Authors of Urbanism: What if Women Designed the City? with May East
Join international urbanist May East for readings and conversation to celebrate the launch of her book ‘What if Women Designed the City?’
Date: Thursday 28 August 2025
Time: 18:00 - 21:00
Location: Collective Architecture, 13 Bath Street, 4th Floor Albert Chambers, Glasgow G2 1HY
How can cities be greener, wilder, more inclusive, liveable and poetic? Join international urbanist May East for readings and conversation to celebrate the launch of her book What if Women Designed the City?, which offers a fresh perspective on urban development by giving voice to local women from many different countries and backgrounds, revealing multiple untapped potentials rooted in the uniqueness of their neighbourhoods.
The book builds on the core assumption that women can contribute significantly more to urban planning decisions and implementation, and in doing so enrich and add value to urban environments and specifically to their own neighbourhoods. Drawing from in-depth walking interviews with 274 women from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth, East offers 33 leverage points on how planners, practitioners, and communities could intervene in urban planning systems so that cities can work better for women and girls, ultimately benefiting us all.
About the Author
May East is an international urbanist specialised in nature-positive and gender-sensitive cities. Her work spans the fields of cultural geography, the music industry, and women’s studies. A UNITAR Fellow, she holds a Master of Science in Spatial Planning with a specialisation in the rehabilitation of abandoned villages, and a PhD in Architecture and Urban Planning on the topic What if Women Designed the City?
Her practice involves regenerative design approaches for shaping eco-communities, mining cities, informal settlements, transition towns and ghost towns. Currently, she serves as the UN House Scotland Director of the Cities Programme. May was awarded Woman of the Decade in Sustainability and Leadership by the Women Economic Forum in 2019.
This event is kindly hosted and refreshments provided by our friends at Collective Architecture
Tickets
Half price tickets are available for all AoU Members, with free places available for anyone with a Student Young Urbanist membership.
*There are a limited number of £5 tickets available for Non-Member students which must be booked with a university email address.
If you are unemployed you can enquire about concession tickets by writing to Connie at [email protected]
