Prof Cristina Cerulli and Dr Eugene Mohareb curated a small exhibition for the University of Reading Community Festival, showcasing the research work at the School of Built Environment and the Reading School of Architecture in May 2025.
The Community Festival was a great event which saw thousands of people on campus engaging with the activities on offer (see here to get an idea of the vibe University of Reading Community Festival 2025: Research Highlights).
Professor Cristina Cerulli was appointed in June 2024 as Professor of Architecture in the School of Built Environment and as Urban Living Research Group Lead.
Cristina’s work in academia and practice focuses on supporting collective endeavours in the city and on countering inequality through practices of care, proposing and implementing alternatives.
Cristina’s plans for the Urban Living Research Group are to develop an “inclusive and collaborative research leadership to foster an ecology of research”.
Flora Samuel and Eli Hatleskog have won the 2020 Cities and Community Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President’s Award for Research for their project Mapping Eco Social Assets based on an estate in Reading.
Please click on the link for the full story.
The final report can be accessed here.
A study for ACE Architects’ Council Europe the report was authored by Rosalie Callway, Lorraine Farrelly and Flora Samuel at the University of Reading, UK, March 2019.
This aim of this strategic report has been to consolidate existing knowledge across Europe and develop next steps to be addressed by ACE in demonstrating the value of design and the role of architects.
A call for evidence on methodologies for evidencing the value of architects and architectural design distributed through ACE networks in July 2018 resulted in a patchy and thin response despite considerable efforts to communicate it to colleagues in education and practice. The conclusion is that very little is currently known about work on evidencing the value of architects in Europe and that strategy is needed to provide joined up thinking in this area.
Going forward the triple bottom line of sustainability: social, environmental and economic value and the relationships between them is a useful and common way of framing design value that has some traction with policy
This year there was an opportunity for Prof Lorraine Farrelly to work with the School of Biological Science, Dr Alastair Culham and his PhD student Tomos Jones. Their research is on invasive plant species and their impact on gardens in the British Isles.
(Photo Credit: Lorraine Pearce)
“I worked with them to design an exhibition stand for the Chelsea flower show . The design concept of the stand was to reflect invasive species , it is an interpretation of the Gunnera or Giant Rhubarb plant. The stand is made from birch faced plywood that has been cut into pieces which were slotted together on site. The structure was made by timber craft specialists Xylotek, who have worked with us to build our Urban Room structure on campus. Beneath the structure are range of examples of invasive plants. The interpretative boards describing the research were designed by BA Graphic Communication students as part of their course. The design and project was selected for the Chelsea Flower Show 2019, and also was awarded a gold medal at the show.This project represents the possibilities of inter and cross disciplinary working with staff and students across the University.”
Prof Lorraine Farrelly
(Photo Credit: Lorraine Pearce)
On 7 January 2019, the local government of Sta. Rosa, Laguna formalised its support to the Newton Fund Institutional Links project by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), providing access to the City’s communities as study site for the project. The MOU also allows the project researchers from the University of Sto. Tomas and University of Reading access to the city’s data maintained and managed by its Planning Office.
The Newton Fund Institutional Links project, “Eco-social Surveying: Mapping social assets, green infrastructure and the connections between them in rapidly changing cities” selected Sta. Rosa, Laguna as its research site due to the City’s rapid urbanisation and development. The goal of the study is to map the ecological-social assets of Sta. Rosa and create and urban living lab that is innovative, inclusive and based on real life research for the multiple stakeholders in the city.
The project will utilise knowledge exchange across researchers of University of Sto. Tomas and University of Reading as an opportunity to develop planning policy guidance that will preserve and enhance eco-social assets. The LGU of Sta. Rosa sees this as an opportunity to have robust scientific basis for its policies and programmes that will address the effects of rapid urbanisation of the area.
This project is led by Dr. Leah Dela Rosa of UST and Dr. Flora Samuel of UoR, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.
https://www.britishcouncil.ph/about/press/collaborative-mou-institutional-links
An ecological and social approach to converting old-style industries in urban areas may well contribute to a new eco and social friendly development path for the European Union. This prospect was a prominent conclusion of the workshop on ‘Reconversion of industrial areas in the framework of regional policy‘, organised by the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) on 26 February 2019 at the European Parliament (EP), and proposed by Rosa D’Amato (EFDD, Italy), member of the EP Committee on Regional Development (REGI). Fifteen experts from twelve EU Member States, including five Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), representatives of other European institutions, universities and local authorities, attended to discuss the topic from various angles, highlighting the challenges and proposing solutions based on policy strategies, legislative proposals and specific case studies.
Lorraine Farrelly presented to the workshop: Policy perspective: institutional strategies
The presentation can be found here:
Britain’s housing system is broken. Sky-high house prices mean buying a home is just a dream for many people, yet it is still considered an essential pursuit. Tenants are pushed into poverty or forced to move by rent rises, pulling families and communities apart. Young people see their life options constrained in a string of shared flats, or stuck at home with their parents. So what’s the solution? In this lecture, architect Professor Flora Samuel will deliver her manifesto for a better housing future. She will show how designing better homes and cities is crucial to resolving the current crisis. Intelligent design of towns and cities can improve people’s health and happiness. Social homes must be built in growing numbers that are not only affordable, but enviable. The aim must be to improve the physical environment for the next generation, to help them tackle a growing list of social, political and economic challenges. Flora Samuel is Professor of Architecture in the Built Environment at the University of Reading, and a Co-Investigator at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), for which she leads the ‘Place’ theme.
