City Design (MA)

Head of Programme, City Design MA  – Godofredo Enes Pereira

This was a difficult year. Led by Tarsha Finney the City Design MA started strong, looking into multiple sites across London, aiming to continue its investigations into intergenerational cities and the momentous changes taking place in urban living across the world: populations are ageing, family units are extending and dispersing as work is casualised, and whole communities are moving online. COVID19 caught everyone by surprise - even if foregrounding precisely those tensions the programme aimed to investigate. Except that now students and staff became both subjects and objects of research. Care, that concept and practice that the programme was so committed to place at the centre of urban discussions, became precisely that which in the end allowed the cohort to remain focused. Having joined the programme only from September, I must say I was anxious for the students. My fears, however, were unfounded, as before me was an incredibly strong group of students, who, with the support of their tutor Cristina Goberna-Pesudo, were able to convert this unique year into an opportunity for serious, critical, imaginative and at times rebellious proposals for how to design cities.

Programme Team

Godofredo Enes Pereira, Tarsha Finney, Cristina Goberna-Pesudo, Sabrina Puddu, Mark Smith, Paul Karakusevic, Abigail Batchelor, Dominic Papa, Philip Clemens, Jon Barnard, and Patricia Forbes.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the School of Architecture administration, as well as the RCA technical and administrative staff for all their support. We would also like to thank all the guests that made time to join us for critical perspectives and advice, and finally, we would like to thank friends and loved ones, families and kin, of both students and staff, without whose support this year would not have been the same.