Saffron at the Citydiplo seminar on the emergence of new place identities and their role within the London brand.
Max Nathan dissected the public discourse surrounding East London’s technology cluster Tech City, Suzi Hall explored London’s “ordinary” high street brands, and Saffron’s Ian Stephens focused on the role of place branding in the development of proposals for the Nine Elms area in Battersea.
The event was chaired by writer and consultant John P. Houghton and supported by LSE Cities. You can find slides and a podcast of the seminar here.
14 January 2013
The Süddeutsche Zeitung’s write up of the Urban Age Electric City conference has been published. They enjoyed the “confidently presented arguments”, adding that due to the diversity of speakers and their backgrounds these were comprehensively critiqued by others. They add:
“The fact that Cameron and Johnson jointly announced the plans of architecture practice “00:/”, underlines for one how anxious the British government is to highlight even the slightest hint of recovery in light of the island’s grim economic prospects…The prominent visit goes to show the importance that “Urban Age” has gained by now in the global discourse on urban development.”
To read the full article (in German), click here.
11 January 2013
Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times takes a tour of London’s skyscrapers with Professor Ricky Burdett, taking in the Shard and King’s Cross, and offers his thoughts on the Tech City proposals launched by David Cameron and Boris Johnson at the Urban Age Electric City conference.
To read the article, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/arts/design/a-rothschild-building-in-london.html?ref=arts&_r=1&
10 January 2013
LSE Cities’ Ordinary Streets project’s research into UK high streets features in a new report released in December 2012 by the London Assembly’s Economy Committee. The summary report, ‘Empty Shops on London’s High Streets’, reviews measures designed to reduce shop vacancies and boost the capital’s high streets. The Economic Committee acknowledged key findings from LSE Cities researcher Dr. Suzanne Hall’s work on high streets in London, in particular Walworth Road and Peckham Rye Lane. It highlights the increase in independent shops on London’s high streets with the possible connection to London’s increase in ethnic diversity and migration, and suggests the need for a more careful consideration of a ubiquitous application of the BID model for managing high streets, especially where ethnic diversity and varied retail models might require more site-specific approaches to street stewardship.
You can download the Economy Committee’s summary document on empty shops here (pdf) or find out more about the on-going investigation. To learn more about LSE Cities’ Ordinary Streets research project, please click here.
9 January 2013
Andrew Altman has been appointed as a Visiting Senior Fellow to LSE Cities for two years, following approval by the School’s Appointment Committee. Altman was the founding Chief Executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (recently renamed the London Legacy Development Corporation) where he was responsible for the transformation of the 500-acre London 2012 Olympic Park into a new urban neighbourhood for East London. Before coming to the UK, he was the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Planning for the City of Philadelphia and Planning Director for Washington DC. Altman has been closely involved in the Urban Age since its inception a speaker, moderator and member of its Programme Board. At LSE Cities he will work with the research team on developing the structure and content of the next Urban Age conference that will take place in Rio de Janeiro in autumn 2013 focusing on design-led urban transformations.