Lauren Andres

Adaptable Cities and Temporary Urbanisms

Cities are typically thought of as permanent. Structures, streets, infrastructure, and other features of the built environment, even if they are periodically replaced, are intended to endure. But temporary, flexible spaces and uses are essential to how cities function and the ways urban dwellers inhabit them. Such adaptability, moreover, is fundamental if cities are to meet the challenges of the future. In this talk, I will examine temporary urbanisms across varied global contexts, considering their significance for cities and everyday life as well as for policy and practice. While engaging with the key components and debates that have shaped our understanding of adaptable cities in the past few decades, I will bring together the diverse and distinct forms and facets of temporariness and adaptability—from sites of consumption by privileged residents to the survival strategies of marginalized groups. Doing so will allow exploring the driving forces of adaptability as well as the power dynamics and tensions between temporariness and permanence. I will also demonstrate how adaptability enhances livability, sustainability, and resilience, showing its importance for addressing crises such as climate change, socioeconomic inequalities, and pandemics.

Lauren Andres is Professor of Planning and Urban Transformations at the Bartlett School of Planning (UCL, London) and BSP Director of Research. Prior to joining UCL, she spent 10 years at the University of Birmingham (School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences) as a lecturer and senior lecturer in spatial planning. Her work and contribution sit within the interface of planning, urban studies, and geography. It focuses on adaptable cities and specifically the temporary and more permanent transformations faced by cities, people, and places, in both developed and developing contexts. From a focus on urban regeneration, brownfield development, and sustainable planning, her expertise then included everyday, temporary, and longer-term socio-economic and spatial adaptations, power mechanisms, and their impact on urban and community resilience and planning. Her latest work has been focusing on the implications of urban transformations for planning education and practice, in the way these translate into diverse forms of ‘temporary urbanisms’ and lately for post-pandemic and adaptable cities.

Light refreshments will be served. This event is open to Columbia University affiliates with a valid university ID. Any questions on the events can be directed Diana Guo, dg3372@columbia.edu; Vinita Govindarajan, vg2588@columbia.edu; Mauricio Enrique Rada Orellana, mer2245@columbia.edu

The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS) is organized by the Urban Planning Office second year PhD students in Urban Planning: Vinita Govindarajan, Diana Guo, and Mauricio Rada Orellana.