Monthly Archives: February 2013

Professor Ricky Burdett joins Mayor of London’s Smart London board

28 February 2013

LSE Cities’ Director, Professor Ricky Burdett, has joined the Mayor of London’s ‘Smart London’ board, comprised of experts including leading academics, businesses and entrepreneurs.

The board will look at how the capital can best use technology and data to ensure it remains one of the world’s most efficient and liveable cities. They will help to address the capital’s core challenges such as population growth, congestion, ageing infrastructure and reduced energy use.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “London has been at the forefront of technological wizardry for generations, but in a rapidly changing world we will need to work harder than ever to stay ahead of the game. We must harness the huge potential that new technology offers us and by drawing on the expertise of some of the brightest minds around we can make our great city an even smarter one too. I’m delighted to welcome on board a fantastic line up of experts to help spur the kind of innovation and entrepreneurship that will secure London’s future as the best big city on earth.”

For more information about Smart London, and details of the board members, visit the Mayor of London website.

Austin Zeiderman at Cambridge University’s CRASSH seminar

20 February 2013

LSE Cities Research Fellow Austin Zeiderman presented at Cambridge University’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) about Living Dangerously: The Politics of Risk in Bogotá, Colombia on Monday, 25 February 2013, at 17:00 – 19:00.

For details, see the CRASSH website here: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2314/

openDemocracy’s Cities in Conflict featuring Austin Zeiderman

15 February 2013

LSE Cities is collaborating with openDemocracy on their newly launched Cities in Conflict series.

Cities in Conflict “seeks to examine the manner in which cities are conceptualised, planned or contested as sites of conflict, security or resistance. With increasing public awareness of cities’ role in hosting globally significant conflicts and social upheaval, whether in Cairo, Athens or Mumbai, the series will look to examine the city as a key terrain of conflict and a politics of spatial securitization”.

Austin Zeiderman’s contribution, “Securing Bogotá”, can be read here.

Theatrum Mundi workshops on ‘Music and Architecture’ in February

Theatrum Mundi organises two new workshops as part of its ongoing ‘Music and Architecture’ series focusing on how life on stage intersects with the everyday life of cities. On 15 February, a workshop on ‘Melody and Narrative’ took place at LSE. And on 25 February a seminar at Aldeburgh Music will discuss the concept of ‘Porosity’. The workshops, which are private, bring architects and urban designers together with classical and pop musicians, acousticians and digital software developers.

For more information, please click here.

LSE Cities receives major grant to launch new Mellon Fellowship Programme at LSE in Cities and the Humanities

14 February 2013

The LSE has been awarded a grant of US$900,000 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The grant will support a major new initiative within LSE Cities exploring the intersection of architecture, urbanism and the humanities.

The programme, which will run for approximately four years, will have two components: a Fellowship Programme to be based at LSE Cities (The Mellon Fellowship Programme at LSE in Cities and the Humanities) and a new project to launch a network of urban scholars (the Urban Research Network), which will be extended to centres on a global basis, including the USA, Asia and Latin America.

The Mellon Fellows will be invited to spend nine months at LSE, to engage humanists in the study of urban life – as pursued by LSE Cities – and to become involved in postgraduate teaching and research. The posts will be advertised in spring 2013, with the first Fellowships starting in autumn 2013. The project will be overseen by Professors Ricky Burdett and Richard Sennett and involve key teaching and research staff at LSE Cities.

Please note: the Fellowship Programme is not currently open for applications. Further details will be available in due course.

For more information, see the press release.

Karl Baker presenting at symposium on re-industrialisation and urban regeneration

13 February 2013

LSE Cities’ Karl Baker will be presenting at Plymouth School of Architecture’s symposium in London on 20th February. The event brings together a group of international professionals and academics interested in urban regeneration, and in particular on the potential for the ‘remnants’ of industry in contemporary European post-industrial cities (using Birmingham, London and Warsaw as examples) to re-industrialise a city. Registration is required.

For details, visit the website here: http://plymarch.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/symposium-re-industrialisation-and-urban-regeneration-in-europe-birmingham_london_warsaw/