University News Last updated 18 September 2019
Four scholarships were awarded to students in the Department of the Built Environment this year. Scarlett Lambeth, Zuzana Muckova, Lolade Williams and Joseff Mcalinden were chosen to take part and contribute to the Research Symposium and ‘The City as a Commons Summer School’ in Italy with Senior Lecturer in Spatial Planning Dr Silvia Gullino.
The Research Symposium and the Summer School investigated ‘urban commons’ (land and services that are commonly owned), as well as their relationship to cities and their relevance to economics, geography, law, architecture and planning, among other disciplines.
Students took part in exciting research projects and worked in multi-national teams to deliver presentations that included textual, audio-visual and other graphic elements such as sketches and drawings.
Silvia said: “It has been an incredible week. My Planning students have been brilliant. They attended the Research Symposium which helped them engage with wider debates. They worked hard in their teams contributing amazing ideas which resulted in innovative final proposals. I am very proud of them!”
As a result of Silvia’s involvement in the Summer School and the Research Symposium, which run in parallel, BCU was asked to be one of the academic partners of the event, which involved around 40 students from various countries including Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, Greece, Mexico and Brazil.
The event was well received by students. Scarlett said: “I had a brilliant time and learnt a lot, especially working with other students from various backgrounds.”
Joseff commented: “I have learnt a lot. It was intense but massively beneficial and I would encourage other students to take such opportunities.”
Zuzana said: “I have learnt a lot about urban commons these past few days. I was in a team with people from Italy, Mexico and New Zealand and we transformed an ex-fuel pump area into a playing space. And it was amazing!’
From left to right: Dr Ioanni Delsante from the University of Huddersfield, Dr Cristina Cerulli from Sheffield Hallam University and BCU's Senior Lecturer in Spatial Planning Dr Silvia Gullino.