MSc Building and Urban Design in Development

02/09/2026

Mahsa Alami Fariman and Giovanna Astolfo have published “Embodied Production of Knowledge: A Feminist Lexicon for Spatial Design Practice” as Chapter 2 of A Focus on Pedagogy: Emerging Theories, Teaching & Technologies, part of the AMPS Proceedings Series 47.1.

Drawing from the Spatial Design Practices module of the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development (BUDD), the chapter reflects on an embodied feminist pedagogy grounded in care, collectivism and resistance, and asks how urban design education can move beyond rationalist, solution-driven approaches towards more situated, relational and politically engaged ways of producing knowledge.

Through four interconnected frameworks (Dislocating/Decentering, Pluralizing, Decolonising and Reorienting) Mahsa and Giovanna develop a feminist lexicon emerging from BUDD’s collective pedagogical practices, including Making Workshops, Urban Design Otherwise (UDO) and the Overseas Practice Engagement (OPE). Concepts such as rupture, holding, belonging, polyphony and being out of place become ways of questioning, unlearning and reconfiguring how we understand and practise urban design.

Rather than proposing another fixed toolkit, the chapter understands this lexicon as deliberately unfinished: an invitation to approach spatial practice as an ongoing process of collective inquiry, accountability and struggle towards more just, liveable and solidaristic urban futures.

Architecture Media Politics Society

06/07/2026

How can we understand an occupation as a living forest rather than a building?
During the São Paulo Overseas Practice Engagement, the More than Human group explored the occupation 9 de Julho led by Movimento Sem-Teto do Centro as a living ecological system, shaped by the constantly evolving relationships between human and more-than-human actors. Through water, waste and soil, they examined how everyday practices of care, maintenance and transformation sustain collective life and reveal new ways of thinking about urban ecology.

Watch their reflections here:

How can we understand an occupation as a living forest rather than ...

21/08/2025

💪BUDDies in Practice: a section where we share updates from our BUDD alumni shaping cities across the world.

🇵🇪 José Cepero Saravia and María José Gonzales Zevallos (MSc BUDD 2023–24) are working in Peru with Intuylab and the Inter-American Development Bank on a project exploring how stairways in Lima’s self-built hillside neighbourhoods can support disaster risk management. Their research investigates how these everyday infrastructures can be adapted to address both climate and daily risks, aiming to improve new and existing stairways as resilient urban assets.

👉 Calling all BUDD students and alumni: share your projects with us to be featured in this section!

11/06/2025

📣 The Urban Design Otherwise 2025 pamphlet is here!
In-out[side]: Rethinking Urban Networks for Transformative Action in Pelican House

This year’s publication brings together reflections and provocations from students and staff on the latest edition of Urban Design Otherwise, a critical design workshop part of the BUDD practice module.

The 2025 workshop was developed in collaboration with Pelican House a countercultural cooperative and social centre in Bethnal Green where over two days, students explored otherwise design practices, radical infrastructures and alternative approaches to just urbanism.

Led by: Mahsa Alami Fariman, Laia Garcia Fernández, David McEwan and Florence Wright
Curation and cover: Milagros Vidal
Graphics: Ottavia Pasta
Image credits: Alexander Macfarlane

Download now via the link in stories and bio.

10/04/2025

Beca Generación Bicentenario - Perú

If you are Peruvian and want to become part of our global network of Designers shaping just urbanism in the global south, this is your time to join MSc BUDD.

From the 14th of April to the 10th of June, you can apply to the scholarship to study with us. , a recently graduated student from Lima tells you more about his experience and why he chose Pronabec.

Find more information from the link below:
https://www.pronabec.gob.pe/beca-generacion-bicentenario/

Apply now to the Building and Urban Design in Development programme and join the Peruvian network of BUDDies.

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit UCL The Bartlett

03/04/2025

In-Out[side]:
Rethinking Urban Networks for Transformative Actions in Pelican House.

Urban Design Otherwise 2025 Workshop: week 2 summary.

Walking tour led by and Florence Wright, that brought us from Brick lane, passing by and ending at .house for an interesting role-play in which we learnt about the urban pressures being faced within the area of Brick Lane and Bethnal Green.

After the two intense weeks of workshop in .house with , here is the short video showcasing the activities we did in the second week.

You can also watch the mini-documentary of the two days in the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5SsN0yPvGo

02/04/2025

Meet the 24/25 BUDD cohort 👇

Today we are introducing Ananya Jain, who is also the student's representative of the course!

Ananya is an Indian urban practitioner committed to spatial justice through care, knowledge co-production, ecological sensitivity and politically conscious design.

She has a background in Land Economy (Law, Economics, Enviornment) from the University of Cambridge and brings a multidisciplinary curiosity to urban design and development.

.ucl

26/03/2025

Overseas Practice Engagement -
Design Research Framework and Strategies.

Last Friday marked the end of the sessions of term 2, and we did so by presenting the preliminary Design Research Framework and Strategies for our upcoming Overseas Practice Engagement in São Paulo, Brazil.

Here you can see a snapshot of student's presentations, that was followed by feedback and an Iftar potluck with students of both BUDD and DAP programmes.

We are getting ready to the adventures of Fieldwork in Brazil!

Thanks to our guest for joining us!
Also to the OPE Project partners, , and .

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit UCL

18/03/2025

Stitch for Change: Embroidery, Storytelling, and Collective Power 🌍🧵

From February to May 2025, the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea will host 'Stitch for Change', a project led by The Refugee Buddy Project: Hastings, Rother & Wealden and supported by The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL.

Women from local and refugee communities will share their stories through embroidery, culminating in superhero capes exhibited on World Refugee Day, 20 June.

This initiative is part of the project 'REFRAME: Reframing Arrival, led by BUDD's Programme Leader Giovanna Astolfo, with Harriet Allsopp, Stefano Mastromarino (DPU) and Estella Carpi (IRDR), which examines varied forms of hosting, holding hostage, and housing across metropolitan London and the coastal city of Hastings, southern Italy and Turkey.

Read the news story: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/development/news/2025/feb/stitch-change-embroidery-storytelling-and-collective-power?fbclid=IwY2xjawJGSbBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHSvxf90GUYPlQg5OM1BUvia5sdz6UZlJaWbThvjYFSvwbC5582iZfNJCxA_aem_eHPhPaznUPeU1E_TL0MWaw
Learn more about the project: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/development/research-projects/2025/mar/reframe-reframing-paradigm-arrival-2024-27?fbclid=IwY2xjawJGSbpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUwNk9DFWpjEkBxixrseHRJEXcZwDb4e8edeR17_BJeiucYCqihbEYmcSw_aem_aqRD0vKQeC0dOJLggf0tzQ

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit UCL