Projects

CITY X-RAYS

10x10x10: Improving Livelihoods Through Understanding Place - coming soon

“Improving Livelihoods through Understanding Place” is the overarching theme for a programme of 10 events on 10 themes, organised with 10 partners across the UK and Ireland. With the series we aim to answer the urgent need for an intensified exchange between practice, policy and academia and expand the knowledge base underpinning ‘place-shaping’ – understood as a combination of organisational (behavioural) and spatial (physical) actions over time, spanning social infrastructure, masterplanning and economic development planning.

The events bring together researchers, practitioners and policymakers from within and outside the Academy The sessions are curated by Professor John Worthington, Academy of Urbanism Director of Learning, and by professor Sarah Chaplin of Greenwich University’s Urban Renaissance Institute (URI) and Joost Beunderman, Academician, Demos associate and researcher at architecture and research practice 00:/ [Zero Zero]

URI will work alongside 00:/ to facilitate the 10 events, and to document and synthesise the findings, disseminating them to a wider audience via The Academy of Urbanism and UniverCities websites.

The current financial crisis, in addition to being a vicious recession, is perhaps more fundamentally the precursor to a sea change in the way the economy will operate. This affects people and places across a wide spectrum, from the impacts on the real estate sector to shifts in employment patterns. As our cities towns and neighbourhoods are affected by the current crisis, all of us practicing in the built environment professions face a fundamental challenge. Now that the old models are increasingly unfit for purpose, what is the “new how” of urbanism? How can we shape and manage places in the long term to improve people’s livelihoods through understanding places in a holistic manner?

The project will:

• Capitalise on the wide range of knowledge and experience of the Academicians to contribute to the national policy and practice debate and identify regionally relevant opportunities for place-shaping approaches in a changing context, engaging with local professional communities to understand, learn, and improve the quality of place and livelihoods.

• Nurture the Academy’s networks locally, regionally and nationally in learning from place.

• Reinforce existing and stimulate new initiatives for UniverCities programmes and City X-ray projects in the lead-up to the Academy’s 5th Anniversary programme

Get involved

Events are invite-only but if you would like to participate in, or host a session, please get in touch with Joost Beunderman at joost@research00.net or John Worthington at jw@academyofurbanism.org.uk