The Urbanism Hour: Demystifying AI as a Planning Tool
A virtual lunch hour with Lauren Andres and Mike Raco, on demystifying AI as a planning tool - aspirations, reality and the journey ahead
The Urbanism Hours are virtual lunch time events that explore a given theme within the built environment, with complementary speakers and a Q&A discussion. For September's Urbanism Hour we'll be joined by Lauren Andres and Mike Raco. The session will be moderated by Matt Lally, AoU Co-chair and Director of Arup.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly promoted, across government and industry, as a means of relieving the pressures facing planning: overstretched teams, slow decision-making, and mounting demands to deliver housing and infrastructure at pace. Yet the gap between these aspirations and the realities of practice remains considerable, and the implications of converting places into data are far from settled.
Drawing on two recent studies, involving more than sixty interviews with planners and built environment professionals in England alongside a comparison with Beijing, this session examines how AI technologies are actually being adopted, and with what consequences for planning and for planners. It considers where AI offers genuine value, where it generates new burdens rather than removing existing ones, and how legal, financial and professional conditions shape what is feasible. The session concludes with the central question raised by this work: whether AI should be adapted to support planning, or whether planning is instead being reshaped to accommodate AI.
Speakers
Lauren Andres
Lauren Andres is Professor of Planning and Urban Transformations at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, where she is also Deputy Head of Department (Strategy and Partnerships), and Pro-Vice-Provost (Inequalities) for UCL Grand Challenges. Her work focuses on adaptable cities and the temporary and permanent transformations experienced by people and places, with particular attention to the inequalities that accompany crises and disruptions and their implications for resilience, social justice and urban governance. Her latest monograph is Adaptable Cities and Temporary Urbanisms (Columbia University Press).
Mike Raco
Mike Raco is Professor of Urban Governance and Development at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, where he is also Head of School. He has published nine books and more than a hundred papers and chapters on urban governance and regeneration, the marketisation of planning, and urban and regional economic development, with recent work examining the role of private knowledge and expertise in shaping how cities are planned and delivered. His most recent book is London: A Megacity (with Frances Brill, Columbia University Press).
