The new leadership team of the Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE 2) marks the Centre's relaunch with this one-day research symposium on the future of the study of the production of the built environment.
About the event
In a time of crisis, when social relations of building production are faced with rapid transformation, this symposium will be an opportunity to discuss and formulate proposals to help set the agenda for the future direction of research on the production of the built environment, in particular the issues that most urgently need addressing such as combatting climate change. This interactive day of dicussion will bring together ProBE members, project partners and past, existing and prospective collaborators from the within the University of Westminster and beyond, including academic organisations, unions, industry practitioners, environmental organisations, policy makers and the wider society.
The symposium will include keynote presentations, panel discussions and a roundtable discussion at the end of the day, on the following key research areas:
- Vocational Education and Training
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Construction
- Climate Change, Society and Environmental Design
- Collaborative design and building practices
- Labour and Capital relations in the production of the built environment
- Sustainable Urban Settlements and Low Carbon Construction
The event will be followed by a reception with drinks and nibbles.
For further information, email Coralie Guedes at [email protected].
Location
This event takes place in Fyvie Hall, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW.
Programme
9.30–10am: Registration and Coffee
10–10.15am: Welcome and introduction: Prof Harry Charrington, Head of School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster
10.15–11am: Introducing ProBE and its research legacy – Past, present and future research on the production of the built environment, with Professor Linda Clarke and Prof Christine Wall (University of Westminster)
11–11.45am: Climate Change, Society and Environmental Design – Indoor Air Quality and Overheating in the context of Decarbonisation, with Professor Dejan Mumovic (UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering)
11.45am–12pm: Comfort break
12–12.45pm: Collaborative design and building practices – Translating Ferro / Transforming Knowledges, with Professor Katie Lloyd Thomas (University of Newcastle) and Professor Joao Marcos de Almeida Lopes (University of São Paulo)
12.45–2.15pm: Lunch
2.15–3pm: Labour and Capital relations in the production of the built environment – What future for industrial relations in the production of the built environment?, with Stephen Craig (Unite the Union), Sam Mason (Public and Commercial Services Union), Paul Atkin (National Education Union Climate Change Network)
3–3.45pm: Sustainable Urban Settlements and Low Carbon Construction – Housing in informal settlements, Grassroot approach to sustainable urban regeneration, with Dr Claudia Loggia and Dr Viloshin Govender (University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa)
3.45–4pm: Coffee break
4–5pm: Roundtable discussion– What Future for the Production of the Built Environment?
Download the full programme to read more about the talks:
About the speakers
Professor Linda Clarke is Professor of European Industrial Relations in the School of Organisations, Economy and Society at the University of Westminster. As the former co-director of ProBE, Professor Clarke has extensive experience of comparative research on labour, equality and diversity, vocational education and training (VET), and wage relations in the European construction sector.
Professor Christine Wall is Professor of Architectural History in the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster. The former co-director of ProBE, Professor Wall has developed a distinctive multi-disciplinary approach, using oral histories together with documentary and visual research to reveal and examine the social processes underpinning the production of the built environment.
Professor Dejan Mumovic is Professor of Building Performance Analysis at the Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, University College London. Professor Mumovic is a building scientist with a background in heating, ventilation and air conditioning engineering and has extensive experience in monitoring and modelling work in the field of the built environment.
Professor Katie Lloyd Thomas is Professor of Theory and History of Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at the University of Newcastle. Professor Thomas is the Editor of the international journal arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, and a founding member of the feminist collective taking place. Her research is concerned with materiality and technology and their intersections with architectural concepts, practice and design, and with feminist practice and theory.
Professor João Marcos Almeida de Lopes works at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism – University of São Paulo. He is currently one of the coordinators of the research group on Housing and Sustainability (HABIS) and an associate researcher with Usina, a multidisciplinary working group and technical advisory to social movements, which strives to overcome narrowly conceived individualist and commercially-minded modes of Architecture and Urbanism. Together with Professor Katie Lloyd Thomas and Dr Silke Kapp (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Professor João Marcos Almeida de Lopes is also developing Translating Ferro/Translating Production.
Stephen Craig is National Development Officer with Unite the Union (UK), covering the maritime industry and the education and construction sectors. He is responsible for learning and skills activities at public and private sector level.
Sam Mason is Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) Policy Officer on Sustainability and Climate Change. She focuses particularly on Just Transformative Transition as a whole economy approach, and energy transition.
Paul Atkin is a retired primary school teacher and former union officer with the National Union Teachers/National Education Union (NUT/NEU). Atkin now convenes the NEU Climate Change Network and edits the Greener Jobs Alliance Newsletter.
Dr Claudia Loggia is Associate Professor and Academic Leader for the Housing Programme at the School of Built Environment & Development Studies (SoBEDS), University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. A Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellow since 2016 and Principal Investigator for the South African team of the ISULABANTU project, Dr Loggia’s research focusses on urban resilience and community-led upgrading for self-reliance in informal settlements in South Africa.
Dr Viloshin Govender is Lecturer in Architecture at the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He trained as an architect and has a special interest for resilient cities, building adaptability and how insurgency affects city planning. Dr Govender’s research involves working with marginalised communities, especially those in Informal settlements, using drone technologies and community collaboration to create solutions that form a bottom-up approach.
About ProBE
ProBE (Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment) is ideally placed to organise this symposium as a joint research centre between Westminster Business School (WBS) and the School of Architecture. It is committed to the development of a rich programme of research and related activities, including projects, oral history, film, exhibitions and seminars. ProBE provides a research hub, a forum for debate and discussion and a focus for interdisciplinary and international activity related to the production of the built environment, as a social, environmental and historical process.
