2024 at the Academy of Urbanism

January

January kicked off with the 2024 call for nominations in the Urbanism Awards. Unlike many Awards programmes, this call-out goes to the public, prioritising authentic submissions of great urbanism in action over the usual corporate approach. The nomination stage is the first of five, that span 11 months of the year.

Of course, January also hosted an Urbanism Hour, looking at Transport & Placemaking with speakers Hannah Atkins and Matthew Hunter.

The month ended in style, with the first AoU Members’ Winter Party, held here at Cowcross Street, and the re-launch of Here & Now in shiny new e-journal format. We also said goodbye to 2023 Chair Jas Atwal, who stood down from the role but remains involved with all things AoU.

Pictured: Here & Now - Winter 2024

February

At the beginning of February we welcomed a new Chair in Andreas Markides, founding Chairman of Markides Associates and the AoU’s ‘resident philosopher’ who said, “I probably embody one of the Academy’s greatest values which is that it is a very broad church; there is room in this family for all of us striving to create better places and healthier communities.”

Later in the month we held the inaugural Founder’s Lecture in memory of John Thompson, which took place in the acclaimed brutalist setting of the Department of Architecture at his alma mater, Cambridge University. The lecture was given by Sadie Morgan OBE, who continues to champion community architecture, as did John. The 2025 lecture will be given by Jonathan Smales on Tuesday 11 February.

And finally we held another online Urbanism Hour, this time in collaboration with Metrex, on the theme of ‘The Metropolitan Dimension’.

Pictured: Sadie Morgan OBE at the Founder's Lecture

March

With more than 70 nominations submitted across 5 categories, the Urbanism Awards ‘Shortlisting Week’ was a major activity in March. Over the course of five daily lunchtime sessions, panels of Academicians and Young Urbanists reviewed candidates for Great Place, Great Street, Great Neighbourhood, Great Town / Small City, and European City of the Year, ultimately proposing a shortlist of three in each category.

March also saw the announcement of the 2024 recipients of the Young Urbanist Small Grants Scheme, a programme that provides funding to projects that are based on original research and that seek to explore solutions to urban problems.

And the Urbanism Hour looked ahead to COP29, reflecting on key takeaways from COP28 with speakers Martina Juvara and Steve Scott.

Pictured: Young Urbanist Small Grants Scheme recipients

April

April started quietly, with Easter / school holidays at play, and got going with an urbanism-themed Pub Quiz in Edinburgh, organised by the brilliant Scottish chapter of the Academy network. This month’s Urbanism Hour also had a Scottish flair, as it explored Nature and the City, with Glasgow’s Claypits Local Nature Reserve (The Great Place 2023) as a shining case study.

Later in the month we launched the new AoU Policy Forum. Groups of our members have been working together throughout the year, combining their expertise to develop advisory papers on some topical urbanism issues. Updates will be shared soon and we look forward to the results.

Pictured: The Urbanism Quiz in Edinburgh

May

May was one of the busiest months at the AoU this year, and it got started with the publication of the Spring edition of Here & Now, looking at Housing: The Alternatives. We also saw the revival of the monthly online Coffee Break, organised by Scottish members with a rotation of guest contributors. Elsewhere in the online programme, we held the Urbanism Hour before the summer hiatus, on European Initiatives with speakers Alice Charles and Julio Lumbreras.

The Young Urbanists were active with three events in May: the third instalment of the Build Your Career workshop series, held at Kings College London; a mixer with Create Streets; and a visit to New Ground Co-Housing.

For a second year running, we partnered with the Danish Embassy on their ‘Places People Want to Live & Work’ conference, as well as with the RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland). The AoU x RIAI’s second joint conference in Galway followed the 2023 publication of the Greater Galway Charter for Sustainable Urbanism, and its focus was on Lifelong Neighbourhoods. The AoU and RIAI will partner on a third Irish conference in March 2025, ‘Delivering a Balanced Ireland 2050’, held at Dublin Castle.

Pictured: Lifelong Neighbourhoods conference in Galway

June

In June, a new event, The Journey of Place: Leeds, revisited the city’s urbanism legacy through site visits ‘down memory lane’ to previous Urbanism Award winners and finalists followed by a reflective address from outgoing Director of City Development, Martin Farrington. At this event we made two AoU announcements: firstly news of the 2024 Urbanism Awards finalists and secondly the reveal of the 2025 Congress host city, Utrecht.

Earlier in the month, the online Coffee Break continued with guest Dr Sacha Hasan, and the Young Urbanists held another European cycle trip, which went between the Catalan cities of Barcelona and Girona over a long weekend. The 2025 cycle trip will visit Brussels and Ghent next July.

Pictured: Young Urbanist Cycle Trip to Barcelona

July

Early in July BDP, with the support of the AoU, launched their Good City research programme at an event in London with speakers from the programme as well as keynote Roger Madelin. Later in the month, the Summer 2024 issue of Here & Now was published, celebrating 25 years of the Urban Task Force report, and this featured the first two BDP City Observatory papers, on Tokyo and Lima.

Urban and landscape designer Paul Morsley joined the July Coffee Break, and the AoU network came together in person at our rooftop summer drinks and an evening in conversation with author and planning barrister Hashi Mohamed.

July also launched the 2024 programme of Urbanism Awards assessment visits, with a Great Streets visit to Church Street in Stoke Newington.

Pictured: Hashi Mohamed in Conversation

August

A big month for holidays, but no rest for the wicked in August, which hosted four more assessment visits, this time to Great Place finalist Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen, Great Town / Small City candidates Bath and Lewes in the south of England, and Great Neighbourhood contender Port Loop, Birmingham.

Deborah Murray joined the August Coffee Break from Glasgow’s Byre’s Road & Lane Business Improvement District, and the Young Urbanists enjoyed an informal evening of networking in a park, making the most of the summer weather.

Pictured: Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen

September

The majority of this year’s assessment visits took place in September, with the first three of the month - to Helsinki, Shrewsbury, and Beaulieu - all going on to win in their categories. Seven more visits also took place to Graylingwell, Reggio Emilia, Bristol, Old York Road, Strand Aldwych, Arc Westcliff, and finally Mayfield Park.

That’s not all though! September also welcomed the resumption of the Urbanism Hour, with a session on planning law with Clare Fielding and Steve Quartermain. The Young Urbanists organised a pub night and a walking tour through Mayfair with Grosvenor, and we partnered with A&DS and the University of Glasgow on a 2-day conference exploring What’s next for place?

One of our 2024 highlights, of course, was finding the Academy of Urbanism featured on prime time television, when BBC’s University Challenge themed a picture round on past winners of the Great Town Award! Click here to watch it back.

Pictured: The AoU featured on University Challenge

October

The first week of October held an online Coffee Break with Dr Emilie Wadsworth; Small Grants Scheme: The Findings, at which the 2024 recipients shared their project outcomes; and the Quality of Life: Reimagining the post-industrial city day conference in Manchester. This range of events and audiences in the span of less than 36 hours truly exemplifies the diversity of what we do at the AoU.

October’s Urbanism Hour explored Urbanism After Dusk, with Jessica Feréy and Laura Phillips, and later in the month we launched the fourth stage in the Urbanism Awards process: voting. 15 assessment reports, compiled by our brilliant Lead Assessors, were published to help members cast their votes for the 2024 winners. Beyond the Urbanism Awards, these reports are great reference material and 17 years’ worth of research and assessment can be found in the Member’s Corner.

Pictured: Reimagining the Post-Industrial City conference in Manchester

November

The jewel in November’s crown, and the culmination of 2024’s flagship programming at the AoU, was of course the Urbanism Awards Ceremony. Held at 150 Holborn in host partnership with Sidara, the event opened with the Learning from Europe seminar, with finalists Bristol, Helsinki, and Reggio Emilia. Suitably inspired, we then crowned the 2024 Urbanism Award winners in a ceremony overlooking London’s skyline with a soundtrack of Ian McMillan’s poetry. The full 2024 Awards archive, including event recordings, assessment reports, and key headlines, can be found here.

The awards may by be the jewel, but not the only component of November’s crown. Not satisfied with only partnering with the Danish Embassy once this year, November opened with two days of partnered programming in Glasgow and Stirling, and later that week Iain MacPherson joined the Coffee Break. And at the end of the month the co-authors of EcoResponsive Environments presented at the Urbanism Hour.

In November we also published the final issue of Here & Now for the year, which was themed on Major Sporting Events and their legacy, with pieces spanning the Olympics, WSL, and tailgating culture.

The month ended with two informal pub nights, organised by members in Dublin and Edinburgh, to catch up with local urbanists and build new connections.

Pictured: 2024 finalists at the Urbanism Awards Ceremony

December

The Congress team kicked off December with a visit to Utrecht to develop the event programme, which will take place between 11 – 13 June 2025.

We then had the year’s final online Coffee Break, with researcher Adiya Karsybek and a Quiz special of the Urbanism Hour.

Finally, looking to the year ahead, we announced February’s Founder’s Lecture with Jonathan Smales, March’s joint conference in Dublin with the RIAI, and July’s Young Urbanist Cycle Trip to Brussels and Ghent. Also in the world of the Young Urbanists, the next round of the mentoring scheme got going with a new batch of Academician / Young Urbanist pairings.

Pictured: Utrecht, Netherlands