DPU summerLab

We are happy to launch a special Research Fellowship series, which will take us to four exciting destinations: Cali (Colombia), São Paulo (Brazil), Berbera and Zeila (Somaliland).

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are restarting our travelling patterns while reviewing and expanding our format. We offer the opportunity to a series of researchers to work in the field for an extended period, with the support of local partners.

All DPU alumni and current PhD students from DPU and any UCL department are eligible to apply. Please see details at the following link and contact us for further info

DPU summerLab 2022 Special Research Fellowships series launched The DPU summerLab is happy to launch a special Research Fellowship series, which will take us to four exciting destinations: Cali (Colombia), São Paulo (Brazil), Berbera and Zeila (Somaliland).

We had a super engaging and interesting conversation in our final day of workshop, where the participants explored comparative design research strategies and future developent paths for the Chengdu, Aleppo and Berbera. Thank you so much to our partners for their feedback!!

Thorough session on Berbera today, with multiple presentations from Ahmed Ibrahim Awale Michael Walls Jama Musse Jama and the Xarunta Dhaqanka ee Hargeysa team, the great organisation by Tirsit Yetbarek and a beautiful research design exploration from our participants working on four areas. Looking forward to our final session tomorrow!!

We had a great and intense day exploring the history of Aleppo, the role of its social & physical infrastructure & how it got affected by armed conflict . Thank you! to all the participants and to the
team Igor Malgrati International Committee of the Red Cross, along with Sawsan Abz & Hani Fakhani!!

Today we had a great first round of lectures and exercises on one of our case studies, the city of Chengdu in China. Thanks everybody for the excellent design research job, guided by Andy Hilton, Yi Luo, and the rest of the Urban Synthesis team. Tomorrow: Aleppo!

We've just had our first session with our partners from Chengdu, Aleppo and Berbera, and our participants from all over the world! Thank you so much for your brilliant contribution, looking forward to working tomorrow around the city of Chengdu!
The Bartlett Development Planning Unit UCLMSc Building and Urban Design in Development Xarunta Dhaqanka ee Hargeysa Jama Musse Jama

Berbera, Somaliland:

The Redsea Cultural Foundation (RCF) is an organisation based in Somaliland that aims to promote reading and creative writing in Somali-speaking society with a particular focus on youth. The RCF established in 2014 the Hargeysa Cultural Centre (HCC) that is well recognized world wide for its yearly art and culture celebration through the Hargeysa International Book Fair. The centre is also engaged in all socially significant activities including knowledge production and dissemination. It provides trainings, engage in research and also work in collaboration with regional and global institutions for equal opportunity and collaborative global citizenry. The Summer lab is one of these collaboratives works it does.

After our collaboration in the summerLab 2019 in Hargeysa, on the topic of ‘social cohesion in a segmented city’, this time we will focus on the city of Berbera.

This year´s workshop, ‘Infrastructure, development and heritage preservation’, will look at possibilities of development for Berbera, in light of the on-going construction of the Berbera Corridor, connecting Berbera to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This development, along with the expansion of the port, will rapidly change the shape of the city. Participants will focus on four areas (one of which will soon host the Berbera Cultural Centre) deemed crucial for the current trajectory of urban transformation.

Really looking forward to starting our work in collaboration with RCF this Sunday!
Xarunta Dhaqanka ee Hargeysa Jama Musse Jama The Bartlett Development Planning Unit UCL

Chengdu, China:

Urban Synthesis (China) is a Chengdu based urban planning, architecture and landscape design SME established in 2008. Since their original foundation in the UK, they have worked throughout China and the Middle East focussing on sustainable, ecological and community centred development projects, predominantly for local authority partners covering a wide range of sectors including educational, residential, public realm and infrastructure.

Our previous collaboration on The Bartlett Development Planning Unit UCL summerLab 2019, under the overall topic ‘Rethinking Tourism-driven Regeneration’ aimed at developing proposals for a community-led, tourism-centred planning strategy. This year, under the topic ‘Intangible legacies, and ‘everyday regeneration’’, we will take as a case study the Xinhua Park area in central Chengdu, exploring potential regeneration strategies that are mindful of current uses of space.

Really looking forward to starting our work in collaboration with Urban Synthesis this Sunday!

New extended deadline: 5th February!!

We are happy to communicate that the deadline for sending your application for the DPU summerLab: special 'winter’ edition has been extended to Friday 5 February. Please email [email protected] for any query and to receive the Application Form.

Aleppo, Syria

During the DPU summerLab 2021: special ‘winter’ edition (14 – 18 February 2021) we will be working with the city of Aleppo in Syria, in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross. The overall topic will be “Conflict and urbanism”.
The ICRC is currently helping people inside Syria, who are facing extremely difficult conditions due to one of the most devastating urban conflicts in modern times.

Please email [email protected] for any query and to receive an Application Form. Also notice the deadline for receiving applications is on Monday 1 February 2021.
Please visit our DPU summerLab main webpage https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/development/dpu-summerlab and follow us on social media: twitter.com/DPU_summerLab and instagram.com/dpu_summerlab/

Last Friday, we as DPU summerLab team announced the launch of an online special 'winter' edition, that will reach remotely a number of designers, activists, researchers and practitioners. In a series of online live sessions – alternating lectures, discussions and design research activities – we will leverage the realities of Aleppo, Berbera, Chengdu, in a comparative fashion. We aim to question how urbanism and forms of tangible and intangible heritage are affected by armed conflict, infrastructural development, regeneration processes. Participants will be given access to multimedia learning materials one week prior to the beginning of the workshop. For more info and to apply visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/development/dpu-summerlab or express your interest / send an enquiry to [email protected]

We are excited to announce the launch of the latest DPU summerLab series pamphlet. The pamphlet is edited by Giorgio Talocci and Camillo Boano and comprises a retrospective on the 2018 series and a summary of the 2019 series, including works and reflections from a multiplicity of contexts – Amman, Athens, Bar Elias, Chengdu, Hargeysa, London.

It features a series of interviews with local partners discussing challenges, agency and afterlives of the workshops, short reflective essays by the workshops’ participants, photo-essays on each city’s contested urbanisms, and a a ‘special insert’, outcome of our collaboration with the School of Architecture + Community Design of the University of South Florida – for which we fondly thank Faculty and Research Associate Josue Robles Caraballo.

We wish to share our deepest appreciation also to all the local facilitators, partners and participants in the initiative, which we thank extensively at page 2 of the pamphlet. Special thanks to the RELIEF Centre for sponsoring the workshop in Bar Elias, and to the Redsea Cultural Foundation for sponsoring the workshop in Hargeysa. Thanks to Studio-X Amman: thanks Jawad Dukhgan, Nadine Fattaleh, and to Nora Akawi. Thanks to the team at CatalyticAction for their amazing work in Bar Elias: thanks Joana Dabaj and Riccardo Conti. Thanks to Stefania Gyftopoulou and Panagiotis Tzannetakis for sharing their local expertise and critical insights on Athens with us. Thanks to the team at Urban Synthesis Ltd. for welcoming us in Chengdu and facilitating our first ever summerLab workshop in China: thanks Andy Hilton, Luo Yi, Wang Ruo Chan, Yi Ning. And to DPU Professor Michael Walls for his enthusiasm in proposing and crafting the programme of the workshop in Hargeysa, for which we thank also the Institute for Research, Heritage Preservation and Development (IRHPD), the Redsea Cultural Foundation and all the individuals at the Hargeysa Cultural Centre – our deepest thanks go to Jama Musse Jama and Tirsit Yetbarek. Thanks to Kay Pallaris and Stephen Kenny for their cheerful enthusiasm and kind patience in organising the London 2018 workshop, and to David McEwen (Unit 38) for the great experience we had in Seven Sisters (Tottenham, London) in September 2019.

Thanks to all the DPU staff for the support, especially to Azadeh Mashayekhi for the effort and commitment in the co-coordination and administration of both 2018 and 2019 series, and for facilitating the workshop in Amman. Thanks to Giovanna Astolfo and Marisol Garcia Gonzalez for facilitating the workshops in Athens.

The pamphlet is available for download here

www.ucl.ac.uk