SIXTY YEARS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT A SHORT HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING UNIT Patrick Wakely and Caren Levy with Christopher Yap ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the many thank Luz Navarro Eslava for her people who helped to collate the painstaking work in laying out the activities of the DPU from 2004 to document, and my colleague Caro- 2014, updating the original DPU50 line Newton for helping us produce booklet put together by Professor the final draft of the booklet. Patrick Wakely in 2005. Chris Yap has played a pivotal role in this pro- I would also like to add the ac- cess, and has done an outstanding knowledgements which Patrick job in helping us pull together the Wakely noted in the DPU50 book- diverse range of experiences in an let. In his words: ‘I was helped by expanding DPU over the last 10 the memories and reflections of years. My colleagues, Adriana Al- Alan Mayhew, Nigel Harris, Ronal- len, Camillo Boano and Julio Da- do Ramirez, Michael Safier, Babar vila, have drawn on their institu- Mumtaz, Michael Mattingly and tional memories as well as patiently Caren Levy. reviewed drafts of the booklet. We have shared the interpretation of I entrust the next 10 years to the the history of the last decade and if new generation of the DPU, and we have overlooked people, events hope that they will continue the or outputs, this is not intention- tradition that I was honoured to al and we apologise in advance. inherited: to document DPU’s Thanks too to other colleagues wide-ranging and fascinating his- whom Chris and I consulted on the tory, and its strategic interaction details of particular events. with the development field and the education, research and practice www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu Contact www.facebook.com/dpuucl Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7679 1111 Camillo Boano has also played an associated with it. Email: [email protected] www.twitter.com/dpu_ucl Development Planning Unit, important facilitating role in di- youtube.com/user/developmentplanning 34 Tavistock Square, recting and supporting the design Caren Levy University College London, mixcloud.com/dpuucl London WC1H 9EZ, UK team. I would particularly like to London 2014 SIXTY YEARS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT A SHORT HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING UNIT Patrick Wakely and Caren Levy with Christopher Yap SIXTY YEARS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT A Short History of the Development Planning Unit by Caren Levy It is with great pride and pleasure that we add another decade to the dented expansion since its 50th anniversary. By 2014 student numbers we have developed a new generation of knowledge sharing between Notes on the History of the Development Planning Unit (DPU) that have more than doubled, as have the DPU staff, with the growth of a practitioner, academics and communities through in-country short were put together by Professor Patrick Wakely on the occasion of our new generation after the retirement of a whole generation of who were workshops, as demonstrated in the DPU-Architecture Sans Fron- 50th anniversary in 2004. In extending and re-configuring that spe- part of the first 50 years of the DPU. This has been accompanied by tières (ASF) Change By Design workshops (2009-2013) and the cial issue, we acknowledge the enormous task which Professor Patrick a combined extension and deepening of the range of knowledge pro- DPUSummerLab (run in a variety of cities since 2011). Wakely undertook, a great legacy to the current and future generations duction and teaching in which the DPU is involved, demonstrated in a - The cohort of staff who retired around the DPU’s half century of staff and students at the DPU. We have maintained the three-column number of new modalities of practice in the DPU: formed a new entity entitled the DPU Associates, which has main- format of that booklet, that is, on The DPU, Concepts & Ideas, and In- tained a close relationship with DPU teaching, research, and con- ternational Events, which so clearly reflected the complex networks and - Over the last 10 years we have greatly expanded our research, sultancy activities. relationships of our first half-century. We have reproduced Professor which is a reflection not only of increased staff numbers but also of - By its 60th anniversary, the DPU has fully integrated into the Patrick Wakely’s first edition, with its introductory text, and updated a growing number of innovative programmes initiated by the staff. UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment. This is reflected not the last 10 years from 2004 to 2014. As in the first edition, whilst the This is nowhere more evident in the formalisation of our knowledge only financially and administratively, but also in the expansion of sequence of events in the last 10 years is accurate, their interpretation is production activities in four research clusters in 2011, which has gal- cross-Bartlett teaching and research initiatives. mine with enormous help from Chris Yap and a group of my colleagues. vanised and inspired a range of new research initiatives, both within and between research clusters. The theme of our 60th anniversary Finally, 2014 also represents another milestone for the DPU: it marks As Professor Patrick Wakely noted in his introductory remarks to the year, ‘Thinking Across Boundaries’ is an example of such a joint pro- 30 year of gender in policy and planning in the DPU. Started in last edition, ‘the job’ of the DPU has kept changing and the last 10 gramme across the Unit. 1984, by Caroline Moser (1984-86) and Caren Levy (1984 to-date), years were no exception. We have maintained our historical tradition - Just after our half century, the DPU re-formulated its historical the GPPP has been a major activity contributing towards the DPU’s of questioning orthodox development agendas, within a highly con- concern for policy and planning practice in its teaching with the vision and mission. In the early 1990s, Caren Levy formerly estab- tested period for urban development and planning. We witnessed the launch in 2005 of a so-called practice module in each MSc pro- lished the Gender Policy and Planning Programme (GPPP), which tipping point in 2008 of more than 50% of the worlds’ population liv- gramme. This brought together the range of practice activities that today comprises an international programme of teaching, action re- ing in urban areas - a powerful symbolic and material moment for were already ongoing, and in so doing created a synergy for the search, policy advice and institutional capacity building. Over the many - alongside a counter movement in development assistance, with development of interesting new approaches to learning and en- last 30 years, the GPPP has provided a platform for the development bi- and multi-lateral organisations withdrawing from distinct urban gagement with partners in cities of the global south. The Practice of the gender policy and planning methodology, one of four interna- interventions. At the same time, urban social movements around im- Modules take the DPU’s commitment to participation and active tionally recognised approaches to addressing gender equality devel- proved living conditions grew in many cities of the global south, while and inclusive citizenship in policy and planning as a central con- oped in the 1980s and 1990s. planning itself was re-configured and re-valued after nearly two -de cern, working closely with social movements, community groups cades of neo-liberal inspired deconstruction. and government practitioners alike. Our 7th Decade has seen a We are going to take the opportunity in the 60th year to reflect on growth in methodological innovation, building and expanding on past and future development trends, agendas and practices, and on In its teaching, research and advocacy work, the DPU, along with its our action planning inheritance, for example, strategic action plan- the DPU’s contribution in those processes. Given exponential rates of international peers and partners, continued to demonstrate the grow- ning, participatory design in contested urbanism, the heuristics of urbanisation, and increasingly complex and diverse urban contexts, it ing political, socio-economic, environmental and built environment mapping, and scenarios planning. would appear that the DPU’s vision and mission still present the enor- challenges and opportunities of urbanisation and urban growth, and - The changing international context resulted in a reduction in the mous but different challenges and opportunities it faced with its estab- its implications for more innovative, effective and socio-environmen- DPU’s traditional delivery of short courses for mid-career practi- lishment 60 years ago. tally just approaches to policy and planning. Alongside these intellec- tioners, with the exception of gender in policy and planning and tual and practice-based challenges, the DPU experienced unprece- some tailor-made courses. On the other hand, over the last 10 years UCL, London, 2004 FIFTY YEARS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT N o t e s o n t h e H i s t o r y o f t h e Development Planning Unit by Patrick Wakely Half a Century of Innovation By the time that the Department joined UCL in 1971 (becoming the The DPU’s current concern for participatory governance, plan- DPU), its urban focus was firmly established. Its teaching and re- ning and environmental management in the peri-urban interface Otto Koenigsberger used to say that “the job of the DPU is to do itself search on housing and urban development was underpinned by Otto of rapidly expanding cities has brought together a new network of out of a job”; that is, by successfully training the professionals and Koenigsberger’s concepts of ‘urban pioneers’ and the ‘absorption of researchers, practitioners and activists who are preoccupied with teachers of the future and building the capacity of their organisations newcomers’ that were in stark contrast to the prevailing doom-laden the hitherto neglected iniquities of social, environmental, and eco- and institutions, places like the DPU would no longer be needed.