Research
LSE Cities is working and expanding on parallel yet intersecting strands of research that cover the following areas:
- Cities, Space and Society
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- urban culture and design
- economic development and inclusion
- cities, health and well-being
- Cities and the Environment
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- mobility and city access
- urban form and resource efficiency
- city design and technology
- Urban Governance
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- architecture and democracy
- metropolitan and regional cohesion
- mega-projects, infrastructure and urban change
Much of the current and future research is carried out in partnership with institutions and individuals including:
- African Centre for Cities
- Alan Baxter Associates
- The Brookings Institution, Washington DC
- Ajuntament de Barcelona
- The State of Bavaria and the City of Munich
- Buro Happold
- Bay Area Council Economic Institute
- Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE
- Cisco Systems
- Deutsche Bank Research
- Distrito Federal, Mexico City
- European Institute for Energy Research (EIFER), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
- The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE
- Greater London Authority
- Hong Kong University
- Indian Institute of Technology
- Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment
- Ove Arup Foundation
- Rogers, Stirk and Harbour + Partners
- La Città di Torino
- Seoul Development Institute
- The State and City of São Paulo
- World Health Summit
- World Health Organisation
- UN-HABITAT
- United Nations Environment Programme
- University of São Paulo
Ongoing research
Cities Health and Wellbeing
Cities are critical sites for both enquiry and action in relation to health and well-being.
With up to 70 per cent of the world’s population concentrated in urban areas by 2050, global well-being will increasingly be determined by the health of urban dwellers.
To date, urbanisation has been associated with improvements in income levels and health outcomes. At the same time, the pressures of urban growth have contributed to the emergence of stark social and health inequalities in cities of the developed and developing world.
In the build up to the 2011 Urban Age Conference in Hong Kong, LSE Cities is developing a research programme that will explore these issues in greater depth, working in partnership with experts from different fields and professions, to drive forward a better understanding of how the shape of the contemporary city can help improve the quality of life of urban residents.
LSE Cities: The Randstad – SouthEast England Research and Seminar Series
Partners: Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment | Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) | London Development Agency (LDA) | Design for London
This project conducts a comparative investigation into the spatial and socio-economic differences between these two metro-regions – the polycentric Randstad and the monocentric London-SE England. Themes covered include: the relationship between where people live and work; people and green spaces; and a review of urban forms that are most conducive to energy efficiency and micro/renewable generation.
The research and seminars aim to foster substantive discourse, and a resource of information about these differences and the implications for future urban/regional policy making.
Urban Age: City Surveys
Partner: IPSOS GROUP
Urban Age commissioned IPSOS, the world's leading market research group, to analyse residents' perception of urban issues and quality of urban life in the cities they live in. Adapted from the 2007 GLA London Survey; the Urban Age São Paulo, Istanbul, and Mumbai City Surveys took place between 2008 and 2010.
The findings of the three Urban Age City Surveys were put in a comparative perspective with those of the 2007 London Survey, in a text that appears in Living in the Endless City. A research report on the Urban Age City Surveys will be published in Summer 2011.
Urban Age: Cities and Energy. Urban Morphology and Heat Energy Demand
Partners: European Institute for Energy Research, Karlsruhe University
Partnered with the European Institute for Energy Research at Karlsruhe University, this joint research initiative looks at the relationship between urban form and its impact on heat energy demand. This work starts by identifying and categorizing the predominant 'urban typologies' in four selected cities (London, Paris, Berlin and Istanbul), creating an inventory of urban morphologies, and purifying them into ideal samples. Then, through running a simulation model, where all parameters apart from the morphological characteristics of the samples are kept constant, the heating demand of these real and ideal samples is calculated. This work opens the door to understanding the relationship between heat energy demand and urban from at the hitherto under researched scale of the urban block.
Now close to publication, this work aims to support decision making at the planning level as well as provide a firm basis and the necessary tools for future studies into the effects of urban morphology on the environment.
Completed Research
2011
LSE Cities: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 'Green Economy' Report
As coordinating authors for two chapters in the UNEP report 'Towards a Green Economy', LSE Cities has worked with an international collaboration of authors and institutions. Chapters include 'Sustainable Cities' and 'Green Buildings'. The report has been published in February 2011.
2010
Urban Age: The Next Urban Economy
Partners: Brookings Institution, Washington D.C. | Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), LSE
The Next Urban Economy is a joint research project investigating how the recent recession has affected the trajectory of economic and social prosperity of EU and US cities and their regions. The project seeks to identify and examine key sectors and industries offering potential solutions to the economic, social and environmental challenges of today's urban areas, with special focus on the role of the "green economy" and effective local government policy frameworks for economic recovery.
2009
Arkitera Spatial Study
Partners: Arkitera Architecture Center, Istanbul
Urban Age and the Arkitera Architecture Center initiated an innovative spatial study among five young architecture firms in Istanbul. The results are creative and provocative city solutions to Istanbul’s pressing urban issues.
Istanbul: City of Intersections
17 feature essays and detailed research provide the current and historical context to reflect on, debate and discuss the social, economic, environmental and spatial configurations of Istanbul. Extensive comparative research on the social, economic and physical aspects of the nine Urban Age cities complement the essays.
Read the articles online | Download newspaper: English | Türkçe
Cities and Social Equity: Inequality, territory and urban form
Partners:Ipsos MORI | United Nations Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD) | The Centre for Metropolitan Studies (CEM) | Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) | The Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the Mackenzie Presbyterian University
With a combined population of nearly 60 million and dramatic growth in recent decades, these five cities are places of mix, change and extreme polarisation which can be destabilising, inhumane and wasteful of resources. Cities and Social Equity assesses the impact of inequality in an urban context with comparative research and data collection in the five cities.
2008
South American Cities: Securing an Urban Future
Feature essays from local and international experts paired with extensive research on the social, economic and physical contours of the five largest metropolitan regions in South America – São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, Lima and Buenos Aires – document and analyse the region's major urban trends. A detailed focus on São Paulo brings its urban growth into perspective with global trends to reframe how South America's largest and most dynamic city is understood.
The Endless City (Phaidon, 2008)
The city is the subject of the 21st century. All over the world, populations are shifting towards urban centres. The Endless City details an authoritative survey of cities now and the prospects for our urban future. 34 contributors from across Europe, South America, China, Africa and the U.S. set the agenda for the city - detailing its successes as well as its failures.
Integrated City Making: Governance, planning and transport
In 2007, Urban Age undertook a research programme in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore followed by the Urban Age India Conference in Mumbai, to understand and assess how these cities are responding to the challenges of growth, and to compare these approaches to those adopted in other cities throughout the world.