Map of a coastal area showing the affect of climate change over time.

Sustainable Cities Cluster

This cluster brings together research in the humanities and social sciences with a focus on sustainability and climate change from the scale of buildings to cities. The network includes designers, theorists, historians and building scientists, collaborating across disciplines to understand how buildings and cities have changed over time, and how they may evolve in future.

The cluster operates internationally, with established links in North and Central America, Asia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Research to date includes environmental monitoring of buildings and urban spaces in different climates, building performance evaluation, urban data collection and mapping exploring the cultural and social impact of climate change. Members of the cluster also advise local and national government on the development of energy and decarbonisation policy.

Theoretical work includes exploration of the architectural and social legacy of Modernism in an international context, understanding of systems theory from the scale of buildings to cities, taking a long view of the history of buildings and energy, and the intersections between architecture and social justice across a range of cultural contexts.

Members of the cluster are experts in a range of research methodologies, including:

  • Archival research
  • Measured surveys
  • Mapping and data collection
  • Environmental monitoring and performance analysis
  • Interviews and focus groups

The cluster has a track record of securing research funding from UK research councils and funding organisations, local and regional government, third sector organisations and foreign governments. Members of the cluster supervise postgraduate research students working across a diverse range of subjects.

Examples of recent projects and publications include:

  • My City Invisible: What Makes a Good City? (British Academy)
  • Architectures of Disaster Reconstruction in Mauritius (Leverhulme Trust)
  • Energy and Carbon Review for National Museums Liverpool (Zero Carbon Research Institute, zcri.co.uk)
  • Off-Grid Toilets: Compilation, Analysis, and Comparison (Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and WaterAid Bangladesh)
  • Lifecycle carbon assessment of residential developments (UK and China)
  • Sustainable urban development planning (various cities)
  • Barnabas Calder, Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency (Pelican)
  • Ola Uduku, Learning Spaces in Africa: Critical Histories to 21st Century Challenges and Change (Routledge)
  • Junjie Xi and Paco Mejias Villatoro, China’s Railway Transformation: History, Culture Changes and Urban Development (Routledge)
  • Asterios Agkathidis and Rosa Urbano Gutiérrez, Sustainable Retrofits: Post War Residential Towers in Britain (Routledge)
  • Ranald Lawrence, The Victorian Art School: Architecture, History, Environment (Routledge)

Cluster Members

Members of the Sustainable Cities cluster currently include:

Ranald Lawrence, Cluster lead
Asterios Agkathidis
Barnabas Calder
Alistair Cartwright
Fei Chen
Han-Mei Chen
Stephen Finnegan
Rosa Urbano Gutiérrez
Iain Jackson
Pyoung-Jik Lee
Carlos Medel Vera
Paco Mejias Villatoro
Giamila Quattrone
Gary Seiffert
Steve Sharples
Ola Uduku
Junjie Xi

Back to: School of Architecture