Michael Safier, who was a DPU colleague and a founder-member of DPU-Associates since 2008, died on 9 November 2024 at the age of 83.

He was a pivotal figure in urban planning and a dedicated scholar, teacher, and practitioner in the field of development planning. On graduating with a BSc in ‘Economics’ from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1967, He was appointed a Lecturer in Economics at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, for one year, following which he spent two years as a Research Fellow at The Makerere Institute of Social Research, Kampala, He then returned to London, where, in 1970, he joined teaching staff of the Architectural Association (AA) Department of Development and Tropical Studies. In 1971, together with his colleagues, he joined the academic staff of the newly founded Development Planning Unit (DPU), academically attached to, the then, School of Environmental Studies in University College London (UCL). He taught at the DPU from 1972 until his retirement in 2006. Throughout his career in the DPU, he championed ‘urban development planning’ and ‘cosmopolitan development’ in Diploma and Certificate course modules, in Master's Degree programmes and in his supervision of PhD candidates. Early in his career in the DPU, he devised a major research project on ‘Planned urban growth’ that he directed with a research team, in Lusaka, Zambia from 1972-1974. Thus, he was central to every aspect of the DPU for some 35 years.

ABSTRACT

Architect impressed by urban squatter settlements in Peru who then set about persuading the wider world of their value.

In the 1950s and 60s John Turner, who has died aged 96, addressed the housing challenges faced by members of rural communities in Peru when they migrated to urban areas in search of a better life. Official planning and design approaches were neither appropriate nor affordable to such people, and Turner was immensely impressed by their resourcefulness in creating their own housing developments and even complete neighbourhoods. Turner’s writings, as John FC Turner, presented Peru’s urban squatter settlements – barriadas – to a global audience as not a problem but a resource.

Ronaldo, a Senior Lecturer in The DPU for 32 years (1974-2006), passed away peacefully on 17 December 2022 at the age of 88.

SUMMARY
In a podcast for In Pursuit of Development on 22nd March 2022, Professors Dan Banik (the Host) and Desmond McNeill discuss the role and influence of ideas and metaphors in development, the contradictions of foreign aid and the potential for financing global public goods.

NOTES

Spanish language edition of ‘Housing in Developing Cities: Experience and Lessons’ by Patrick Wakely is now available here:

‘Vivienda en el Desarrollo Urbano: Experiencia y Aprendizaje’

Reproduced from ‘Pakistan Institute of Development Economics: Cities and Urbanisation, P&R Issue, Interviews', Jan. 2021

Babar Khan Mumtaz

is an economist and architect, formerly Director of the DPU, University College London. He has worked for governments and international agencies in Africa, Middle East, South Asia and the South Pacific for over 45 years.