Exploring New Utopias
The MA in Architecture and Urbanism provides a unique platform for students to explore how global cultural, economic, and environmental forces shape contemporary cities. It offers an inclusive, multidisciplinary environment that redefines architecture as a process intrinsically linked to urban transformation, rather than an isolated discipline. The programme encourages students to engage critically with real-world challenges and produce speculative proposals through design experimentation and practice-oriented research.
A core component of the programme is the Urban Labs, where students are engaged in site-specific investigations that respond to contemporary crises. This year, the overarching theme was New Utopias – Envisioning [Im]possible Futures. Utopian thinking has historically inspired radical urban visions, material expressions of collective hopes for a better world. While many utopian experiments have failed or fallen short, the desire to imagine alternative futures remains a powerful tool. This studio aimed to reclaim the utopian impulse as a catalyst for debates, and critical inquiry within the urban context.
Throughout the first two trimesters, the programme welcomed a diverse cohort of international students and engaged a wide range of academics and professionals, including architects, urban planners, landscape designers, environmental consultants, and historians. These voices contributed to four interdisciplinary Urban Labs, each focused on a specific domain: Contextual Urbanism, Prototype Urbanism, Dwelling & Urbanism, Landscape & Urbanism. Project sites were strategically selected across European cities (Barcelona and Sabadell, Spain, Riga, Latvia, Manchester, UK and Karystos, Greece) to provide a varied and dynamic testing ground.
Together, students and tutors developed design responses grounded in both rigorous research and imaginative projection. The Urban Labs became spaces for experimentation, cultural exchange, and collaborative learning, demonstrating the potential of speculative design to inform more inclusive, resilient, and future-oriented urban practices.
Consultants to Urban Laboratories
Dwelling and Urbanism:
Tom Mitchell. Partner at Metropolitan Workshop, Dublin and London
Prototype Urbanism:
Alexander Clark Geddes. Director at Geddes Architects, London
Landscape and Urbanism:
Danny Crump. Director of Urbanism at Layer Studio, London
Contextual Urbanism:
Jonathan Kendall. Partner/Director of Urban Design at Fletcher Priest Architects, London
