Barcelona Meeting Point

Lawrence Barth is Professor of Urbanism at the Graduate School of the Architectural Association, where he has worked to position the Housing and Urbanism Programme at the interface of architecture and urban strategy. In 2003, Mr. Barth also joined the Graduate School’s Landscape Urbanism Programme, developing the political and strategic component of its curriculum. In 2004, he initiated the formation of a sustained research programme in architectural urbanism at the PhD level and integrated the ensuing research culture into the school’s taught programmes. Beginning this year, Mr. Barth is coordinating a new research cluster he has developed at the school, entitled The Architecture of Innovation. This cluster integrates architectural work at the AA into the multi-disciplinary efforts to develop a dynamic urbanism for today’s knowledge economy.
Mr. Barth works independently as a consultant urbanist for cities, design practices and research institutes. He has collaborated with diverse architects and landscape architects including Zaha Hadid, Future Systems, Gustafson Porter, Balmori Associates, and S333. He has also assumed the lead role in overseeing a multi-disciplinary refinement of the central district within the one-north Masterplan for a next-generation innovation environment in Singapore. He has published widely in architecture and sociology, and is a frequently invited lecturer and critic on the role of architecture and landscape in the contemporary urban process. He participates in an international research network on the growth of global mega-cities and the urban transformations associated with the knowledge economy. He is a member of the UK’s Academy of Urbanism.