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 University of Reading and Stantec are working collaboratively on an exciting Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) to create an approach that quantifies social value outcomes to enable informed decision-making, so that better strategic land development projects are delivered with better community, climate change and commercial outcomes.
The position is a 24-month fixed term contract based full-time at Stantec in Reading, Berkshire. Remote and flexible working is supported. It is possible for x2 part-time job-share positions for this role, with salary pro-rata accordingly.
For further details, click this link.
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
By Violet Sheppard, Our 2019 MESA UROP Summer Intern
The mapping workshop at the fun day gathered a great response from the community; everyone was very enthusiastic about getting involved.
For our contribution to the day we set up our mapping stalls and a table tennis table, along with balloons and stalls. There were four other stalls, a stall about recycling, the police, RIS Reading and the local counsellors. The counsellors displayed the designs for the Orts road playground, so the community members could vote on which design they preferred. Meanwhile, the imaginationplayground and bouncy castle were set up along with an ice cream van. The MESA group from the Philippines came along to the day and were a great help in encouraging people to join in.
The first people to take part were a mother and her son who proved to be very sociable through the mother’s response to the question, ‘Where do you stop and speak to friends?’, which she responded with ‘everywhere’. It was great to get feedback from such a sociable individual from the area. Her son stated how they love spending ‘their free time’ at their local church, which unfortunately has poor maintenance after events which is what he wanted to be improved.
We spoke to a woman with a baby who was very interested in being involved in the mapping despite being rushed off her feet. Her involvement showed how everyone has different lifestyles, as she responded to the question about hobbies and free time with I don’t have hobbies or free time because I have a baby.
A woman joined in and spent quite a long time deliberating on the questions as she lives in the area around orts road but works and her child goes to school in a different area, so she was less familiar with the site. She had strong opinions on the fact that she would love a new swimming pool in the area as the existing pools have limited opening times and no longer have public diving board. Although, she is ‘proud’ of the River Kennet as her and her son throw bread to the ducks. They also spend time at a polish church which is on the outskirts of the site.
Most people chose their local community centres and churches as placed they are proud of and feel happiest. Overall, we got very positive responses to all the questions even what you would like to improve people had to really think about it; nothing sprung to mind, and some people even said nothing. Most people just ended up stating that they would like to improve Orts Road with one of the proposed play parks. The day was a success and we gathered lots of information and spoke to many people. We also managed to get quite a few people signed up for further discussions about the area and people to make further comments on the index cards.
On the 22nd of June MESA joined a community celebration at Orts Road. As part of the activities we set up open air mapping activities and table tennis. A wide range of people took part to discuss what they valued most about the area. There was ice cream and children’s’ activities and Reading Council staged a public vote on options for the proposed play area.
