Prof Graeme Evans

Graeme Evans holds a Chair in Design and is Professor of Urban Culture & Design in the Department of Design, School of Engineering & Design, Brunel University, having joined in April 2012.  He was formerly founder-director of the Cities Institute at London Metropolitan University where he led an interdisciplinary team undertaking research into urban environment, design, regeneration, transport and the creative economy. He also holds a special chair at the University of Maastricht, Department of Science Technology & Society where he leads research into creative and knowledge regions, innovation and urban development. He was previously Head of Research at Central St Martin’s College of Art & Design (UoAL) and completed his MA and PhD at City University, London. Prior to his academic career he held senior executive and project management appointments in government (Home Office) and in international energy, property and transport industries for UK and US plcs, and was a director of an inner city arts, media and technical aid centre for 6 years.

He has led major research studies into sustainable development, including accessible transport and urban design, mixed-used design and quality of life, climate change and urban growth, and critical work on culture and creative industries including creative cities. He has held numerous research grants from research councils - AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC -the EU, central government, regional and local government, and has coordinated successive Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF2-5) projects on geoknowledge, local economic development, creative industries and mega-events.

Graeme has served as an expert for the OECD on the creative industries, for UNESCO on world heritage cities, and for national and regional governments on design and creative city strategies, including South Korea, South Africa, Netherlands and China, and for the Council of Europe on Cultural Routes and Intercultural Cities. He has served as a Design Enabler for CABE and on NESTA’s Cluster & Innovation Group and is a board member of the Design Against Crime Research Centre (CSM, UoAL). He is a member of the RCUK Digital Economy ‘Sustainable Society’ Research Network and convenes the Regional Studies Association Research Network on Mega-Events including serving as expert adviser to the London2012 Olympics Legacy evaluation.

Graeme is a panel and peer review college member for the EPSRC and also regularly reviews for the AHRC, ESRC and the Technology Strategy Board on assistive technologies and creative industries. He is an editorial board member for both the Creative Industries and the Town & City Management academic journals. Major books include Designing Sustainable Cities (Wiley-Blackwell) and Cultural Planning: An Urban Renaissance? (Routledge) and he has written over 100 chapters and journal articles, including work translated into Chinese, German and Turkish, and generated over 50 research reports for a range of clients and commissioning agencies.

He has led and participated in numerous research council awards including several EPSRC Sustainable Urban Environments (SUE) projects (AUNT-SUE, VivaCity, InSITU), ESRC Sustainable Communities, AHRC Connected Communities, and European Union (EU) framework projects including Cities for People (Agora), Coastal Cities & Climate Change (SECOA) and ICT & SMEs (TOURIT). Much research has been undertaken for government – national as well as local/regional. This includes successive research studies for the Culture Ministry (DCMS) on cultural and creative industries, policy and practice. This ranges from modelling culture’s contribution to regeneration (launched as ‘Culture at the Heart of Regeneration’ by the Secretary of State), to developing cultural planning and evaluation toolkits as national guidance and resources (Living Places and CASE). For the London Development Agency he led an international comparative study of creative spaces with Toronto City/Ontario Province which has been used to inform creative city strategies and policy worldwide.

Research Interests

My research mission at Brunel is to scale up design research - to move it from the lab into the real world urban environment and ‘Urban Laboratory’- and to better join up micro, meso and macro levels of design praxis and economy using a whole systems approach. This embracesinclusive and participatory design that addresses sustainable development principles and imperatives.  This is manifested for example in areas such as mobility and transport, in built environment, energy and quality of life, in design technology and innovation, ageing and health, and in place-making and city branding – all spheres in which I have undertaken academic research and knowledge exchange/transfer.

Current Research

I am currently workingon a 3 year study of Electric Vehicles (EVs) as part of an EU INTERREG project E-Mobility looking at the barriers and both social and technological solutions to wider take up, access and design of charging infrastructure and systems, with case studies in London (TfL, Westrans) and Hertfordshire – both ‘plugged in places’ regions. This work builds on the AUNT-SUE EPSRC project for which I was PI and which developed an approach to the whole journey environment - from social inclusion, design and transport planning perspectives.E-Mobility is also expanding into freight transport working with west London boroughs and the Park Royal Partnership with freight logistics design using EV technology and distribution models.

I am developing research on the digital economy on the theme of ‘sustainable society’. This is based around the Silicon Roundabout and Tech City area of London which stretches from Shoreditch to the Olympic Park. I presented at the Digital Shoreditch Festival in 2011 and at the Parliamentary Design& Innovation Group on Tech City. I will also present on the Sustainable Society theme at the 2012 Festival Summit held in Hackney House as part of the RCUK Digital Economy Research Network. This brings together concepts from the Smart City and assistive technology, to how digital technologies can improve access, governance and improve sustainability awareness and behaviour.  I am also part of a European COST Network on Smart Cities and I lead a consortium with Maastricht University: MICROCOSM, which is investigating the process and impact of innovation and design in small creative enterprises in Europe, since national and European innovation surveys consistently overlook micro firms, their contribution to innovation, and hence much creative activity.

I also undertake research into the design and planning of mega-events from EXPOs, Olympics to major cultural festivals and their role in regeneration, city branding and urban design.I am chairing the next Mega-Events Research Network meeting in London on ‘Measuring Impacts’ on 25 June. In the arts and cultural sphere I am best known for research on cultural planning and creative places and the design of amenity and public space. This includes projects on obesogenic environments (London & New York), open space (CABE Space, Council of Europe) and design against crime.

Previous Research

For previous research go to: www.citiesinstitute.org/projects/projects_home.cfm

Teaching

I will be contributing to modules on Design Strategy, Branding and Innovation on topics such as inclusive and sustainable design, place-making, city branding and urban design. In particular I will be advancing concepts around the political economy, social and economic contexts of product, industrial and spatial design. I am particularly keen to develop cross-disciplinary working and methodologies within and across design and engineering, as well as disciplines in social science, the arts & humanities, business & management studies, economics, health and sports. I will also be supervising dissertation projects and PhD students as well as developing new modules and programmes around design, innovation, creative industries and spatial design.Current and recently completed PhD student topics include: Mega-Events & Urban Regeneration (London2012), Sustainable Urban Tourism Planning, Tate Modern and Century City, Ethnic Quarters and Place Branding. I have supervised 7 PhD students to successful completion and have examined PhDs at Glasgow, University of the Arts London and Plymouth universities.

Follow my blog http://desustainablesociety.blogspot.co.uk/

Find me on http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=76867513&trk=tab_pro

 Exhibitions

• ‘Mixed-Use and Quality of Life’, 1stLondon Architecture Biennale, Farmiloes Building, St John Street, London EC1, 28June-5 July 2004  [National Architecture Week]
• ‘VivaCity2020’, CityScape, Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1, 18-19 November 2004
• EPSRC & Royal Academy of Engineering Valuation of Engineering Research in the UK, November 2004 [‘Research on..transportation and urban design was deemed to be world class’: The Wealth of a Nation: An Evaluation of Engineering Research in the UK, EPSRC/RAE, 2005]
• Curator,Sustainable Urban Design. 2ndLondon Architecture Biennale, Gymnasium, King’s Cross, 16-25 June 2006, [National Architecture Week] EPSRC and Arts Council England-funded
• Co-Curator, Being There, Hoopers Gallery, Clerkenwell [2 x Artists-in-Residence] EPSRC and Arts Council-funded, June 2006
• ‘Inclusive Journey Environments: Designing out barriers and fear factors’: Building Centre, Store Street, London W1 - London Festival of Architecture, July 2008
• ‘VivaCity: Living in the City’, Clerkenwell - London Festival of Architecture, July 2008
• INCLUDE 2005 & 2007 International Inclusive Design Conference Exhibitions, Royal College of Art
• Terra Futures, Ordnance Survey/Royal Geographic Society, Kensington, February 2009

Peer esteem

• AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC Peer Review College member, 2004-; EPSRC EQUAL and TEDDI Review Panels,
• Technology Strategy Board Peer reviewer Assistive Technology, Creative Industries/Digital Economy,
• OECD Territorial Reviews, Expert

Journal Reviewer: Engineering Design, Engineering Sustainability, Built Environment, Urban Design, Urban Studies, Environment & Planning, Cultural Trends, Creative Industries, Town & City Management, Urban Regeneration & Renewal, Arts & Cultural Management, Leisure Studies, Tourism Management

Keynotes

• (2012) East Meets West: London & the Global Digital Economy? Digital Shoreditch Festival Summit, London, June
• (2011) Mapping the Digital Economy, Digital Shoreditch Festival Summit, London, May
• (2010) Age Friendly Communities, Canadian Association of Gerontology/Institute of Health Research Annual Conference,Montreal 2-3 December
• (2010) Creative City in Question, Grenoble University, 5th international conference on Urban Planning. 20-22 October
• (2010) Cities and Creativities, 10th Urban Studies Week, University of Lleida, Spain. 15-17 September
• (2010) Cultural Heritage and Regeneration, Shanghai EXPO Theme Forum, June
• (2010) Cities and Climate Change, Café Scientifiques: Nanjing and Nantong, British Council, June
• (2010) Opening seminar in Research Series - Istanbul Capital of Culture 2010, 12 February, Istanbul Ministry of Culture
• (2009) The Art of Regeneration: creating a community legacy for London 2012, Goldsmiths College, Olympic Park Legacy Co. 24 November
• (2009) Creative Cities, UNESCO & City of Gimhae, South Korea, 21-22 May
• (2009) ‘Accessibility & Urban Design’INCLUDE09 International Inclusive Design Conference, Royal College of Art/Helen Hamlyn Centre.In proceedings. 5 April. Paper voted ‘Reviewer’s Choice’

Design awards

• Hampstead Town Old Hall, Development Plan (Arts & Heritage Lottery award, £7m), InterChange Studios
• Talacre Arts & Sports Centre, Kentish Town Feasibility Study (Sports Lottery award, £2.5m)
• Salway Arts Centre/Theatre Royal Stratford East, Newham (Arts Lottery award, £5m)
• Digital Design & Manufacturing Centre (ERDF/LDA award, £7m) Sir John Cass’ Art & Design College
• Lady Diana Memorial Design Team shortlisted (1 of 9), Royal Parks Agency, 2000

Media appearances

• BBC TV London(Nov.2011) Olympic Legacy & Tech City
• Maastricht Debates(October 2010) Who owns the City?
• Planning magazine interview (2009): Sustainable Cities podcast
• Arirang TV (S.Korea English language) ‘Heart to Heart’ (30 mins): Creative Cities (2009)

Committees

• Design Against Crime Research Centre Advisory Board, University of the Arts London, 2006-
• Olympic Legacy Directorate/LDAAcademic Expert: London2012 Olympic Legacy Impacts, 2009-11
• Urban Futures (EPSRC SUE2) Steering Committee member, Universities of Birmingham/Lancaster
• CABE/Design Council Enabler& Design Quality Facilitator 2002-
• Clore Leadership programmeAcademicMentor, 2009
• A Tale of Two ObesCities:ChairmanChildhood Obesity in London & New York (CUNY), 2009-11
• Regional Studies Association Research Network: Mega-Events and Regeneration. Convener, 2011-
• Research Centre for the Study of Traditional Techniques of the Mediterranean Area. University of Naples Department of Architecture, Coordinating Committee, 2010-
• British Association of Canadian Studies (BACS) Cities Research Group, 2009-
• CABE Space Not so Green and Pleasant LandSteering Committee, 2009-10
• NESTA Clusters and Innovation Research Group, 2007
• Office for Science & Technology, DTIGovernment Science Review Panel,2003-4
• SuScit, Citizen Science for Sustainability, Academic Research Panel, EPSRC, 2009-10
• Urban Design Action Team Member - Alexandra Palace/Wood Green (LB Haringey), Burgess Park (LB Southwark), King’s Cross (LB Camden)

Consultancy

My consultancy work has been concentrated on facility and urban design projects, normally as part of a design and feasibility team working with leading architects, masterplanners and other consultants. I specialise in the design and planning of cultural and leisure facilities, community, health and open space design. I have also undertaken feasibility and development planning for new facilities such as digital design & manufacturing centres (Sir John Cass, London and Falmouth, Cornwall) and managed workspace, studio and incubator projects. Recent international work has been in the field of creative city/city of design strategies, cultural planning and branding, including the conceptual design and evaluation of the Maastricht Capital of Culture Bid(www.via2018.eu/en)

Professional affiliations

Academy of Urbanism (AU), Regional Studies Association (MeRSA), Urban Design Group (UDG)

Publications

Journal Papers

(2013) Evans, GL., Ageing and Climate Change: A Society-Technology-Design discourse, Design Journal 16 (2) : 239- 258

(2012) Chapain, C., Cooke, P., De Propis, L., MacNeill, S. and Mateos-Garcia, J., Creative clusters and innovation (C.Chapain, P.Cooke, L.De Propris, S.MacNeill, J.Mateos-Garcia, NESTA), Creative Industries Journal 2 199- 202 Download publication

(2011) Evans, GL., Securing and Sustaining the Olympic City: Reconfiguring London for 2012 and Beyond’ (Pete Fussey, Jon Coafee, Gary Armstrong and Dick Hobbs), Review Symposium, Sociology 4 (5) : 917- 918

(2011) Evans, G., Solutions for environmental contrasts in coastal areas: Coastal cities and climate change, Regions 282 8- 10 Download publication

(2011) Evans, GL., Cities of culture and the regeneration game, London Journal of Tourism, Sport and Creative Industries 6 (Special ‘European Capital of Culture’ Issue) : 5- 18 Download publication

(2011) Evans, G., Hold back the night: Nuit blanche and all-night events in capital cities, Current Issues in Tourism 15 (1/2) : 35- 49

(2010) Evans, G., New events in historic venues: A case of London, Rivista di Scienze del Turismo 2 149- 166 Download publication

(2009) Evans, GL., Branding the City of Culture - The Death of City Planning?, Urban Flux 24- 27

(2009) Evans, G., Accessibility, urban design and the whole journey environment, Built Environment 35 (3) : 366- 385

(2009) Evans, G., Creative cities, creative spaces and urban policy, Urban Studies 46 (5-6) : 1003- 1040

(2005) Evans, G., Measure for measure: Evaluating the evidence of culture's contribution to regeneration, Urban Studies 42 (5-6) : 959- 983

(2004) Evans, G., Whose heritage is it anyway? Reconciling the ‘national’ and the ‘universal’ in Québec City, Journal of Canadian Studies 16 (2) : 333- 347

(2004) Evans, G., Mundo Maya: From Cancun to city of culture. World heritage in post-colonial Mesoamerica, Current Issues in Tourism 7 (4&5) : 315- 329 Download publication

(2004) Evans, G. and Foord, J., Rich mix cities: From multicultural experience to cosmopolitan engagement, Journal of European Ethnology 34 (2) : 71- 84 Download publication

(2003) Evans, G., Hard branding the cultural city - from prado to prada, International Journal of Urban & Regional Studies 27 (2) : 417- 440

(2002) Evans, G., Living in a world heritage city: Stakeholders in the dialectic of the Universal and the Particular, International Journal of Heritage Studies 8 (2) : 117- 135

(2001) Evans, G., The world bank and world heritage: Culture and sustainable development?, Tourism Recreation Research 26 (1) : 83- 86

(2001) Evans, G. and Shaw, S., Urban leisure and transport: Regeneration effects, Journal of Retail & Leisure Property 1 (4) : 350- 372

(2000) Evans, G., Bohrer, J. and Richards, G., ICT development and small tourism enterprises in Europe, Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research 11 (1 (Information and Communications Technology in Tourism)) : 22- 40

Book Chapters

(2012) Evans, G., Maastricht: From treaty town to European capital of culture. In: The Politics of Urban Policy: Global Perspectives. Routledge

(2011) Evans, G., Events, cities and the night time economy. In: Page, S. ed. Event Tourism: Critical Concepts in Tourism. Routledge 415- 430

(2010) Evans, G., London 2012: Regeneration games. In: Gold, J. ed. Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning and the World’s Games 1896-2012 to present day. London : Routledge 298- 317

(2009) Evans, G., Urban sustainability: Mixed use or mixed messages?. In: Designing Sustainable Cities. Wiley-Blackwell 190- 217

(2009) Evans, G., Creative spaces and the art of urban living. In: Spaces of Vernacular Creativity: Rethinking the Cultural Economy. Routledge 19- 32 Download publication

(2009) Evans, G., Accessibility and urban design - Knowledge matters. In: Urban Design Research: Method and Application. Birmingham City University Publication 26- 37 Download publication

(2009) Evans, G., From cultural quarters to creative clusters – creative spaces in the new city economy. In: Legner, M. ed. The sustainability and development of cultural quarters: international perspectives. Stockholm: Institute of Urban History. Stockholm: Institute of Urban History 32- 59 Download publication

(2006) Evans, G. and Foord, J., Small cities for a small country: Sustaining the cultural renaissance?. In: Jayne, M. ed. Small cities: Urban experience beyond the metropolis. London : Routledge 151- 167 Download publication

(2004) Aiesha, R. and Evans, GL., VivaCity: Mixed-use and urban tourism. In: Tourism, Culture and Regeneration. CAB International 35- 48

Books

(2009) Cooper, R., Evans, G. and Boyko, C., Designing sustainable cities. Wiley-Blackwell

(2002) Evans, G., Cultural planning: An urban renaissance. Routledge