Richard Burdett is Director of the Urban Age Programme and Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and founding director of the LSE Cities Programme, a research and teaching centre which explores links between architecture, urban design and urban society. He recently co-curated the Global Cities exhibition at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, London. His latest appointment is as Principal Design Adviser for the London 2012 Olympics. Previously he was architectural adviser to the Mayor of London from 2001 - 2006, member of the Greater London Authority's Architecture + Urbanism Unit and sat on the City of Barcelona's Quality Committee. Burdett was founder of the 9H Gallery and the Architecture Foundation in London, and has been a key player in promoting design excellence amongst public and private sector organisations in the UK and Europe. He was Director of the 2006 Architecture Biennale in Venice on the subject of ‘Cities: architecture and society’ and is chairman of the Jury for the 2007 Mies van der Rohe Prize. Educated in Rome, Burdett lives in London with his wife and two children.

Top

Ute Weiland | Coordinator AHS/LSE

Since September 2003 Ute Weiland has been in charge of press and political contacts of Alfred Herrhausen Society, Deutsche Bank's socio-political think tank. In 1997 she co-founded the Erich Pommer Institute for Media Law and Media Management at the University of Potsdam and was its assistant managing director until 2003. Born in the former Eastern Germany she graduated from the Academy of Music in Weimar. After unification she became chief of staff to the Secretary of State for education in Saxony. Ute Weiland is a member of the German-Israeli Young Leaders Exchange of the Bertelsmann Foundation and young leader of the Atlantik Brücke.

Top

Jessica Barthel has been working as Project Manager at the Alfred Herrhausen Society since January 2005. Her tasks mainly deal with the Urban Age project, but she also has primary responsibility for all matters in connection with China. Previously, Jessica Barthel was a staff member in the corporate communications organization of Hubert Burda Media. After studying Literature, Media Sciences and Sinology, she gained her first professional experience as a journalist for the WAZ Group, a local radio station and Deutsche Presse Agentur, the German news agency. As part of a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship, she studied for one year at the Shanghai International Studies University.

Top

Ayako Iba | Event Coordinator

Ayako Iba has been working with Urban Age since September 2007. She is responsible for the event coordination of the Urban Age conferences, supervising local suppliers and managing travel arrangements among other responsibilities. Ayako Iba’s primary interests are immigration, informal economy and informal communities, especially in relation to South America. She completed a BSc Sociology from the London School of Economics where she focused on development and social change. Her studies included two years at the Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Ayako is Japanese and has lived mostly in Italy. She is fluent in five languages: Italian, Spanish, English, Japanese and Portuguese.

Top

Adam Kaasa | Programme Associate

Adam Kaasa joined the Urban Age in 2006 and has worked on various interdisciplinary projects including PhD Seminars, the public lecture series and communications. Until recently he was also the financial officer for the organisation. Previously, Adam worked on several international development projects ranging from capacity building for HIV/AIDS youth organisations in Guyana, to working with a small community health centre in Mexico. As a researcher he has completed several projects on the city including a four month grant funded project examining the architecture of the city square in Mexico. Adam holds an MSc in Cites, Space and Society from the LSE, a BA (Hons) in Sociology from the University of Alberta, Canada and is an Associate of Trinity College London in Speech and Drama. He is now a MPhil/PhD Candidate at the Cities Programme, LSE.

Top

Kay Kitazawa|Project Researcher

Kay Kitazawa joined the Urban Age team in 2007 as an expert of Geographical Information systems (GIS) and spatial analyses. She oversees the programme's worldwide data collection efforts as well as quantitative research on cities with a strong emphasise on mapping and data representation. Kay's current work ranges from analyses of people's movement patterns at neighbourhoods scale and of spatial distribution of socio-economic inequality at city scale. Prior to her move to Cities Programme, Kay has worked as a GIS consultant for several commercial and research projects in UK, Austria, and Japan as a part of her PhD study in Architecture at University College London. Kay holds a MSc in Socio-Cultural Environmental Studies and BA in Behavioural Science from University of Tokyo.

Top

Christos Konstantinou | Researcher

Christos Konstantinou joined the Urban Age as a researcher in September 2007. He holds a diploma in architecture from the National Technical University of Athens and is a qualified architect in the UK. He also holds an MSc in Regional and Urban Planning Studies from the LSE. Prior to his move in London he has worked as an architect in his home country Cyprus, where he received his professional qualifications. He has worked on various architectural projects ranging from residential to commercial buildings, and from restoration of traditional residences to small developmental master plans. Christos’ main research interests are focused on the built environment and its significance to the shaping of modern cities.

Top

Mira Krusteff | Programme Officer

Mira Krusteff has been with the Urban Age from the beginning of the project in 2005 and is the first point of contact for the project. She is mainly coordinating the conference invitation process and making sure the office runs smoothly. Her background is in advertising, database management and office management. She has been holding coordination roles for various projects including a World Bank project for the restructuring and modernisation of the water sector in Bulgaria. She worked as a media planner in Bulgaria before coming to UK. In UK she undertook project roles as quality control for a learning centre and office management positions. She has MBA (Hons) from Bulgaria and postgraduate degree in World Politics from the LSE.

Top

Antoine Paccoud | Researcher

Antoine Paccoud joined the Urban Age in 2008 as a Researcher. As such,
he is responsible for data collection and background research for the
various projects undertaken by the Urban Age. His background is in Economics and Political Science - with a BA (Hons) from McGill, Montreal - as well as Development and Geography - with an MSc in Urbanisation and Development from the LSE. He is currently in the Urban and Regional
Planning PhD program in the Department of Geography at the LSE. His research is focused on understanding the nature of Urban Events, i.e., spatial changes to the city fabric that fundamentally transform a city. This is to be based on a comparative study of Haussmann's comprehensive redevelopment of Paris in the late 19th century and the development of Manhattan, NYC in the second half of the 20th century.

Top

Pamela Puchalski | Projects Coordinator

Pamela Puchalski joined the Urban Age team in early 2007 to extend the outreach of Urban Age. As co-editor of Urban Age’s print and electronic publications, Pamela helped produce ‘The Endless City’, released by Phaidon Press in early 2008, as well an ongoing series of Urban Age newspapers summarising the thematic structure of the conferences. In addition, she oversees the website and organisation of events, site visits, conferences, and public lectures while also consulting with policymakers and urban practitioners on institutional and individual collaborations to build Urban Age’s international network. Advocating creative means for public engagement about architectural and urban issues, Pamela founded the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Architecture in New York City prior to her move to London. As Deputy Director, she created a Public Information Exchange funded by the National Endowment for the Arts in addition to managing the Center’s operations, exhibitions and educational programs. Helping establish the Center as a premier resource for information, discussion and professional exchange on architecture and design, she led the fundraising as Campaign Director prior to the storefront gallery’s opening in 2003. Pamela completed a thesis on urban American literature in addition to her Economics degree at the University of Maryland.

Top

Frederico Roman Ramos | Associate

Frederico is a Spanish - Brazilian architect and urbanist specialized in urban GIS (Geographical Information Systems) applications. His studies focus on the development of quantitative analysis of the social territorial inequalitites in urban space. Born in São Paulo, Frederico studied Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, holds a specialization in urban design at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona and a master degree in Remote Sensing by Brazilian’s National Space Research Institute, INPE. Previously he was information manager in the private consultancy sector working on national and international projects. In 2005 he was the director for the National Information System for the Ministry of Cities in Brazil.

Top

Julie Wagner | Associate

Julie Wagner, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution, is a trained city planner with an expertise in long- and short-range land use planning, public involvement, and land use conflict resolution. Currently based in Milan, Italy, Julie is working on multiple European planning and policy evaluation projects. These projects include: evaluating the effectiveness of the European Commission’s efforts to infuse strong economic rationality into policy proposals and instructing eight European cities – ranging from Athens to Warsaw – on how to infuse public involvement into large-scale urban regeneration projects. For the Brookings Institution, Julie is orchestrating how to visually and logically argue for a new federal agenda that targets the country’s top 100 metros to advance national prosperity and competitiveness. Previously, she served as the Deputy Planning Director, Long Range Planning for Washington DC, where she led the development of DC’s first long-range strategic plan. Julie holds a Masters in City Planning from MIT.

Top