Monthly Archives: August 2019

Efficiency by Design: Comparing 4 Cities

21 August 2019

The Resource Urbanisms project that LSE Cities led, between 2015 and 2017, focused on two natural resources, land and energy, and explored their relationships with urban form, transport and housing. It analysed these relationships through a comparative case study approach focusing on the city of Kuwait and Abu Dhabi in the GCC, and Hong Kong and Singapore in East Asia. 

The key findings of this research were:

1. The shape of cities has a considerable impact on resource efficiency, making it a critical factor for global sustainability.

2. There are fundamental differences between the city models examined in the Gulf States compared to those in East Asia.

3. All cities displayed considerable intra-urban differences that exceed initial expectations.

4. All four cities have become denser since 2000, but historically have been going through phases of densification and de-densification.

5. All four cities rely on active state intervention and have been shaped by intentional policy, planning and infrastructure development.

6. Natural resources, above all land, play a central role in determining urban form at the macro and micro scale.

7. Energy prices have a more nuanced and indirect impact on the nature of urban growth.

8. Non-resource factors impacting urban development were found to be critical, complex and often interrelated.

9. In terms of energy consumption, the study confirms that high-density, compact, mixed-use and public transport-oriented cities are more efficient than low density cities that are dependent on private vehicles.

10. Cooling energy efficiency is centrally driven by compact urban morphologies and building designs.

11. Transport energy efficiency is closely related to density, mixed-use and public transport availability.

LSE Cities publishes new paper in the Journal of the British Academy

18 August 2019

LSE Cities has published a new paper titled “Understanding infrastructure interfaces: common ground for interdisciplinary urban research?”. This article was written by Jo Beall, Zegeye Cherenet, Liza Cirolia, Nuno da Cruz, Susan Parnell, and Philipp Rode as part of the Governing Infrastructure Interfaces research project. It is featured in the newest issue of the Journal of the British Academy, edited by Caroline Knowles under the theme Cities and Infrastructure in the Global South.

Click here to read the full paper.

From the abstract, “Urban development is a complex, multidimensional process that no single discipline can understand, explain or address adequately. In the case of infrastructure, different disciplines address specific issues—technical problems, social dynamics, political power—yet in reality these often intersect. This article documents the experience of analysing the governance of infrastructure interfaces through a multidisciplinary case study of transport and sanitation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.“

Executive MSc in Cities Graduate: Ciarán Cuffe’s Story

12 August 2019

Written by Ciarán Cuffe, who graduated from the LSE Cities Executive MSc in Cities in 2019 and is the Green Party Member of the European Parliament for Dublin.

What a trip it has been! It has been a whirlwind since I kicked off on the Executive MSc in Cities at the LSE two years ago. I realised at some point that I’m one of those ‘boutique career’ people. I’m trained as an urban planner and architect, but I’ve spent a lot of my life in elected office as a city councillor in my home city of Dublin, Ireland and served two terms in the Irish Parliament. In one of those stints I was a Minister of State with responsibility for climate action as well as sustainable transport and travel. In more recent years I lectured at the Technical University of Dublin and set up an MSc Programme in Urban Regeneration.

However, in 2017 I wanted to broaden my knowledge, and find out more about global cities. I had been to China, teaching at the Gengdan Institute in Beijing and was fascinated by the dizzy growth of Asian cities in recent years. Undertaking an Executive MSc at the LSE seemed like the right choice to improve my understanding of contemporary urban issues. The Programme consisted of five intensive weeks on campus and plenty of reading and assignments in between sessions. Each week consisted of lectures from the core staff as well as guest lectures and workshops. Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies at the LSE and Course Director gave us wonderful presentations of contemporary cities around the world, while Philipp Rode introduced us to ways in which the green economy is reshaping cities. Professor Saskia Sassen explored the seismic shifts that globalisation brings to cities, and Suzanne Hall introduced us to the issues of global migration and urban marginalisation. Lecturers such as Henk Ovink the Netherlands ‘Water Ambassador’ showed us how Hurricane Sandy is reshaping the New York region, and the Mayor of Bogota Enrique Penalosa discussed issues of development in the Global South.

My fellow students on the Programme came from five continents to participate, and brought unique insights from their own cities such as Sydney, Oakland and Johannesburg. They brought different skills with them; property development and urban management; innovation expertise and urban design. Most of them were mid-career, and brought a wealth of life experience to the table. Debates were often heated as we worked together on group projects that tackled climate adaptation and infrastructure finance. Ultimately the course took me out of my comfort zone and pushed me to think differently about how urban regions develop and change.

Graduate Class 2017-19

For my final project I explored how my own city could decarbonise the transport sector. This tied into my role as chair of the City of Dublin’s Transport Committee, and involved interviewing senior experts in mobility and planning. Shortly after I submitted my consultancy report I kicked off my campaign for election as a Member of the European Parliament for Dublin. I ran on a platform of tackling climate change through focusing on transport and housing investment. I was elected in late May, and since July I have been a member of the Transport and Energy Committees of the European Parliament. I’m already applying some of the lessons learnt from the Programme in my work, and look forward to bringing my new qualification to bear on the urban challenges that the European Union faces in the years ahead.

For more Information on the Executive MSc in Cities

LSE Cities welcomes two new visiting colleagues, Hannes Taubenböck and Tau Tavengwa

7 August 2019

Hannes Taubenböck from the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will be at LSE Cities as a Visiting Associate for 2 months. Hannes is and has always been fascinated by cities, he aims at using Earth observation data in combination with other geo-data to generate new geo-spatial insights. At DLR, he heads the team “City & Society” with which he focuses on issues relating to global urbanisation. He also teaches as a Private lecturer at the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg.

Tau Tavengwa has rejoined LSE Cities as a Visiting Fellow for the next 2 years.  Tau is Co-Founder, Cityscapes Magazine/Cityscapes Collective, which presents nuanced stories of cities across the South and the people working, thinking, and fighting to make them more liveable and equitable. Tau is a 2018 Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and currently a Research Fellow (2019-2021) at Max Planck Institute for Religious and Diversity Studies. In addition, Tau is currently focused on the establishment of CS.Praxis, a new platform to connect policymakers, activists, practitioners, and academics working on urban issues from across the global South.