Peter Larkham
Peter Larkham is Professor of Planning at the University鈥檚 College of the Built Environment. He teaches planning-related issues such as conservation and urban design on the College鈥檚 BSc and MSc courses and leads its Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice.
Peter studied for his PhD in Urban Geography at the University of 探花直播, where he then worked on projects that were funded by the Leverhulme Trust and British Academy, before joining 探花直播 Polytechnic (now 探花直播) in 1991.
He has published over 90 refereed journal papers and 50 book chapters, presented numerous papers at conferences across the globe, and edited and written several books. The most recent is Placemaking: people, properties, planning, written with colleagues in the Faculty and published in 2024.
Peter is also the College鈥檚 coordinator of Research Degrees. He has vast experience as a supervisor and examiner of research degrees, having supervised 26, examined 41 and chaired 43 Vivas.
Current Activity
Peter is currently working on the post-war replanning of British towns, especially those that were badly bomb damaged. Over 250 鈥榬econstruction plans鈥 were produced in a very short period, affecting the layout and functioning of many towns even 70 years later. He has recently studied aspects of heritage in the reconstruction plans, and the heritage of reconstructed areas and buildings as they now become considered for redevelopment. He is now working on the replanning of London.
To access Peter鈥檚 public lecture on replanning London, given at Gresham College,聽.
He is also working with the UK Council for Graduate Education鈥檚 working group on the quality and reputation of the UK doctorate.
Peter is also an active member of the International Planning History Society and the International Seminar on Urban Form.
Areas of Expertise
- Urban planning
- History
- Conservation
- Design
- Practices of PhD supervision
Qualifications
- PhD
- BA (Hons)
Memberships
- Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
- Member of the Urban Design Group
Teaching
Peter currently teaches on the following courses:
- PG Certificate in Research Practice
- BSc Property Development & Planning
- BSc Building Surveying
- BSc Architectural Technology
- MA Planning Built Environments
Research
Peter is currently working on the post-war replanning of British towns, especially those that were badly bomb damaged. Over 250 鈥榬econstruction plans鈥 were produced in a very short period, affecting the layout and functioning of many towns even 80 years later. He has recently studied aspects of heritage in the reconstruction plans, and the heritage of reconstructed areas and buildings as they now become considered for redevelopment.
You can聽access Peter鈥檚 public lecture on replanning London, given at Gresham College, by visiting the .
He has worked on urban agriculture and guerrilla gardening, and how ideas of 鈥榰rban greening鈥 could be better incorporated into the design of housing developments, publishing papers with Professor Mike Hardman (University of Salford) and David Adams (University of 探花直播). He is also interested in the link between landscape design and regional-scale planning, including the suggested West Midlands National Park, working with Kathryn Moore, Anastasia Nikologianni and Alex Albans.
He is Editor for the international journal Urban Morphology and Editorial Board member for , Urban Design International and the , and is an active member in the international organisations that support them: the and the .
Postgraduate Supervision
Peter currently supervises 7 PhD students.
Publications
Larkham, P.J. (2024) 鈥楾he relationship between urban form and land use regulation in China: the case of Nanjing鈥, 鲍谤产补苍听Morphology vol. 28 no. 1 pp. 3-26 (with C. Gao, H. Lu and W.Ding)
Larkham, P.J. (2024) 鈥楲earning from experiences of post catastrophe reconstruction鈥, in Kryzhanovsky, B. (ed.)聽Architecture after war CANactions, Kyiv
Larkham, P.J. (2024) 鈥楿K cities need greener new builds 鈥 and more of them鈥, The Conversation 4 June (with D. Adams and M. Hardman)
Larkham, P.J. (2024) 鈥榃orking across boundaries in urban morphology鈥, in Oliveira, V. (ed.) Urban morphology and the International Seminar on Urban Form Springer, Cham
Larkham, P.J. (2024) 鈥楻adical change, or just more of the same? Thoughts on COVID and urban change鈥, in Camiz, A. (ed.)聽Pandemics and the changing urban environment: learning from聽history, planning our future DRUM Press, Istanbul
Larkham, P.J. (2023) 鈥楻evisioning and rebuilding Britain鈥檚 war damaged cities鈥, Urban Planning vol. 8 no. 1 pp. 169-181 (with D. Adams)
Larkham, P.J. (2023) 鈥楾he post-war reconstruction planning of London鈥, Planning Perspectives vol. 38 no. 6 pp. 1143-1165 (with D. Adams)
Larkham, P.J. (2023) 鈥楨dible garden cities: rethinking boundaries and integrating hedges into scalable urban food systems鈥, Land vol 12 paper 1915 special issue 鈥楶lanning sustainable cities through nature-based solutions鈥 (with D. Adams and M. Hardman)
Larkham, P.J. (2023) 鈥楻eimagining landscape: landscape-led governance to support future transformation and change鈥, in Bishop, K. (ed.) Routledge handbook of urban landscape research Routledge, Abingdon (with M.C. Alonso de Medina and K. Moore).
Larkham, P.J. (2023) 鈥楥reating character and identity in the rebuilt city: investigating post-war Britain鈥, in Kamalipour, H., Aelbrecht, P. and Peimani, N. (eds) Routledge Handbook of聽Urban Design Research Methods Routledge, New York.聽
Larkham, P.J. (2023) 鈥楶lanning the smart city with young people: addressing teenagers鈥 perceptions, values and visions of smartness鈥, Urban Planning vol. 8 no. 2 pp. 57-69 (with S. Shtebunaev and S. Gullino)
Larkham, P.J. (2022) 鈥楾he urban future: relating garden city ideas to the climate emergency鈥, Land vol. 11, paper 147 (with A. Nikologianni)聽
Larkham, P.J. (2022) 鈥楥ontesting urban monuments: future directions for the controversial monumental landscapes of civic grandeur鈥, International Journal of Heritage Studies vol. 28 no. 8 pp. 891-906 (with D. Adams)聽
Larkham, P.J. (2022) 鈥楻elics of war: damaged structures and their replacement or management in modern landscapes鈥, Sustainability vol. 14 paper 13513 (with D. Adams)聽
Larkham, P.J. (2022) 鈥楬istory and heritage: the reconstruction of blitzed cities鈥, in Welch Guerra, M., Abarkan, A., Castrillo Rom贸n, M. and Pek谩r, M. (eds) European planning history in the聽20th century: a continent of urban planning, Routledge, New York, pp. 139-152 -15
Larkham, P.J. (2022) 鈥楢ssessing a quarter-century of 鲍谤产补苍听Morphology鈥, Urban Morphology vol. 26 no. 2 pp. 173-188
Larkham, P.J. (2021) 鈥楨valuating historic preservation zoning using a landscape approach鈥,聽Land Use Policy聽(online) (with Q. He and J. Wu) DOI:聽
Larkham, P.J. (2021) 鈥楤uilt environment and landscape design as tools for climate resilient cities and regions鈥, 础罢滨狈贰搁,听Athens Journal of Architecture vol. 7 no. 3 pp. 335-354 (with A. Nikologianni and K. Moore) DOI:
Larkham, P.J. (2021) 鈥楥onservation and (sub)urban form: reviewing policy in Stratford upon Avon, 2004-2019鈥, in Oliveira, V. (ed.) From morphological research to planning, urban design and architectural practice, Springer, Cham (with N. Morton)
Larkham, P.J. (2020) 鈥楪overnance of conservation area boundaries: agents and agencies in decision making鈥,聽Planning Practice and Research聽vol. 35 no. 5 pp. 526-554(with L. Deng) DOI:聽
Larkham, P.J. (2020) 鈥楻ethinking placemaking: aligning placeness factors with perceived urban design qualities to improve the built environment in historical districts鈥,聽Urban Design International聽(with X. Li, I.H. Hijazi and A. Lusk) DOI:聽
Larkham, P.J. (2020) 鈥楤ombed churches, war memorials and the changing English urban landscape鈥, Change over Time vol. 9 no. 1 pp. 48-71
Larkham, P.J. (2020)聽鈥楤ritish reconstruction planning after the Second World War: the rise of planning and the issue of 鈥渘on-planning鈥濃, Architektura & Urbanizmus issue 1-2 (2020) pp. 16-27
Larkham, P.J. (2020) 鈥楨ncounters with a future past: navigating the shifting urban atmospheres of place鈥, Journal of Urban Design聽vol. 25 no. 3 pp. 308-327 (with D. Adams, M. Smith and J. Abidin)聽
Larkham, P.J. (2019) 鈥楶ersistence, inertia, adaptation and life cycle: applying urban morphological ideas to conceptualise sustainable city-centre change鈥, ICONARP International Journal of Architecture and Planning vol. 7 no. 2 (special issue on urban morphology) pp. 73-94 (with D. Adams)聽
Media Work
Peter has advised, and briefly appeared in interviews on several TV documentaries on reconstructing cities after the Second World War.