UDL Thesis Publication Seminar | 2023
Date: August 26-27, 2023
Download the book of Abstracts: https://urbandesignlab.in/udl-thesis-…
Reimagination of London’s Expanding Cycle Network
Toby Godfray
MSc Sustainable Cities | 2021
King’s College London | London, United Kingdom
Book Link: https://urbandesignlab.in/product/udl-thesis-publication-2023-paperback/
Brief Description about the Seminar:
The Urban Design Lab Thesis Publication Seminar, which took place on August 26th and 27th, 2023, was an extraordinary platform where the brightest minds in urban design, landscape architecture, and planning converged. This annual event offered both post-graduate and under-graduate students a unique opportunity to present their cutting-edge thesis projects, showcasing their remarkable designs and research that had the potential to reshape our urban environments.
The seminar served as a nexus for the exchange of novel ideas, where academic rigor and innovative creativity merged seamlessly. Through this event, the Urban Design Lab aimed to foster collaboration, nurture inspiration, and contribute to the advancement of urban design on a global scale. Attendees gained invaluable insights into emerging design trends and research directions, making the seminar a must-attend event for academics, professionals, and enthusiasts alike.
Key Highlights:
Diverse Thesis Showcase: The seminar featured a curated selection of 37 outstanding thesis projects completed by both under-graduate and post-graduate students. These projects encompassed a wide array of urban design, landscape architecture, architecture, and planning topics, highlighting the breadth and depth of the field.
Global Design Trends: Attendees were privy to the latest global design trends and research breakthroughs, as these innovative projects spanned various geographical contexts. The seminar served as a conduit for the dissemination of diverse design philosophies and practices from around the world.
Scholarly Insights: Participants engaged with thought-provoking discussions and presentations that delved into the academic underpinnings of each thesis. They learned about the research methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and practical implications that informed these visionary designs.
Seminar Proceedings Book: The culmination of this event was the official publication, which compiled all the featured thesis projects into a comprehensive book. This book, assigned an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), stood as a testament to the seminar’s intellectual contributions and served as a reference for scholars and practitioners worldwide.
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our next presenter uh the next presenter is Toby Godfrey a post-graduate student from King’s College London in United Kingdoms the title of the thesis is more than paint on concrete I personally love the title conducting a playful reimagination of London’s expanding cycle Network Guided by L Dickens under the theme Urban networks so Toby you’re next please start your present course yeah yeah um thank you introduction and hopefully my connection holds up um I’ll just share my presentation give me two seconds I haven’t used um H before uh is that working yeah it’s working just full screen cool that’s okay yeah pleas okay brilliant so yeah right I’ll kick off and try and get through this in 10 minutes um yeah thank you for listening obviously and I’ll yeah give a brief overview of this disseration which was yes two months ago um in London whilst I was studying at Kings College um over here so yeah background and motivation so the reason for me doing this uh dissertation I was reading a degree in sustainable cities at the time and kind of in this space of urban planning Urban Design um I grew an interest across that year in ideas of play and how we can kind of rethink cities um from a playful perspective uh during that mass as I was interning with advocacy group here in London called London cycling campaign they kind of essentially um yeah campaigning for better micromobility provision across the capital and I wrote an an article for them a micromobility parking ahead of London Z scooter trials and I was also uh volunteering with psych Refugee charity so the context is I was kind of very much in this space and in kind of you know planning London’s cycle Network which is growing at a very quick rate as is probably the case in L cities but I had this kind of feeling oh how could we do things better um I’m not a kind of massive cyclist myself in terms of um hardcore tour to France cycling but I love the idea that you know people can get from A to B on a bike um it’s you know a much kind of more sustainable travel mode um and yeah wanted to basically rethink how we could design cycle networks um the research needs so cycling has been written about in literature in a big way it’s really well studied however there is um a gap in that cycling’s kind of um infrastructures as in the network the kind of physical nature of the network has not been looked at and its effects on kind of bringing people into cycling and engaging people in cycling so what I was looking at a lot has been written about to dat on its social infrastructures and what I mean by that is kind of international events like critical mass and basically cycling in numbers and the playful elements of cycling at night in big groups with music that kind of thing but yes never from a design perspective and I brought this kind of idea of play which I Define at the bottom which is all these terms of inclusive it’s very Urban it’s abstract it’s material it’s political it’s participat subversive subversive sorry so this idea of play how can we apply it to cycling and kind of start to rethink cycle networks so this was the kind of void um just showing this from a graphical Sense on the left is what has been studied um essentially events like critical mass cyly on numbers and how playful that is on the right is the actual physical infrastructures which hasn’t been looked at so you’ve got that top left photo that’s the van Go Star route in einhoven in the Netherlands you have kind of playful funny cycle signage you have ramps you have psychor responsive Lighting in the ground in the bottom right in Copenhagen so just exploring these ideas and how kind of brings people into cycling so that was my kind of premise so I brought this to London um and as I said earlier London’s cycle network is expanding it’s growing especially um after covid so it’s very kind of topical this subject and essentially the aim is to explore and reassess a playful imagination of London’s expanding cycle Network um and that was broken down into a list of objectives which are on screen the photo you can see is one example of a utopian reimagination London cycling this was by Norman Foster Architects where they imagined a new cycle network uh following essentially all of London’s key rail routes and building the cycle Network on top so just one example uh but on the on the main in general this subject hasn’t been studied too much to date so play for imagination of London cycle Network how did you do this um it’s a new topic so I wanted to speak to people first so I got together um eight field experts um from all over International and kind of interview them about this topic um which I’ll go into more detail shortly I then went from that to photography observation cation essentially um yeah basically looking at London cycle Network and networks from all over um the world and what they have done and trying to like bring all this material together so I had to kind of Base the final method was drawing and this was by far the most exciting rewarding and you can see the um the picture on the right these are booklets that I made and sent out to londoners all over and they filled out with various drawings of how they would design um London cycle Network um so yeah really cool methodology three steps I’ll go through them all in a bit more detail I just put my positionality in all this research which is really important in cycling on the bottom left so I myself based in the UK I am white male middle class I have never had any access issues to cycling whereas a lot of people do and I’m obviously in a position of privilege where I can think from a kind of really fun playful perspective but I understand that you know cycling is something that is not accessible for all groups in society and that is something that needs to happen um just a quick graphical presentation or representation of how this research played out so the literature gap on the left and then the various methods as you go into photography drawing and then cated in findings so the actual findings uh a lot of text on this screen I’m not going to read it out um but it was super interesting talking to experts in the field there is an appetite for this people or designers really like this idea of play and kind of rethinking networks the problem is that cycling especially in London is massively wrapped up in this discussion around safety so there’s a lot of um accidents each year and the priority is making cycling safe and play is seen as something that’s contradictory to that so you’ve got two very competing things and it’s really tricky This research to kind of think how can we make cycling safe and playful and that was a bit of a dichotomy I had to handle but yeah all these interviews different backgrounds people from inclusive design Charities whatever all brought together made some really interesting findings one of them suggested to me that I do this second method which was collate findings from all over the world as to what cities are done on kind of playful infrastructure front because there is at this point in time no one repository as in a cation of what um cities have done so I basically went out in London and I took a load of photos of the cycle Network which you can see is the left collage so pretty boring pretty mundane as is the title my dation just paint on concrete you then have on the right hand side all these different imaginations of cycle lanes and that was just one example of infrastructure which I took inspiration from you can see on the bottom left so cycle Lanes I had cycle Lane barriers parking General Network fure on the bottom right you can see cycle barriers just thinking how can we create more aesthetic fun engaging cyc infrastructure the last one as I said much more interesting was the drawing stage so I created these booklets um I sent out and the kind of the double page spread would look like it does on screen so I’d explain we have bike lane barriers so in London at the moment these are what are called plastic ones they’re absolutely rubbish they’re lightweight they’re cheap and they’re a very temporary solution and really horrible to look at and I said to the people that are filling out this booklet come on have some fun with this what would you do if you could design your own cycle barrier and put it in London and the kind of findings um I got from this were awesome a lot of drawings on one page um you know I got back I must have got back over I think it was over 90 drawings overall of different cycle infrastructures and I’m just put a few on the screen of examples and analyzing this is amazing because he had such wide ranging ideas and these weren’t coming from psycho experts these are just you know everyday people who had kind of interest in the subject one key thing is that the when you’re an when you’re analyzing these kind of drawings it’s not about the quality of the drawing itself that is not the point as much as it’s pretty to look at and more colorful ones catch the eye it’s the ideas behind it and some of these are amazing um you know he has all sorts of thing he had Planters he had kind of funky lighting um just very simple interventions kind of jovial speed cameras that kind of thing and yeah it was an amazing range of findings which I basically put together concluding this all I appreciate this is very quick fire um and happy to answer questions on it um so the conclusion of This research there is this is a kind of I felt this was a kind of starting point of a discussion as I said this topic hadn’t really been explored officially to date and I felt that this is yeah this is a kind of a really good base for a discussion and I wanted to kind of promote this more and more and things like today you know talking about it will be very quickly and very rushed is yeah really exciting that this research is going somewhere so I think the main takeaway is that we need to be really critical of how we think about cycling and other active travel modes in cities and moment and how we plan for them because at the moment is simply about competing with the car it’s how quick is it to get to A to B how convenient is it and I think we should not under appreciate the value of you know making this making cycling super attractive super fun and something for all people um the shortcoming of the research I haven’t yet one of my objectives was to try and you know develop something out out of this which would kind of you know Advocate and kind of push policy makers I haven’t yet done that that’s not to say I won’t as everyone probably on this cool knows you’re very tight for time when it comes to um undergraduate or postgraduate thesis um but yeah the last Point personal gain I absolutely love this topic and I’m really lucky to have said that I know a lot of people their dissertations it can be a SLO it can be you get sick of the topic and not not the case of me to I’ve Loved this and I now work as a transport Mobility planner with an architectural firm here in the UK and a lot of the stuff comes up in my everyday task so I’ve been able to use it um yeah that is my presentation done hopefully that’s was under 10 minutes and you’re happy to take questions um said that was a really quick snapshot of a lot of data and research but yeah hopefully found it found it interesting um yeah thank you thank you so much Toby absolutely was very interesting uh Dr mandor we can start with you please share your thoughts uh yeah top this is uh actually very very interesting and crucial issue the bikability in the city um and you tackled uh you know the the thesis in a in a very you know scientific and senseful way um yeah uh yeah it needs a it actually it’s it’s a good work as a base for uh for research on the on a planning basis for uh for for bigger scale and cities I uh I like the work and congratulate you for that thank you very much thanks thanks so much appreciate it thank you do uh Professor Park would you like to share your thoughts okay uh thank you for the presentation uh the Toby right uh so yes um yeah I love your topic uh the cycling you know networking is is one of the you know the rising Rising subject so it was very fun to see your you know passion and uh especially you really like to develop you know that in a unprecedented area you know we already stud if you look at the researches we already look I mean lots of people already look at the kind of you know just generic you know the area but you really try to push another boundary like you know plane especially so that that is very key I mean that is one of the important key I guess um uh so I I love I love to hear that you had a kind of a strategy to to find your problems and at the same time ideas from the interview that that is very crucial as well yeah but one note that I need to speak is somehow presenting you know the kind of a visual uh little bit missing so of course I could see what is your what is your goal and what you really want to achieve but unfortunately personally I I think the sketching is not enough you know for gener public I mean I I remember you you know the even you know the you know the spread out you know the the 40 repet kind of thing but again uh but unfortunately I mean to the general public maybe they they are not really they could understand well right how was it was was it successful I’m a little bit DED well yeah you’re know you’re spot on I think drawing as a kind of method is really fun and engaging and allows people to be super creative but you’re right in that it’s really hard to translate that into you kind of wide def finding take exactly yeah because you can’t really as you know amazing some those drawings are you’re not going to take that to say a council planner in the UK like it’s it’s not hard we evidence you know it’s very kind of side of qualitative research so that’s as I said I one of my shortcomings from this research I wasn’t able to kind of yeah create a really kind of strong persuasive argument from it I just basically as I said I kind of started a discussion it and showed an alternative and what could be but I think that is still a challenge you know I wasn’t able to do it in my thesis but still now I’m looking to trying to think of ways I can maybe Advance this and yeah turn it into something a bit more um hard weight I guess so heavy weight as you’re saying but yeah thank yeah absolutely absolutely yeah yeah your the is not ended so you could just develop it and then I really hope you continue to walk on that you know specific topic and area and then look forward to seeing you know the another level of your you know the study in the uh in the close future uh by by the way thank you and you know congrats for your graduation thanks so much appreciate thanks everyone for listening cheers thank you Professor uh Dr bansel yeah so I think Toby I’m really impressed by uh the passion you have towards this topic and I think it’s something for me which is very new I’ve never thought about uh cycling and how to add playfulness to that and that’s not only for kids but for everyone I really like the idea how you mentioned about your positionality that how uh as a white male and a middle class citizen how uh how do you see it as and how do you think playfulness could be added to it but how it would be different for the other users and uh the ideas of sketching I thought U for beginning it may be a good uh start but I find that it would be very difficult to uh interpret uh those sketches and maybe uh uh an average citizen or everyone may not be very comfortable with what they want to express through that but again very honest of you to mention the shortcomings of your thesis and I think this is uh just the beginning the stepping stone which you have established and I am sure that coming in the coming years I would see what you have brought uh and I think this is some some of this is one of the topic which will really gain a lot of momentum with start from you yeah thank you and and SP yeah thank you for the Fe back and yeah SP especially the positionality point um the the things you mentioned um I do think play can be a real tool for inclusivity I stand by that I think the research I did you know anyone is really open to anyone and anyone to interpret how they see fit an example where it wasn’t was I’d have one interview and you know kind of finding from that was oh we should kind of you know kind of come up with really cool lighting schemes and like very like responsive LED lighting and then I spoke to someone for inclusive design and they’re like that is really not good for anyone with any visual impairments or that kind of thing and so you have to be really kind of I think that’s a that’s a broader Topic in Urban Design generally obviously like for trying P for all users but I do think play as something for that the other thing you touched on is that a lot of people associate play as being a kind of child oriented thing and for kids yeah and that I kind of really argue heavily against that I think there’s been a lot of um literature since covid on the kind of need for playing cities and tactical urbanism that kind of things because what it does is that it alleviates loneliness isolation that kind of thing because you create these kind of spaces that are fun and people feel welcome there and it kind of Fosters um Community interaction so that’s really important so um but yeah regard to the other stuff again appreciate the feedback and I do hope I can take it Forward Beyond drawings great thank you we do have a question for you from the audience great nice do you think there’s a potential conflict between the Practical functionality of a cycling Network and the incorporation of playful elements how could this balance be achieved yeah great question definitely there’s um there is a conflict for sure I think it depends how you view cycling uh as I said a lot of people their approach to cycling is ah this is an alternative travel rout travel mode right so it’s about getting from your starting point to your end destination for those people where it’s very functional then no as in like play doesn’t really come into it for those like me who think it should be beyond that and the journey itself matters and there’s like an emphasis on the experiential nature of it then definitely that’s where incorporating play is like super important so yes there is a conflict but I do think that conflict can be overcome and increasingly like I think people understanding that yeah cycling needs to be seen Beyond this kind of really like old school transport planning pragmatic kind of mode as I said it needs to like we need to start appreciating it’s really kind of yeah um enjoyable elements so yeah in our question short answer yes there’s a huge conflict I do think it can be overcome but it takes time and people to be like more open to this subject so do you think maybe creating a tool K would help creating what sorry a tool toolkit for this incorporation like you have strategies in your mind you had the sketches which were made by the audience that you so to creating a toolkit would help definitely solve this issue yeah that that could be a really good way to take this forward to be honest I talk it um yeah like generally I think that could be really good because in that kit you could still like include all these visual elements uh and all the drawings and stuff but have a bit more kind of yeah stronger writing around it and like you know toolkits can be like really easy to follow and you have it with a lot of kind of you know Urban interventions I said it’s tactical urbanism or parket whatever it may be these kinds of you know increasing Trends I think it could be the same here just like a kind of playful cycling tool kit yeah I think they could be really strong and like as is pretty obvious with this research it’s definitely not applicable to London alone like this could this kind of idea bringing in play cycling is you know applicable to cities all over for sure okay thank you so much