Ricky Burdett

Professor Burdett is a London-based urban specialist with a wide portfolio of academic and consultancy activities at an international scale. Trained as an architect, Burdett is a recognised world authority in urban development and design, contemporary architecture, and the social and spatial dynamics of contemporary cities. He leads LSE Cities, a global centre of research and teaching at the London School of Economics and Political Science and established its pioneering Urban Age programme. He is co-chair of the Council on Urban Initiatives, a collaboration with UN Habitat and UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. In his advisory role to the Mayor of London, he was Chief Advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and its legacy and was a Cultural Ambassador as a member of the Mayor’s Cultural Leadership Board. Burdett was Director of the Venice International Architecture Biennale and Curator of the Global Cities Exhibition in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London. He was a member of the UK Government Urban Task Force, the Airport Commission and Council member of the Royal College of Art and is a Trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation. He co-edited several books including Shaping Cities in an Urban Age and and Living in the Endless City and is a regular speaker at the World Urban Forum, the World Economic Forum and other international conferences and public events.  Professor Burdett was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to urban planning and design in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Art in 2019. He is the 2022 Distinguished Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in Singapore.

Professor Burdett has given keynote addresses at major world conferences (World Economic Forum, World Urban Forum, UN Habitat, Regional Plan Association, Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Mayors’ Innovation Studio, CityLab conferences, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the World Bank, Mori Foundation, etc) and academic/research institutions (Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Columbia University, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Brookings Institution, University of Naples, Bocconi University, University College London, Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, Social Science Research Council and Ford Foundation, etc)