The Bartlett Africa Heritage Symposium
About this Event
Engaging the Past for Sustainable Built Futures
2026 marks 200 years since UCL was founded on a radical idea: that knowledge belongs to everyone. Since the appointment of the UK’s first Chair of Architecture in 1841, the Bartlett has grown into the world’s number one faculty for architecture and the built environment – training thousands of students from across the globe, including many who have gone on to shape cities, communities and built environment practice across the African continent.
Supported by the UCL200 Staff Contribution and Engagement Fund, this symposium uses the bicentenary as a moment not only to celebrate, but to ask what kind of education best serves contemporary practice – and whose knowledge and experience should shape it.
Honouring legacy
Mphethi Morojele (Architecture MArch, 1993)
Our distinguished speaker, architect, urbanist and educator Mphethi Morojele, will reflect on his time at the Bartlett, what his UCL education gave him, how local conditions, constraints and opportunities shaped his work, and what he believes the next generation needs – from their education, from institutions like UCL and from each other.
His presentation will be followed by a conversation chaired by Dr Mpho Matsipa, Associate Professor and Co-Director of Spatial Justice at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Towards a sustainable future
Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing cities. The built environment challenges facing those cities – in housing, infrastructure, climate adaptation and equitable urban development – are among the most urgent of our time.
This symposium addresses how practitioners are trained, what knowledge systems built environment education draws on, and whether institutions like the Bartlett are genuinely equipped to support current and future practice on the continent.
The event is open to the public, and we warmly welcome built environment practitioners, current students, alumni and anyone considering a degree or career in architecture, planning, engineering, urban design or sustainable development.
The Bartlett Africa Heritage Symposium is a UCL200 event, delivered in partnership with the Bartlett Pan-African Indigenist Collective.
Accessibility
For venue access information, visit AccessAble to find out about the venue: Wilkins Building Accessibility
Image: Amphitheatre at Freedom Park in South Africa, by Shosholoza
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
