Kelvin Campbell

Kelvin Campbell (born 1952) is a South Africa-born architect and urban designer, with a professional interest in complex urban problems, from those of informal settlements through to urban renewal of the city. Campbell is the Chair of Smart Urbanism, an open-source urban research and development organisation; a Fellow in the Built Environment with the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851; and was an Honorary Professor at CASA (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) at The Bartlett, University College of London (2015).
He is a writer and publisher of books and articles on the subject of urbanism, including the UK government’s first policy document on urban design in the planning system. In 2013 Campbell was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Urban Design Group for his contribution to urban design.
Early life and education
Campbell was born in 1952 in Durban, South Africa. He graduated in 1978 as an architect at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was an art director of the student magazine. It was here that he first became exposed to the related issues of social inequality and urban change. In 1986 he came to the United Kingdom, where he furthered his studies in architecture at the University of Westminster in London. He later become a Visiting Professor in Urban Design at Westminster.
Career
Campbell’s early career began at the National Building Research Institute in South Africa and as part of a UN-sponsored programme in South America. He went on to work for the Urban Foundation, a social change organisation, and other public and private development sectors in South Africa. This included working at Cape Town City Council’s Planning and Design Unit on a number of large housing projects.
Campbell moved to London in 1986 to work on major urban regeneration projects. After a short stint working with a housing practice, he headed the housing and renewal consultancy arm of an international construction company. In 1989 he founded Urban Initiatives, an interdisciplinary urban design, development and transportation planning practice. He continues to act as a consultant director to the Urban Initiatives Studio providing an advisory and mentoring role to the practice.
In 2010, Campbell established Smart Urbanism, an organisation committed to research and development of new theory and practice in the planning, design and delivery of viable cities, towns and neighbourhoods. Campbell is currently working on a research project at CASA (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) at The Bartlett, University College of London, through his two-year Fellowship in the Built Environment with the Royal Commission 1851.
The subject of this project is ‘Massive Small: The Tools for Smart Urbanism in an Increasingly Complex, Informal, Upside Down and Local World’, which seeks to reconcile the conflicts and potentials between top-down and bottom-up processes in urban planning in order to create the conditions for a viable human habitat. Campbell teaches on the Masters Course in Sustainable Urban Development at Oxford University and lectures regularly at other universities and institutions.
Publications and Articles
Campbell is a writer and publisher of books and articles on the subject of urbanism, including:
* By Design, Urban Design in the Planning System: Towards Better Design by Kelvin Campbell and Rob Cowan (Thomas Telford Publishing, 2000)
(This guide is based on work by a team of consultants led by Kelvin Campbell of Urban Initiatives and Rob Cowan. The project team was drawn from Urban Initiatives and specialist advice was provided by Paul Murrain, John Punter, Jim Redwood, Les Sparks and Kim Wilkie.)
* Re:Urbanism: Challenge to the Urban Summit by Kelvin Campbell and Rob Cowan (Urban Exchange, 2006)
* Massive Small: The Operating System for Smart Urbanism by Kelvin Campbell
Urban Exchange, a collaboration between Kelvin Campbell and Rob Cowan, operates as the publishing arm of Urban Initiatives and now, Smart Urbanism.

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