News

Roadkill: Unveiling the true cost of our toxic relationship with cars + Masterplanning Futures: Agents of Change, Thurs 12 March, D-Arch, ETH Zurich, 16:00 ET

Arthur Kay and Lucy Bullivant will speak about the polemics and proposals conveyed in their new books in a seminar staged by the Department of Architecture (DArch), ETH Zurich, Switzerland. In September 2025 Roadkill: Unveiling the true cost of our toxic relationship with cars was published by Wiley, co-authored by Henrietta Moore and Arthur Kay, while Masterplanning Futures: Agents of Change, Lucy’s successor book to her award-winning publication, Masterplanning Futures, will be released by Routledge in spring 2026.

Event link to come.

Phoenix Rising: Visions for Rebuilding Ukraine exhibition opens at the Building Centre, 9 Dec 2025

As Trump and Putin seek to carve up the country, an exhibition showcasing Ukrainians’ vision for the future of their cities and regions opens in London. Phoenix Rising: Visions for Rebuilding Ukraine, curated by Lucy Bullivant and Arthur Kay, opened on 9 December 2025 with leaders and designers from Ukraine and the UK. The exhibition and events programme give audiences a glimpse of how the country will re-build post conflict.

The transformative rebuilding of Ukraine is the largest sustainable reconstruction project since WWII. It has already started and will take a generation and $524 billion in investment.

“The rebuilding of Ukraine is one of the biggest reconstruction projects of this era and the Phoenix Rising exhibition curated by Lucy Bullivant and Arthur Kay is a must-see for anyone who cares about its future” – Alex Sobel MP, UK Trade Envoy to Ukraine

Phoenix Rising: Visions for Rebuilding Ukraine, launched at The Building Centre’s Main Gallery in London on Tuesday 9 December. This unique project provides a rare opportunity to explore exceptional projects for Ukraine to ‘build forward’ and shape the country’s modern and innovative new future.

Take a closer look at designs for homes, schools, medical, cultural and community buildings and public space designs for a range of cities across Ukraine – on show as images and models – created by Ukrainian architects, urban designers, engineers, planners, researchers, civic stakeholders and the wider public. The selection also includes projects forged since the invasion began by an international coalition and by practitioners in the Ukrainian global diaspora.

Experience insightful video highlights of ‘The Architects of Hope: The First Steps in Rebuilding Ukraine’, the multi-award-winning documentary made in Ukraine after the full scale Russian invasion, by film director Paul Thomas – never seen before at a London venue – and films by Zaha Hadid Architects and Jason Bruges Studio, on The Building Centre’s state-of-the-art immersive video wall.

Large scale destruction of buildings, places, landscape and infrastructure has affected most regions of Ukraine. Renewal of the country is an enormous mission. And one supported by many initiatives and parties in Ukraine and by countries and communities around the world. One of these is the 100 Years Partnership signed by the UK and Ukrainian governments in 2025. In doing so they have committed to a mutually beneficial, multi-sector collaboration to jointly renew, rebuild and reform Ukraine for generations to come.

“’Phoenix Rising’ is a must visit exhibition. We Ukrainians are able to showcase how we plan to rebuild our country in the years ahead. This exhibition will provoke, challenge and inspire” – Serhiy Kirai, Deputy Mayor Lviv

“Beyond the immediacy of creating shelter, care and safety for its citizens, Ukraine has undertaken an impressive commitment to designing its future. Phoenix Rising is an important showcase of this.”– Professor Dame Henrietta Moore, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity

Find out more about creative multidisciplinary sustainable strategies for the resilient renewal of Ukraine’s cities and regions meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These also remind us that communities in places which are geographically and culturally very different, in courageously facing difficulties and obstacles through people-powered processes of value, offer profound value.

Partners: UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, Gensler, BDP, Make

For further information, images and to arrange interviews contact:
• Stephen Sheriff, Head of Events and Engagement – ssheriff@buildingcentre.co.uk • Karlie Parker, Digital Media Manager – kparker@buildingcentre.co.uk

The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT

Exhibition dates: 9-24 December 2025; 2 January; 5-9 January 2026. Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm. Bank holidays: Closed.

6-8:00pm on 11 December 2025: Event with Fast Forward 2030 – ‘Rethinking Resilience: The role of entrepreneurship in Ukraine’.

6-8:00pm on 6 January 2026: Screening of the ‘The Architects of Hope: The First Steps in Rebuilding Ukraine’ documentary + a chaired Q&A with Paul Thomas, the director, and Ukrainian exhibitors online.

12:30-2:30pm 8 January 2026: Screening of the ‘The Architects of Hope: The First Steps in Rebuilding Ukraine’ documentary + a chaired Q&A with Paul Thomas, the director, and Ukrainian exhibitors online.

URC2025 Rome – Ukraine Recovery Conference, 10-11 July 2025

Lucy attended URC2025 in Rome. Here is her report.

Innovative Community Engagement in Planning Sustainable Places: Unlocking Social, Economic and Ecological Value, RTPI CPD seminar, 23 October 2025

Lucy has created – together with architect and planner Dr Roudaina Alkani MRTPI, MAA (DK) – a new CPD seminar for RTPI London, to be staged on Thursday 23 October 2025, from 5:30-8:00pm at DP9, 100 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5NQ. Full details and how to sign up on the RTPI website.

The NPPF emphasises that planning must address the needs of local communities and that the development of local plans and design policies should involve consultation with these communities and reflect the local aspirations (NPPF, 12.). However, community engagement has often been seen as a resource-intensive task and reduced to initial requirements. Recent practices highlight the diversity of opportunities related to more proactive community engagement and the need for planning mechanisms to facilitate and integrate diverse community engagement forms into planning processes.

This event will explore the crucial role of active and timely community engagement in shaping places to deepen social, economic and sustainability values and contribute in more holistic and equitable ways to urban revitalisation. It addresses the following questions:

• How community engagement-led approaches influence outcomes for permanent and meanwhile urban developments, Business Improvement Districts, Creative Enterprise Zones (CEZ) and community energy initiatives.

• How to advance this model as our cities and neighbourhoods adapt to challenges, and to overcome deprivation.

• How to anchor this model more elaborately in local authorities’ and planning officers’ practices, and address arising challenges.

The event is one in a series of reflective and technical planning events envisaged by the CPD Committee under the RTPI London Regional Management Board to address crucial and timely issues in planning and sustainability. This includes the new planning reforms and the role of strategic planning, empowering community engagement and impact in city adaptations and renewal, and innovation in planning processes with a focus on the role of digitalisation in ensuring more synergy and value in the local planning review processes.

Learning outcomes as a result of participation include:

• Knowledge about innovative practices in community engagement and their role in planning sustainable places and unlocking social and economic values.

• A deeper grasp of how community engagement-led approaches influence outcomes for permanent and meanwhile urban developments, Business Improvement Districts, Creative Enterprise Zones (CEZ) and community energy initiatives.

• Insights into how to advance this model as our cities and neighbourhoods adapt to challenges, and to overcome deprivation.

• Learning ways to anchor this model more elaborately in local authorities’ and planning officers’ practices, and address arising challenges.

Programme

• Presentations and a panel debate – speakers:

Speakers:

Gianluca Rizzo, Manager, Stratford Original and Brixton BIDs

Pippa Gueterbock, Head of Placemaking, London Borough of Haringey

Imogen Thompson MRTPI, Executive Director, Urban Land Institute UK

Introduced by:

Dr Roudaina Alkani MRTPI, MAA (DK)

Moderator:

Lucy Bullivant Hon FRIBA, Director, Lucy Bullivant & Associates

A 20 minutes discussion with the audience.

Opportunity for networking.

Writing, Curating, Strategising: Lucy Bullivant’s Urbanist Toolkit, episode of Architecture Social

‘In this episode of the leading podcast Architecture Social, award-winning author, strategist and curator Lucy Bullivant joins us to spill the tea on what it really takes to shape cities that work – and why good urbanism needs more than just good design. We dive into her journey from writing “Masterplanning Futures” to curating edutainment exhibitions, chairing design review panels and working hands-on with communities from Oslo to Enfield. It’s all about retrofitting, storytelling, publishing, people and place. Lucy’s lived it – and she’s not holding back’.

00:00 0236 – Lucy Bullivant

00:08 Welcome to the Architecture Social Show

00:35 Meet Lucy: Curator, Mentor, and Strategist

01:45 Lucy’s Background and Influences

02:52 Global Projects and Collaborations

04:06 Passion for Architecture and Urban Design

04:36 Temple Bar Trust and Diverse Voices

05:50 Master Planning Futures: A Book Journey

12:00 Writing and Research Process

19:13 The Role of AI in Writing

23:28 Collaborative Writing and Curation

25:44 Exploring the World of Edutainment and Exhibitions

26:26 Curating Exhibitions: From Concept to Execution

28:32 Innovative Exhibition Projects and Collaborations

31:06 The Importance of Retrofitting and Sustainable Design

35:11 Consultancy Work and Urban Design

43:02 Temple Bar Trust: Promoting Architecture and Education

44:52 Upcoming Talks and Events at Temple Bar Trust

48:24 Final Thoughts and How to Connect with Lucy

Retrofit Works: Creating Healthy Buildings for Quality of Life: an exhibition, workshops, learning programme for schoolchildren and one day symposium, staged by the Museum of the Home, 2026

Images: Hackney Empire, recipient of Community Energy Funding via Hackney Light & Power, Hackney Council’s clean energy team; Stokey Energy, the community-led energy firm in Stoke Newington; the Edinburgh Tool Library Retrofixers, a community of volunteers. supporting the delivery of energy efficient homes.

‘Retrofit Works’ is an engaging and accessible exhibition curated by Lucy Bullivant about energy and fabric first improvements supporting the quality of homes and community spaces across some neighbourhoods in need, in London and around the UK. It will take place at the Museum of the Home, London E2, in 2026. The focus will be on homes and the community infrastructure residents rely on locally, including for education, health and involvement in the arts, through a vivid multimedia storytelling approach.

The UK has the oldest, least energy efficient and most carbon intensive homes in Europe. Scaling up retrofitting will cut fuel poverty, boost wellbeing, reduce energy demand, create new green jobs and help grow the economy in a sustainable way. The exhibition aims to heighten awareness and active participation in retrofitting of buildings as an essential way of accelerating energy and emissions reductions, resource efficiency, health, comfort and climate resilience in the local community. An accompanying programme of practical workshops, a learning programme for schoolchildren and a one day symposium with roundtables, staged in association with Centre for London, London’s think tank, will promote knowledge, interest, engagement and skills building.

The Museum of the Home is a leading cultural institution based in a unique complex of 300 year old almshouses in Hoxton, east London, visited by over 170,000 people annually. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Museum’s purpose is to reveal and rethink the ways we live, in order to live better together.

Cultural Prospectus for CDA created by Lucy launched, September 2024

“It’s been a tremendous pleasure to create the first Cultural Prospectus – Connecting in place: where ideas meet action for the BID Central District Alliance over the last year. CDA places a strong emphasis on exemplary partnership in its collaboration with a wide range of public, private and third sector partners to transform outcomes locally. The Prospectus articulates a Six-Point Cultural Vision for CDA’s broad-based strategic work in the five neighbourhoods it represents: Bloomsbury, St Giles, Holborn, Clerkenwell and Farringdon:

🌟 Supporting and celebrating the district’s cultural heritage assts
🌟 Programming free and accessible outdoor cultural events
🌟 Investing in and influencing placemaking of the local neighbourhoods
🌟 Partnering for positive change
🌟 Fostering creative business growth and connected networks across sectors
🌟 Grant funding local community arts activities

Bringing together a wealth of insights, empirical research and data about people, businesses, organisations and places in the district to craft the Cultural Prospectus has been an amazing, thought-provoking experience, making intriguing discoveries at every turn.

The district happens to be where I’ve also lived and run my consultancy business for getting on for half my life – making it a dream commission to explore and evaluate my own ‘hood’ for CDA!

The tremendous ongoing commitment of CDA in its role as BID and its partners, including Camden Council and Islington Council, all the local community groups, cultural and educational organisations represents a dynamic and inclusive cultural force of incalculable value. There’s considerable scope and the need to continue investing, to protect and extend the legacy of worthwhile creative activities to meet growing needs.

The Cultural Prospectus has been designed to raise awareness of what’s been achieved by all parties and encourage readers to play an active role in developing future possibilities to further support the cultural life of the CDA district. Check it out!” (Lucy Bullivant, Linkedin post, 9 September 2024).

Lucy collaborated with Debbie Akehurst, CEO, CDA (above, far right), Alex Jan, Chair, CDA, and Marcos Gold, External Affairs Manager and other members of the CDA team. The Cultural Prospectus was designed by Simon Brown, &&& Creative.

Read the CDA News item.

Download the report here.

Professor Carlos Moreno in conversation with Arthur Kay on the 15-Minute City, Temple Bar London, 3 Sept 2024

Our latest event at Temple Bar London, in collaboration with The Gilded Acorn bookshop, was an enlightening evening with Carlos Moreno, the visionary urbanist behind the groundbreaking concept of ‘The 15 Minute City’. Professor Moreno delved into how his innovative urban planning model can transform cities into more sustainable, liveable and resilient communities by ensuring that all essential services are within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from residents’ homes. Drawing on real-world examples and case studies, he illustrated the practical applications and benefits of this approach, offering a compelling vision for the future of urban living.

The thought-provoking discussion was led by Arthur Kay, urban designer and award-winning entrepreneur (below, middle), in which Moreno shared his insights on the challenges and opportunities of implementing the 15-Minute city model. A Q&A session gave the audience the opportunity to engage directly with Moreno and explore specific topics of interest. Professor Moreno’s new book, ‘The 15 Minute City: A Solution to Saving our Time and Our Planet’, Wiley, 2024 (Foreword by Jan Gehl, afterword by Martha Thorne) was made available by The Gilded Acorn bookshop to attendees and there was a book signing session allowing them to get a personalised copy. The event was an essential experience for anyone interested in urban planning, sustainability and innovative solutions for enhancing city life.

Professor Carlos Moreno is Scientific Director of Chaire ETI ‘Entrepreneurship Territory Innovation’, Research Lab at IAE Paris Sorbonne Business School, University Paris1 Panthéon Sorbonne, and Professor, International Academy of Architecture. He is internationally recognised as an innovative scientist and advisor in the field of issues of international significance faced by cities in the 21^st century, providing  unique perspectives and solutions. A number of his concepts, including the ‘Human Smart City’, the ’15 Minute City’ and the ’30-Minute City’ are renowned world-wide. Moreno leads the Global Observatory for Sustainable Proximities at the World Urban Forum with UN-Habitat, C40 Cities, UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) and other partners. He has received a number of international awards for his work including the Knight of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic.

Watch the Temple Bar Trust video of the event here.

Feedback on the event:

“Such an inspiring event. It’s great to see so many passionate voices coming together to discuss how we can transform our cities into more sustainable and inclusive spaces” – Ignacio Gutierrez, Fast Forward 2030 Project Coordinator, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.

Lucy gives keynote lecture at London Met’s annual Research conference, 2024

The very successful fifth Student and Staff Research Conference Past – Present – Future: Research at London Met took place from 2 to 3 July 2024. It highlighted the University’s key concerns of equity, social justice, health, biological and digital security, intercultural competence, sustainability and liveable cities. The conference featured 53 presentations including three keynotes, 20-minute talks, 3-minute lightning presentations and recorded presentations.  The conference was organised by the Postgraduate Research Student-Staff Liaison Forum  with support from the Graduate School and the Research and Postgraduate Office.

From the London Met website report on the conference:

‘While the first day concentrated on social science, education and business research, the second day featured arts, architecture, computing and the sciences. It started with the insightful, excellently illustrated keynote by alumna Lucy Bullivant on urbanist strategies to support sustainability, meaning and belonging, which triggered a lively discussion. The theme of liveable spaces was continued by James Payne’s territorial typologies, exploring the topographies of several cities, and Hosn Houssami’s imaginary work with children in Beirut, Lebanon. The morning was rounded off with a very well-argued talk by Adeyemi Akande on the missing limbs of the Seated Figure of Tada.’

Simon Sharpe – Five Times Faster – talk at Temple Bar Trust, 8 April 2024

Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics and Diplomacy of Climate Change  – Simon Sharpe, Director of Economics, Climate Champions Team, Senior Fellow, World Resources Institute, and author. Talk + networking reception, Monday 8 April 2024, 6:25-8:15pm, Temple Bar Trust, Paternoster Square, St Paul’s, London

Sharpe’s new book, ‘Five Times Faster’, explains how changes in ideas and institutions could enable much faster progress on climate change, for any given level of political will and economic resources   

To meet internationally agreed climate change goals, we must decarbonize the global economy five times faster this decade than we managed over the past two decades. How could that be possible?  

In his talk Simon Sharpe will address this question by presenting ideas from his book ‘Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics and Diplomacy of Climate Change’ (Cambridge University Press), which was listed by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2023.

He will argue that science has fallen short of setting out the full scale of the risks; that economics has consistently given governments the wrong advice on policy decisions crucial to low carbon transitions; and that climate change diplomacy has been picking the wrong battles. He will propose that in all three fields, different ideas and institutions could enable much faster progress. 

Simon Sharpe is a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute, and Director of Economics for the Climate Champions Team. He is author of Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2023). He was previously Deputy Director of the UK government’s COP26 Unit, where he led international campaigns on energy, transport, land use, science and innovation. 

His other roles in government included leading international climate change strategy, developing the approach to clean growth in the UK’s industrial strategy, and serving as head of private office to Ministers of State for Energy and Climate Change. He also served on diplomatic postings to China and India. Simon has published academic papers on climate change science and economics, and policy reports on climate change risk assessment, economics and diplomacy. 

Chaired by Lucy Bullivant Hon FRIBA, Trustee, Temple Bar Trust. 

This event includes:

• A complimentary networking reception with the speaker and audience members following the talk.

• From 7:30pm copies of Simon Sharpe’s book ‘Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics and Diplomacy of Climate Change’ (Cambridge University Press, 2023) will be on sale in the Wren Room at Temple Bar, by courtesy of The Gilded Acorn bookshop based at 1 Portugal Street, WC2A 2ES, opposite the Marshall Building, LSE campus.

Place moves: Cultural strategies to catalyse sustainability, meaning and belonging – talk at the Days of Architecture 2023 Sarajevo

Lucy gave a talk, ‘Place moves: Cultural strategies to catalyse sustainability, meaning and belonging’ at the Days of Architecture 2023 Sarajevo event (15-22 September, on 17 September as part of a two day international lecture series.

‘City Games Sarajevo 2024 Architecture Olympics’ was the theme of the Days of Architecture, curated by Hubert Klumpner and Michael Walczak, UrbanThinkTank_Next and ETH Zurich, which featured a number of exhibitions at different venues around Sarajevo including ‘Architecture Olympics’ at the Austrian House (opening seen below). During the event the Architectural Guide Sarajevo was launched by DOM Publishers, Berlin.

Lambeth Design Review Panel Monitoring Report 2023

In 2019 Lambeth Council set up the Lambeth Design Review Panel, and Lucy Bullivant was selected as one of the three chairs. It is now an established feature of the council’s dialogue with the planning process, supporting and inspiring its in-house Conservation and Urban Design team. In 2023 the council published its first Lambeth Design Review Monitoring Report on the panel, and Lucy, in her role as chair, contributed to the review process for the report through a written response and a review meeting. Further information about the Lambeth Design Review Panel is included in the online guide.

‘Retrofit 23: Towards the Deep Retrofit of Homes at Scale’, opens at the Building Centre, 10 May-12 Oct 2023

The need to retrofit UK’s existing housing stock to meet the government’s net zero target is currently one of the built environment’s biggest challenges. Success in ramping up deep retrofitting to the highest standards through a just transition will only be achieved by aligning governance, economic, social, financial and technical systems.

‘Retrofit 23: Towards Deep Retrofit of Homes at Scale’, a new exhibition curated by Lucy Bullivant, was launched on 10 May and is on show until 12 October, accompanied by a stimulating talks programme. It explores the potentials of an accelerated delivery of domestic retrofitting at different scales – national, municipal, neighbourhood and street – as well as the needs of private dwellings, while also examining the substantial economic, social and environmental benefits resulting from the improved energy performance of homes. The exhibition is engagingly designed with dynamic infographics, and includes models, photographs, drawings, diagrams, audio clips, and comments boards so the visiting public can contribute to the discussion.

Seen above, top row, the exhibition © Chris Jackson; bottom row, L to R: Exhibitor John Christophers with the Retrofit Balsall Heath (he is a co-founder) and Retrofit Reimagined Festival displays; the Healthy Homes Hub student team, London School of Architecture (Design Think Tank), with ‘How do we get there?’, the final section of the exhibition providing a road map for a just transition.

EcoCity Global Summit, Barbican, 6-8 June 2023: ‘Three Approaches to Retrofit’ panel, 7 June

On 7 June at the EcoCity Global Summit staged at the Barbican (director Gonzalo Herrero Delicado), 6-8 June, Lucy presented her research findings and the principles of ‘Retrofit 23: Towards Deep Retrofit of Homes at Scale’ in a panel at the EcoCity Global Summit staged at the Barbican (director: Gonzalo Herrero Delicado) from 6-8 June. The panel members were Mellis Haward, architect, Director, Archio, whose Becontree Retrofit Strategy is exhibited in ‘Retrofit 23’, and Christian Dimbleby, Associate, architect & Chartered engineer, Architype. The panel was chaired by Dinah Bornat, Director, ZCD Architects.

L to R: ‘Three Approaches to Retrofit’, EcoCity Global Summit, 7 June 2023, Dinah Bornat, Director, ZCD Architects (chair); Christian Dimbleby, Associate, architect & Chartered engineer, Architype; Lucy Bullivant, place strategist, curatorial director and author; Mellis Haward, architect, Director, Archio.

How to create quality of life in cities – podcast with Lucy Bullivant

In this episode of #The Speaker Show (summer 2022), Maria Franzoni interviews Lucy Bullivant.

‘Lucy Bullivant is a place strategist, curatorial director and award-winning author currently working in a senior strategic engagement role in local government. She is passionate about community engagement, urban progress and collaborative approaches to improve local neighbourhoods. She believes strongly in the power of cross-sector, cross-cultural collaboration, having successfully delivered a range of projects of social value internationally’.

We discuss:

Sustainable development

Community engagement

Reviving the UK’s high street

Social value

Place strategy

Temple Bar London talk series

Temple Bar London’s architectural talks, which Lucy Bullivant, Trustee, curates, have been livestreamed since July 2020 as a way to ensure our events programme kept going in an accessible form. The series has proved consistently highly stimulating, and it has been an immense pleasure to host our speakers. We extend our gratitude to everyone who has taken part. In October 2022 we launched Temple Bar’s in-house talks at our newly refurbished home on Paternoster Square, and hosted full house audiences there for the first time.

Muyiwa Oki, President, RIBA, at Temple Bar, April 2023.

The 2023 programme had a number of thematic and topical strands. Neal Shasore, Head of School and Chief Executive of the groundbreaking London School of Architecture and an architectural historian, spoke about the School’s strategic next steps, and gave some insights about his book, Designs on Democracy: Architecture and the Public in Interwar London. Stephanie Edwards, co-founder of Urban Symbiotics, discussed the practice’s approach to co-designed placemaking through engagement. Muyiwa Oki, President, RIBA, talked ahead of the start of his presidency about applying creativity to deliver sustainable change, Victoria Thornton, Founder of the Thornton Architectural Trust, on inspiring future generations through collaboration, knowledge sharing, youth-led design and community approaches and Neil Pinder, architecture educationalist and founder, HomeGrown Plus, about improving access to education and the creative industries for people from marginalised backgrounds.

Graham Haworth (Haworth Tompkins), Luke Tozer (Pitman Tozer) and David Lyndon (Lyndon Goode), discussed the masterplan and architecture the practices have been working on at Hackney Wick Fish Island. John McElgunn, Partner, RSHP, spoke about some of the practice’s recent buildings and masterplans and Fiona Scott and Jay Gort of Gort Scott, talked about their responses to complex urban experiences through architecture and urban design, supported by examples of the practice’s work.

The 2022 talks season was packed with first rate, wide-ranging and up-to-the-minute content. Owen Hopkins, architectural curator and writer, and Director of the Farrell Centre, Newcastle, opening in spring 2023, spoke about creating the vision and plans for this new civic institution. Femi Oresanya, Principal, HOK, discussed Diversity and Collaboration in Architecture. Photographer Niki Gorick talked about the theme of her latest book, ‘Faith in the City of London’, revealing a sense of the spiritual life of the Square Mile. Architect Christina Norton, Partner, Soundings (April), in ‘Walking the Walk: Re-imagining public space, 2012-22’, provided fascinating insights into the practice’s commitment to raising the quality of community engagement and public realm across all their schemes in London.

The Trust supported fundraising for Ukraine as part of ‘Kharkiv Residency Slovo: Art and Architecture under fire in Ukraine’, our moving conversation with the film director Jonathan Ben-Shaul and his Ukraine-based collaborator, producer Mykola Naboka, about ​​‘What Shall We Do With These Buildings?’ their documentary-dance film exploring the legacy of Soviet architecture in Kharkiv, Ukraine, made in 2021 before Russia invaded the country (May).

In ‘Public Offerings’, architect Yemi Aladerun, Senior Development Manager, Meridian Water, at Enfield Council (end May), discussed the avenues she is following to engender positive change on issues regarding collaboration and partnership, housing delivery, inclusion and representation in the construction industry. In June, architect Lauren Shevills, co-founder Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), and Place Shaping Officer at Westminster City Council, told us – in ‘Collective Action’ – about her own committed role in campaigning for action on climate change, how and why ACAN came into being, and what the activist network plans next.

In October Temple Bar London hosted its first in-person talk at Temple Bar – ‘Bjarke Ingels Group in London’ – with speakers Andy Young and Lorenzo Boddi, Partners at BIG London, the global architectural firm founded by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. The two architects explored the growth of BIG’s London office and their projects including Google London at King’s Cross, on Fleet Street at the former Daily Express building site and CityLife Milan.

The autumn programme continued with ‘For the Love of Materials’ by architect Mary Duggan, Principal of Mary Duggan Architects, and her materials-first approach promoting a new form of creative agency; ‘Media Art and the City: Aspirations and Approaches’ showcased the work of architect Jason Bruges, founder of interactive art/architecture consultancy Jason Bruges Studio, and author and cultural historian Margaret Willes, ‘In the Shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral’, explored her new book published by Yale University Press in March.

All Temple Bar London’s talk videos to date, along with a selection of thematic short films made by members of The Architects’ Company, can be viewed on the TBL website and on the Temple Bar London YouTube page.

Dugnad Days – Sletteløkka

In October 2022 as part of our participation as exhibitors in the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2022 – Mission Neighbourhood, Lucy and collaborator Alex Furunes staged a roundtable at the venue exploring how participatory community activities support neighbourhood identity and amenity at Sletteløkka in Oslo, more widely in Scandinavia and across the world.  Lucy and Dugnad Days’ client representative, Lars Eivind Bjørnstad, Project Leader at Bydel Bjerke, alternated in chairing the different afternoon sessions.

Venue: the former Edvard Munch Museum, Tøyengate 53, Oslo, Norway

Sat 29 Oct 2022, 13:00-15:30hrs.

Dugnad Days – first exhibited in the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2022 – is an ongoing participatory community project staged in Sletteløkka, Oslo, with the neighbourhood’s residents, local council Bydel Bjerke and a team of architects, artists and engagement strategists. This ongoing grassroots initiative demonstrates the value of creative relationships and bonds forged as part of community collaboration to realise much needed social infrastructure to help cultivate neighbourhoods’ future identities as diverse and thriving places of shared value. Dugnad Days’ approach to community engagement draws on the Norwegian concept of ‘dugnad’, reimagines project governance as a shared participatory process and supports the building of Sletteløkka’s neighbourhood identity and amenity for its residents.

This roundtable explores in depth how the Sletteløkka community collaboration model has been evolved. What are the challenges and opportunities of working together on shared spaces to nurture their social value for residents? What is the impact? What is your view? How can participatory community work creating social infrastructure for residents be given a higher priority by more municipalities?

We invited participants from Sletteløkka and others working on the project, along with some guest specialists.

Programme:

13:00-14:00hrs

The goals, processes and lessons of participatory community collaboration for new social infrastructure at Sletteløkka. Hear from Alexander Eriksson Furunes, Lucy Bullivant, Dugnad Days team; Ragnild Olaussen (Programme Leader, Bydel Bjerke), participating residents Heshmat Hakimelahi (Sletteløkka Grendhus Committee) and Carina Wilberg, representing Sletteløkka youth, and Christian Pagh, Director and Curator, Oslo Architecture Triennale. Questions and feedback by the audience. 

14:00-14:30hrs

Networking break

14:30-15:30pm

A critical focus on best practice in participatory community work globally. Alexander Eriksson Furunes, in discussion with Maria Årthun, Lucy Bullivant, Gabriela Forjaz, Ryoko Iwase, Kozo Kadowaki and Sudarshan V. Khadka Jr., Maria Cau Levy and Toshikatsu Kuchi (Dugnad Days team), Anisha Jogani, Placemaking, Croydon Council/members of the Croydon Urban Room team and Christian Pagh, Director and Curator, Oslo Architecture Triennale, discuss the merits of international examples including the UK, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Japan and China. Questions and feedback by the audience. We round off by summarising the roundtable findings, and providing clear and inspiring take aways. 

Lucy to participate in ETH Zurich’s ‘Designing Urban Imaginaries in Colombia’ forum and as co-author, Colombia Urban Transformation Program publication, 2022-23

Lucy is contributing her specialist knowledge of Colombia, and narrative-driven place shaping, including community-driven perspectives on design processes in Latin America and other global contexts, to a new publication about the projects of the Colombia Urban Transformation Programme, led by Professor Hubert Klumpner, Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, ETH Zurich. She is one of a number of leading experts contributing essays to the design manual and logbook due to published by Architangle, Berlin, in 2023), and in August 2022 took part in Designing Urban Imaginaries in Colombia, an associated forum at the Fabrica de Cultura, Barranquilla, Colombia.

Lucy – Head of Engagement – Oxford Street District, Westminster City Council

From 11 April-6 December 2022 Lucy played the role of Head of Engagement – Oxford Street District, for Westminster City Council, as a member of the Public Practice Associate spring 2022 cohort. Read Public Practice’s announcement about the cohort here. Her bio is on the Public Practice website.

Tara Gbolade’s talk for Temple Bar Trust – 18 October 2021

Tara Gbolade is the latest architect to give a talk to Temple Bar Trust on 18 October 2021, chaired by Lucy. She presented some of Gbolade Design Studio’s architecture and policy projects as case studies, highlighting how the practice responds to environmental, social and economic sustainability priorities, with the ultimate goal of designing kinder places to live, work and play.

The Studio’s practices are predicated on the notion of ever learning, ever being curious, and ever testing theories that mean starting design with the end-users firmly in slight: recognising that they are the experts of where they live work and play, and as architects, they are but the custodians in a moment who make decisions with generational effects on place. Tara explained how the practice is rethinking traditional notions and materiality to ensure its responses to place and communities are authentic and work for the broadest of users, ensuring that these places allow people to live their full and authentic lives.

Tara Gbolade is an RIBAJ Rising Star Winner and co-founder of Gbolade Design Studio, recently shortlisted for the BD Young Practice of the Year Award. The practice specialises in sustainable design with insight from existing communities. Tara is a co-founder of the Paradigm Network, a professional network championing black and Asian representation in the built environment; and she sits on the steering group of Architects Declare. Her expertise in design and planning policy saw her lead the Harlow & Gilston Garden Town Sustainability Strategy – an ambitious planning guidance for Essex and Hertfordshire County Councils. Tara is a member of a few Design Review Panels in and around London, and sits on the Public Practice Board as an Alumni Observer. She is a member of the advisory committee for the Guys & St Thomas Charity Impact on Urban Health initiative.

Lucy is Expert Specialist for the Design Council’s multidisciplinary networkLucy is “delighted to be continuing her association with Design Council as an ‘expert – specialist’ in its new diverse, multidisciplinary network of experts addressing major social, environmental and economic challenges. The network of ambassadors, associates and specialists, and corporate partners ‘collectively embodies Design Council’s commitment to make life better by design’, delivering place design services, innovation, systems and service design across the UK.  By better reflecting underrepresented groups, the new network ensures Design Council’s design support and advice is not only for a diverse society, but given by a network representing that diversity, enabling Council clients to best serve their communities and the UK’s social environment more widely.

Lucy becomes an Associate – Specialist, Design Council

As an Associate – Specialist Lucy will be informing Design Council’s thinking and approach, contributing to research, policy and thought leadership. “I look forward to working with the Council, its clients and members of the new network, applying my intercultural experience and skills in place strategy, including co-creating and moderating participatory processes for equitable and inclusive, regenerative and distributive design outcomes.”

The full list of corporate partners, associates and specialists can be seen here.

Stephanie Edwards, Urban Symbiotics – Temple Bar Trust talk, 4 March 2021

Stephanie Edwards, architect, urbanist and cofounder, Urban Symbiotics, gives the next talk in our Temple Bar Trust Pathfinders series, 4 March, 6:25-7:45pm GMT, which Lucy is chairing. Sign up details here.

Urban Manifesto webinar series – latest episodes

“We’ve hugely enjoyed creating and hosting our webinar series, Urban Manifesto, launched in May 2020, to create a manifesto for a happier, healthier and liveable urban future as the world transitions from the COVID emergency into a new era, collaborating with a wealth of speakers from different disciplines around the world”. Urban Manifesto is co-hosted by Lucy Bullivant, place strategist, author & founder of Urbanista.org and Prathima Manohar, founder of think-do-tank The Urban Vision. The latest episodes explored Urban Innovation with Philipp Bouteiller, CEO, Berlin TXL – the Urban Tech Republic, and Meridian Water – Creating a new piece of city, with Peter George, Programme Director, Meridian Water, and Lisa Woo, Head of Placemaking. See videos of the episodes below.

Urban Manifesto 2021 kicked off on Wed 7 April, 3-4pm GMT, with guest speaker Indy Johar, architect and cofounder of Dark Matter Labs and 00 Architecture. Watch the episode here.

For the first episode live cast on 26 May 2020 Urban Manifesto explored ‘Streets as Places of Mobility and Interaction’ with London-based architect Dinah Bornat and Demetrio Scopelliti, advisor to the Deputy Mayor of Milan. Urban Manifesto is co-hosted by Lucy Bullivant, place strategist, author & founder of Urbanista.org and Prathima Manohar, founder of think-do-tank The Urban Vision.

MARCH Architectural School, Moscow – Architectural (De)Schooling in the Age of Quarantine, online talk series

Lucy gave a talk together with collaborator Alexander Eriksson Furunes on 2 July 2021 at 16:00 GMT (Moscow, 19:00 GMT+3).

‘Applying pedagogical processes as part of ongoing architectural and cultural practice transcends the traditionally contained model of an academic environment. Instead of an ‘ivory towers’ approach, intensive applied educational activities in specific local contexts serve to enlarge a combined practical and conceptual awareness of real sites, as part of an ethos of lifelong learning. 

Norwegian architect Alex Furunes brings students into most of his international projects, in Vietnam, Hunan and Shenzhen, engaging them with citizens to design and build. British place strategist, curator and author Lucy Bullivant engages in educational processes through projects using a range of media which serve to draw out new, hybridised relationships between teacher and taught, transcend disciplinary boundaries and localise impacts through participation. This can be seen in a few of their collaborations with communities and students on Biennale projects: one, a collaboration with Shenzhen university students and a knitted garment factory in the urban village of Baishizhou for the UABB Biennale, Shenzhen, 2016; the other, a close collaboration with CAMI migrants support centre and students of FAU Mackenzie to design banners in the Sao Paulo Metro as part of the São Paulo Biennale, 2017. A third and ongoing project is the building of a community centre in Oslo, initiated as part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale, 2019′. (MARCH publicity)

Mobilising the Periphery, ANCB Berlin

Urban peripheries are typically perceived as presenting only big challenges or problems. Lucy contributed an essay, ‘Dynamic Urban Regeneration in London’, to Mobilising the Periphery: Incubator for Urban Development, the 135 page publication from the Aedes Urban Laboratory, Berlin (2019), gathering together 48 multidisciplinary responses – initially presented at a series of symposia staged between 2015 and 2018, and now as a set of illustrated summaries – each of them alternatives to different peripheral situations.

Full details and ordering information here.

Dwell in possibility: liveable urbanism

Dwell in possibility: liveable urbanism – inspired by the title of the poem by Emily Dickinson – is the latest issue of Lucy’s webzine Urbanista.org. It analyses today’s capacities for high quality public housing and liveable urbanism more broadly, investigating emerging strategies and projects in the UK, across Europe and in Mexico. Urbanista.org puts cohousing, participatory placemaking and deliberative democracy centre stage in liveable urbanism’s next chapter. Thanks a lot to everyone who helped create this issue!

To Meridian Water…and Beyond

‘Making Meridian: Enfield faces its future’ is a new article by editor-in-chief of Urbanista.org Lucy Bullivant which featured on the cover of the 152 page winter issue of New London Quarterly published with a redesign by Stefano Meroni. In it she explores Enfield Council’s creative leadership impacting its bespoke approach to Meridian Water. Along with other top priorities for the borough and its communities. Check it out! Available to buy online here or you can read the story in full (without illustrations) on the Meridian Water website. Erratum: Sarah Cary, Executive Director, Place, at Enfield Council, for the last two years, took up her post in March 2018. Apologies for the gremlin in the works, Sarah.

Lucy speaking on cultural infrastructure and placemaking at MIPIM UK, 15 Oct 2019

Lucy was a panel member at MIPIM UK, Old Billingsgate, London (14-15 October), on ‘Cultural infrastructure and placemaking: Its role in positioning a city as a destination and value creation’, staged on 15 October. The panel explore a range of questions including, how can new developments in cultural infrastructure and placemaking shape the future of UK cities? How do we promote quality in design, future thinking and knowledge sharing? And how do we overcome the gentrification challenge to retain the culture of a place? Sir Horace Jones Stage. Chaired by Fiona Bruce, British journalist, broadcaster and TV presenter (second from left, below), with Lucy Bullivant, Director, Lucy Bullivant & Associates (second from right, below); Sherry Dobbin, Partner, Futurecity; (left, below) Ros Morgan, Chief Executive, Heart of London Business Alliance (right, below); and Tony Reeves, Chief Executive, Liverpool City Council (middle, below). 

Speakers Associates is handling Lucy’s speaking engagements

Keynotes provide a unique event experience. Lucy creates and presents engaging and original public keynote talks, and chairs important panels and roundtables at venues around the world. She puts together a bespoke content strategy around your speaking priorities, and connects with audiences before and after her speech or panel.

Lucy only speaks about things she knows and cares about: topical, meaningful issues of architecture, urban design and planning and their adaptive capacities for a just transition.

She unpacks complex themes by simply telling a memorable story with a sense of humour to arouse enthusiasm and unity, and leaving the audience with actionable tools.

She deepens her points with compelling imagery, and weaves in anecdotes about her personal international research of best practice exemplars.

As a chair Lucy is organised, inclusive, attentive, firm and positive. She sets the right tone in her introduction and creates a good narrative flow. Check her out co-hosting Urban Manifesto, the webinar series she set up with Prathima Manohar in 2020 here.

Lucy shares your event on her social media platforms (Lucy Bullivant and Urbanista.org).

If you prefer to work with an agency you can also book Lucy through her speaking agent, Patrick Nelson at Speakers Associates +44 (0)115 9713173 patrick@speakersassociates.com.

Lucy’s Speakers Associates profile page with video clips is here.

May 2019: Dugnad Days, our participatory design project, is chosen to be part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019 on the theme, Enough: the Architecture of Degrowth

‘Our new participatory design project Dugnad Days, selected for the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019, is on show in The Library, a major OAT exhibition, which is taking place at the National Museum of Architecture in Oslo from 26 September-24 November. The Triennale is the Nordic region’s biggest architecture festival, and one of the world’s prominent arenas for dissemination and discussion of architectural and urban challenges’.  See Lucy’s article in Urbanista.org about the OAT 2019 and Dugnad Days, and her review of OAT 2019 in The Architects’ Journal.

The Dugnad Days team is Alexander Eriksson Furunes, a Norwegian architect and participatory design specialist; Lucy Bullivant; Mattias Josefsson, architect and teacher at AHO (Oslo School of Architecture) & BAS (Bergen Architecture School) and Maria Årthun, a recent architecture graduate of AHO and co-founder of Makers’ Hub. Bydel Bjerke, the local borough council, is one of the project funding partners of Dugnad Days along with KORO – Public Art Norway. Through a series of workshops with members of the local community we are programming, designing and renovating a vacant space at Sletteløkka, a suburb of Oslo, into a ‘grendehus’ – a new community centre for residents. Aurora Brekke has made a new short documentary film about Sletteløkka, the lives of residents and the new ‘grendhus’ project developed through the dugnad workshops. The film is on show at The Library in the community section.

We aim to show how, through participatory placemaking, a collective, bespoke process of building resilience and social sustainability in Sletteløkka can be built. Dugnad Days is coopting the longstanding Norwegian dugnad tradition of co-production and co-creation with citizens – practices fostering human and environmental wellbeing. Through Dugnad Days’ process of dugnad inspired workshops to create a ‘grendehus’ – a community centre – from a disused structure – the aim is to facilitate a process of direct democracy at Sletteløkka impacting community wellbeing and self-determination.

Oslo Architecture Triennale (OAT) 2019, which has the theme ‘Enough: the Architecture of Degrowth’ is curated by British architect and writer Maria Smith; Canadian architect and educator Matthew Dalziel; British critic Phineas Harper; and Norwegian urban researcher and artist Cecilie Sachs Olsen. The team is challenging the supremacy of economic growth as the basis of contemporary societies and investigating alternatives, asking ‘how should architecture respond to a climate emergency and social division? What kind of architecture will we create when buildings are no longer instruments of financial accumulation? What will our environment look like when it is human and ecological flourishing that matter most?’.

These burning questions drive the OAT 2019 programme of exhibitions, sound installations, theatre, performance, roundtables and workshops, engaging and inspiring debate about the future roles of architecture and urbanism between professionals, business communities, decision makers and the public across borders, social layers, sectors and professions, locally, across the Nordic regionally and internationally.

OAT’s major exhibition will be The Library, staged at the National Museum, a project celebrating the value of sharing, de-commodification, and democratisation of goods and ideas at the heart of a degrowth community. Our project, Dugnad Days will be featured in a ‘library of futures’ of over 65 exhibits, it will include drawings, models, materials, artefacts and devices by local and international practitioners presented in four sections, the subjective, the objective, the systemic and the collective.

The Dugnad Days project started in April with Furunes, Josefsson and Årthun running a number of idedugnad (ideas) workshops in Sletteløkka. At these, community members have been brainstorming and summarising the activities they want to prioritise for their ‘grendehus’ (community centre). Their discussion revolved around how these activities could be managed, and what each one needed in the way of elements, resources and plans. Then responsibility for each one was assigned to a key person or people, from within the group. A reporter from the local newspaper in Sletteløkka joined the second workshop and gave the project a good write up. With two workshops under their belt, the local residents taking part used the opportunity to set up their own Velforenging (residents’ association) of Sletteløkka.

Empowered by their formal status and with clarity on everything they want to achieve to make the community centre happen, they then move on to byggedugnad (construction) workshops to bring the resulting overall spatial and artefact designs into being. As part of the curatorial team, Lucy Bullivant is writing stories about the community’s progress for Urbanista.org, her webzine on liveable urbanism and will play a contributing role in the final workshop discussions and event preparations before the OAT 2019 is launched. 

On show to the public in OAT’s Library exhibition from 26 September for the Dugnad Days project will be visuals documenting what everyone did at the workshops and, to help visitors implement their own dugnad for a local project of theirs, an illustrated booklet about dugnad-inspired participatory processes will be available.

Dugnad Days is one of a host of fascinating sounding projects that make up the OAT 2019 – which has already tested the water with events anticipating its curatorial programme over the last year. It epitomizes how through focussing their own work and values in their local community, drawing on a rich tradition reinvented for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, citizens can foster a degrowth approach to sustainable futures. Characterised by cultural richness and social justice, it is one they can continue to build together on their own terms.

Spring 2019+: Lucy researching and writing a new edition of Masterplanning Futures, her award-winning book for Routledge

In the past, spatial masterplans for cities have been fixed blueprints realized as physical form through conventional top down processes. These frequently disregarded existing social and cultural structures, while the old modernist planning model zoned space for home and work. At a time of urban growth, these models are now being replaced by more adaptable, mixed use plans dealing holistically with the physical, social and economic revival of districts, cities and regions. Through today’s public participative approaches and using technologically enabled tools, contemporary masterplanning instruments embody fresh principles, giving cities a greater resilience and capacity for social integration and change in the future.

Lucy Bullivant analyses the ideals and processes of international masterplans, and their role in the evolution of many different types of urban contexts in both the developed and developing world. Among the book’s key themes are landscape-driven schemes, social equity through the reevaluation of spatial planning, and the evolution of strategies responding to a range of ecological issues and the demands of social growth.

Drawing on first-hand accounts and illustrated throughout with colour photographs, plans and visualizations, the book includes twenty essays introduced by an extensive overview of the field and its objectives. These investigate plans including one-north Singapore, Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, Xochimilco in Mexico City and Waterfront Seattle, illuminating their distinct yet complementary integrated strategies.

Masterplanning Futures is a key book for those interested in today’s multiscalar masterplanning and conceptually advanced methodologies and principles being applied to meet the challenges and opportunities of the urbanizing world. Lucy’s research for the 2012 edition was enabled by grants from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the SfA (the Netherlands Architecture Fund), the Danish Embassy and support from the Alfred Herrhausen Society for attendance at Urban Age conferences globally.

“Lucy Bullivant has completed and published in Masterplanning Futures a comprehensive outlook on some of the most relevant large scale developments in the world that are configuring a new understanding on the role of master plans.” – Manu Fernandez, Human Scale Cities

“The book sets out to explore the diverse range of activities within the broad – and questionable – banner of ‘masterplanning’. Bullivant examines a wide range of design interventions in the city, the motivations of designers and patrons and their relationship to place and culture.” – Jonathan Kendall, Architecture Today

“Set against the wider horizon appearing in the wake of the global economic crisis, this book presents a thoroughly researched argument for a reclaimed approach to masterplanning. A lively, discursive introduction charts how masterplans can no longer be singular, top-down prescriptions but must offer a collective vision and operate as a framework that can be adapted over time.” – Juliet Bidgood, Issue 128, Autumn 2013, Urban Design

“A handsome tome, well written, extensively researched and beautifully illustrated.” – Tim Catchpole, Issue 127, Summer 2013, Urban Design

“There is an almost mythical quality to the place called city – where those that have achieved a certain convergence of cultures and resources become iconic in the map of the world – the pleasure of them transcending the work they are made of. Masterplanning Futures makes a worthwhile casebook for these possible cities.”— Juliet Bidgood, Urban Design Group Journal

“Bullivant’s presentation was like a speed-mentoring session through her very thoughtful and detailed book, beginning with the over-arching premise that there has been a “necessary evolution” from 20th-century top-down master planning, which tended towards a “cut-and-paste urbanism,” to 21st-century bottom-up “adaptive” planning. The challenges facing cities and regions today, she said, require “a dynamic relationship and equilibrium” between those top-down aspirations of the past” and “bottom-up thinking” of today.” – Kirstin Richards, AIA New York