Located in the School of Architecture and Planning, CUBES leads research that considers how urban citizens and marginalised people are affected by the material realities of cities, built environments at different scales, access to urban goods and spaces, and contestations over urban physical and political orders. CUBES members engage communities, institutions, and policies. CUBES values critical reflection on existing practices of development planning and architecture that are at risk of excluding the poor in their quest to maintain order and formalise contemporary cities. By creatively building on emerging synergies in teaching and research within the School and finding ways to develop projects that become more than the sum of their parts, the Centre stimulates a collaborative, grounded, and contextually-relevant research culture for those interested in working on the challenging urban conditions on our doorstep.