Urban Age is a research programme started in 2005. It is led by

LSE Cities LSE Cities is a research centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The purpose of the centre is to increase knowledge and understanding of how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focusing on how the phys ...

with support from

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

’s Alfred Herrhausen Society into the relationship between the shape and society of cities. Research includes comparing

urbanisation Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly the ...

in already urbanised and currently urbanising regions of the world. Urban Age emerged as a product of the research and ideas of LSE Cities'

Ricky Burdett Richard Burdett (London, 1956) is professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age project. __TOC__ Biography His interests and activities focus on the in ...

, Philipp Rode and

Richard Sennett Richard Sennett (born 1 January 1943) is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and former University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. He is currently a Senior Fellow of the Center on Capitalis ...

and has since centred around conferences in a range of cities worldwide, as well as accompanying newspapers containing both global data sets and in-depth case studies.

Conferences

The first Urban Age conference was held in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in February 2005 and subsequent conferences have taken place in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. The Urban Age conferences have aimed to bring together planners, mayors, architects, academics and other stakeholders to discuss themes such as urban health and well-being, urban governance and how cities respond to the impact of major events like the hosting of the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. Participants have included a number of current and former city leaders, including

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Enrique Peñalosa Enrique Peñalosa Londoño (born 30 September 1954) is a Colombian politician. He was mayor of Bogotá from 1998 until 2001 and elected again in 2015 for the 2016–2019 term. He was prominently featured in the Panama Papers for use of off-sho ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

Sheila Dikshit Sheila Dikshit () (née Kapoor; 31 March 1938 – 20 July 2019) was an Indian politician. The longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state, she served for a period of 15 yea ...

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

Jennifer Musisi Jennifer Semakula Musisi is a Ugandan lawyer and public administrator. She is the first ''City Leader in Residence'' at Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative at the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts ...

, and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Ada Colau Ada Colau Ballano (; ; born 3 March 1974) is a Spanish activist and politician who is the current Mayor of Barcelona. On 13 June 2015 she was elected Mayor of Barcelona, the first woman to hold the office, as part of the citizen municipalist pla ...

, and national leaders including German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

and UK Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

. The ten year celebration of Urban Age, taking place in November and December 2015, consisted of five Global Debates on cities and climate change, designing urban infrastructure, the politics of equity, social inclusion and steering urban growth. These debates were accompanied by a series of articles published by ''Guardian Cities''. In 2016 Urban Age was invited to curate a Special Project at the 15th

International Architecture Exhibition International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. Conflicts of an Urban Age highlights the changes to seven cities that have experienced significant population increases in the past 25 years and has since exhibited in

, the inaugural 2017

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism and at

Arup Group Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment ...

's phase2 gallery in

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. The Urban Age Shaping Cities conference was held alongside the exhibition. Between 2017-2018 the programme focused on African cities including Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Accra and Cape Town culminating with the Developing Urban Futures conference and publication in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

on 29–30 November 2018.

Publications and data

Each Urban Age conference has also produced a newspaper with feature articles, global, regional and city-specific data and graphics, as well as reflections from conference participants. This content has been organised and disseminated through the Urban Age digital platform, launched in December 2015.

and

Deyan Sudjic Deyan Sudjic (born 6 September 1952) is a British writer and broadcaster, specialising in the fields of design and architecture. He was formerly the director of the Design Museum, London.LSE"Advisory board" retrieved 17 May 2013 Life and care ...

have also edited two books:
The Endless City
' (2008) and
Living in the Endless City
' (2011), which chronicle the main findings, discussions and research of the early Urban Age conferences. The Urban Age programme and concept has generated significant debate among urbanists, with critiques and appraisals produced in several academic journals. Urban Age data visualisations have also been featured in a variety of online and print media, including urban footprint graphics, transport infrastructure maps and residential density graphics. A third book in the series,
Shaping Cities in an Urban Age
'' became available in 2018. Edited by Burdett and Philipp Rode, the book was launched at the 16th

in September 2018.

Urban Age Scholarships

Urban Age Scholarships provide financial support to applicants of

' Executive MSc in Cities programme in an effort to broaden access to knowledge and debate around how cities are designed and governed.

References

External links

* * * {{cite web, url=https://www.alfred-herrhausen-gesellschaft.de/en/, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601053854/http://www.alfred-herrhausen-gesellschaft.de/en/ , archive-date=2010-06-01 , url-status=dead, title=Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft - Home, author=Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, date=2015-05-04, access-date=20 January 2016 London School of Economics Town and country planning in England 2005 establishments in England