Making a difference # 2 (Richard Burdett)

Richard Burdett, internationally acclaimed researcher on urban issues, is heading a groundbreaking interdisciplinary investigation of the process of urbanisation.
 

The Urban Age project is a six-year sequence of international conferences held in cities across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe between 2005 and 2010. The Urban Age is constructing the framework for a developing network of individuals that exchanges information, experiences and data, emphasising the relationships between concrete investment, design and building, and the economic, environmental, social, political and cultural processes that shape city life.

The Urban Age Project operates as a mobile laboratory, testing and sampling the social and physical characteristics of global cities through expert presentations and testimonials, research, site visits, GIS mapping and informal information exchange. Findings from each of the cities are analysed according to regional patterns in an effort to uncover global similarities and differences. The results help policymakers, academics and urban practitioners understand the future development of cities and the processes that sustain them.
 

The Urban Age project is a joined endeavour between the London School of Economics and the Alfred Herrhausen Society of the Deutsche Bank.

Richard Burdett is Director of the Urban Age Programme and Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and founding director of the LSE Cities Programme, a research and teaching centre which explores links between architecture, urban design and urban society. He recently co-curated the Global Cities exhibition at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, London. His latest appointment is as Principal Design Adviser for the London 2012 Olympics. Previously he was architectural adviser to the Mayor of London from 2001 - 2006, member of the Greater London Authority's Architecture + Urbanism Unit and sat on the City of Barcelona's Quality Committee. Burdett was founder of the 9H Gallery and the Architecture Foundation in London, and has been a key player in promoting design excellence amongst public and private sector organisations in the UK and Europe. He was Director of the 2006 Architecture Biennale in Venice on the subject of ‘Cities: architecture and society’ and is chairman of the Jury for the 2007 Mies van der Rohe Prize. Educated in Rome, Burdett lives in London with his wife and two children.

Richard Burdett also forms part of this years Danish contribution to the 11th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, which is called 'ecotopedia - walk the talk'.

Check out Richards contribution to ecotopedia here.

Check out the Urban Age project here.