Urban C:lab is a programme initiated by Buro Happold focused on exploring emergent disruption in the built environment.

Latest thinking

Watch our latest thinking from our London C:lab Global Congress.

London is England’s capital city. Many regard it as the UK’s capital of capitals: of politics, of culture, of finance, of knowledge, of tourism… but who generates this capital? How is it generated? Who has access to and benefits from these capitals?

Meet the C:labbers

United Kingdom cohort

United States cohort

Europe cohort

Middle East, India, Asia Pacific (CLK) cohort

Lorraine Landels

Cofounder

Lorraine co-founded Urban C:lab and is Buro Happold’s director of strategic relationships. She has a keen interest in how we can work with industry partners around the world to deliver better outcomes for all.

Gavin Thompson

Cofounder

Gavin co-founded Urban C:lab and is a Partner at Buro Happold to share his passion for design and complex problem solving in the built environment and develop the next generation of consultants.

What is Urban C:lab?

Buro Happold has always enjoyed a good debate. But even more, we thrive on action.

We have invited future leaders from across Buro Happold to take up a call to action and pool their best thinking to solve some of the intractable urban challenges facing our world today. This group has mobilised into a cross-practice collaboration called Urban C:lab.

Urban C:lab is a two-year research and development programme that bypasses routine organisational procedures at Buro Happold. We aim to equip each ‘‘C:labber’’ with the knowledge and skills required to influence real change in the communities we live and work in, each day.

Gavin Thompson, the Partner who had the brainwave to set up this group, was keen to give ownership of urban challenges to the very generation that will inherit our future cities and the issues that come with them. ‘I am keen for the group to explore diverse challenges and themes – from natural capital, governance and climate emergency, to regeneration, the new rural and scarcity – but it must be something they personally care about and want to help fix.’

Action is critical. Over the course of two years C:labbers are tasked with identifying a critical challenge, to explore and understand this, and then work to solve this in a real world context. Knowing that we don’t have all the answers and that the problems we are up against are extreme, Urban C:lab is a deliberatively collaborative endeavour. We work with clients, designers, academia, think tanks and institutions to explore, understand and shape solutions. Achieving this is also supported by a diverse programme of field trips, design sprints, lectures and conversations, and much more.

Urban C:lab has a number of established themes including urban food resilience, inclusive placemaking, 15 minute connected neighbourhoods, and infrastructure commercialisation. Topics being explored are diverse and thought provoking, and we are already attracting the attention of governments and decision makers. We have facilitated design sprints on behalf of and in collaboration with national, regional and local governments, the private sector and institutions. Critical to the success of such activities is our ability to draw on the existing diverse, world-class network of the Buro Happold and Urban C:lab, but crucially continuing to build this by engaging widely with new collaborators.

Curious? Do get in touch.

Collaborate with us

Has something sparked your imagination? Is there a topic or challenge where you feel our C:lab community could make a difference?

If you want to work with us to improve our built environment and make it better for people, places and planet, we’d love to hear from you.