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City Intersection

Urban Hub

What we do

Cities are often understood as the engines of prosperity, but they are also sites of extreme inequality.

Based on the understanding that existing models of urban prosperity fail to include key aspects of urban quality of life, our Urban Hub aims to rethink what prosperity means in cities. This entails interrogating the limitations of the way urban value is currently assigned and measured, and asking what ordinary residents from all walks of life value in their hometowns.

 

Expanding our notion of urban prosperity beyond narrow economic metrics in this manner allows us to capture the richness of interactions and outcomes that emerge in dense and diverse spatial settings. Ultimately, this work aims to contribute to urban development processes that better address the needs of inhabitants – resulting in places where built, natural and social environments contribute to people’s flourishing.

About Dr Hanna Baumann

Dr. Hanna Baumann leads the IGP's Urban Hub and  lectures on the MSc Global Prosperity course at the Institute as well as on other postgraduate programmes at UCL. 

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Her work is concerned with questions of urban inclusion and participation expressed at the intersection of global and local scales. This includes displacement in the city, as well as urban contestations over infrastructural and memory projects. Her ongoing research project examines the role of public services in the exclusion and integration of refugees in Beirut and Berlin.

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Projects

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Tackling food insecurity for refugees

Food poverty has increased significantly across the UK, with 18% of households overall deemed food insecure. Among asylum seekers, more than two thirds do not have reliable access to food, and children in asylum accommodation increasingly suffer from malnutrition. Lacking access to spaces for cooking and eating further exacerbates (mental) health and social cohesion issues. Local authorities often act as the last resort for destitute residents, especially those without recourse to public funds, but currently struggle to support the growing numbers in food poverty. Many councils are searching for innovative ways to reshape the food system at the local scale, especially through community participation.  

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Working with Camden Council, Dr Hanna Baumann is leading on a project that will enable the collaborative design and build of a communal food space where asylum seekers and long-term Camden residents can gather, cook and eat together.

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The space, co-designed with asylum seekers and overseen by Architect Madeleine Kessler, co-curator of the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, will be inaugurated in a highly visible public event including a free-of-charge community meal.

 

After the launch, the food space will be handed over the Camden for long-term operation. The findings will then be disseminated widely to local authorities, so that newly-developed approaches can be replicated and scaled up.

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Institute for Global Prosperity

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