Geography meets urgency: Manchester hosts international Spatialising Urban Crisis Workshop

Convened by Dr Cristina Temenos, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow based at The University of Manchester, the event took place in June and served as a dynamic forum for exchange at the intersection of academic research and real-world practice. Participants shared innovative approaches and strategies cities are adopting to address challenges ranging from climate disruption and social inequality to care infrastructure under strain.

How tax incentives are exacerbating the housing market crisis

House prices in Luxembourg rose ninefold between 1975 and 2022, adjusted for inflation, as demand outstrips supply in the country, but government tax incentives to encourage construction have largely helped developers and investors instead of easing the crisis, says a team of researchers.

Art on the Underground: A Public Contradiction

Rudy Loewe’s commission at Brixton Underground Station is a case in point. Launching in November 2025, this work will form part of the now well established Brixton Mural Programme by seeking to build upon the area’s diverse narratives by highlighting the ways people gather together in this urban environment. The ‘bold, flat colours’ that characterise Loewe’s aesthetic will undoubtedly chime with Brixton’s own multicultural offering – providing Brixton’s community an opportunity to recognise, and even reclaim, their lived experiences in dialogue with the art. Certainly this is what Claudette Johnson’s current (2024) Brixton commission, Three Women, has sought to achieve.

Urban H: Housing, Heat and Health

In 2023, heat records were broken on all continents and the world saw the highest global temperatures in over 100,000 years. With buildings and roads retaining heat and creating urban heat islands, warmer cities have not only become increasingly uncomfortable but are also posing health risks such as heat exhaustion and respiratory disorders to their inhabitants. In the US, the 175 largest cities–which account for 65 percent of the total population–have seen a disproportionate number of heat-related deaths in the past 15 years.

Temporary accommodation nation

Temporary accommodation is the sharp end of England’s housing crisis. Official data shows that there are now more than 117,000 households in this unenviable situation— an increase of 23 per cent in the past three years—including 151,000 children under the age of 16. Together, they could occupy every home in Cambridge.

Geography Colloquium: Loretta Lees, Boston University

In this talk, Professor Lees will discuss Defensible Space on the Move: Mobilisation in English Housing Policy and Practice co-authored with Elanor Warwick (RGS-IBG Book Series, Wiley, 2022). She will evaluate the geographical/spatial concept of Defensible Space, which has been influential in designing out crime and has been applied to housing estates in the UK, North America, Europe, and beyond.

When the Turner Prize Came to ‘God’s Waiting Room’

Now, one of Britain’s most important art events, the Turner Prize, has arrived in the town, too, at the Towner Eastbourne art museum. Locals are hoping it will change the town’s reputation and place it on a national, or even global, cultural stage. But as shown by the experiences of other English seaside towns, big-city culture often dovetails with an influx of new residents, and concerns about gentrification and unfairly shared benefits often follow.