About
What is the Urban Surfaces Research Network?
The Urban Surfaces Research Network (USRN) is an international multi-disciplinary group of scholars, artists, and practitioners interested in the roles of surfaces as spaces of urban communication, governance, and political contestation. We explore how surfaces are designed, managed, valued, and contested as public assets, to enrich the diversity of public expression in global cities.
What is the framing of the project?
The study of the social life of walls and surfaces has grown into research on graffiti and street art, murals, law and property, visibility, territoriality, atmosphere and public space, but there have been very few developments to focus specifically on the urban surfaces agenda and further demonstrate its impact. This network sets out to become an international resource of urban surface research and practice, cutting across disciplines to focus on the spatial typology and urban condition of the surfacescape.
In everyday urban practice, surfaces matter because they are intimately connected to practices of spatial justice and the right to the city. These concepts refer to citizenship and belonging, and to rights of occupation, affirmation, and self-determination of subjectivities in space. The design, management, and valuing mechanisms of urban surfaces in contemporary cities can therefore offer unique evidence for these social issues.
Researching and interrogating urban surfaces - what it means to be a surface, the development of a surface, the textures, layers and formation of a surface - brings with it countless benefits to the full range of disciplines that will be enrolled in the network. It tells us about the authorship of the city, it allows us to challenge and dissect this authorship, to question the agency of materials and non-materials alike, to consider how surfaces shape the urban imagination, and to explore how the right to the surface is the right to the city (Andron 2018). Questions of citizenship, belonging, vision, identity, economy, law and justice can all be asked through the lens of the urban surface.
Activities (2026)
In-person Workshops
The second Urban Surfaces Research Network workshop will take place in Nicosia on 26–27 May 2026 at the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, hosted by Konstantinos Avramidis. Bringing together around 20 researchers, artists, and practitioners, the two-day, in-person event explores urban surfaces as spaces of communication, governance, and political struggle.
In Nicosia, participants will combine short presentations with shared fieldwork, walking the city together and experimenting with drawing, photography, and other visual methods to co-create images of and on urban surfaces. Collaborative exercises will focus on heritage, narratives, and drawing, asking how surfaces record, mediate, and contest public expression.
Participants:
- Jessica Amarteifio, University of Ghana
- Jane Elizabeth Bennett, University of Reading
- Holly Carton, Oxford Brookes University
- Soufiane Chinig, Free University of Berlin
- Tara Lauren di Cassio, University of North Carolina
- Adam Hudec, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
- Viloria James Clifford, Eötvös Loránd University
- Panos Leventis, Drury University
- Alice Mazzilli, Endangered Writing Network & EDF crew
- Nina O’Reilly, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
- Jenny Papasotiriou, Heritage Services, Ireland
- Diandra Saginatari, Universitas Indonesia
- Julia Tulke, Emory University
- Twenty-Three, Cypriot street artist
- Pierre Edouard Weill, University of Western Brittany
- CC Williams, University of Technology Sydney
- Yeti, Cypriot graffiti writer
This workshop is the second in the Urban Studies Foundation Seminar Series "Walls speak. Are you listening? A research agenda for urban surfaces", following the first event at the Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne (3–4 December 2025), hosted by Sabina Andron, and preceding the third workshop at the Department of Human Geography, Uppsala University (27–28 August 2026), hosted by Tom Ward.
Online Workshops
We are also hosting our final three editions of our online workshops.
- 21 April 2026 (7am San Francisco / 10am NYC / 4pm London)
- 8 September 2026 (8am London / 3pm Singapore/ 5pm Melbourne)
- 17 November 2026 (7am London / 3pm Singapore/ 6pm Melbourne)
The workshops will be organised around the following prompts:
- DEFINE: How do you define urban surfaces in your field or practice?
Offer a definition that is specific to your disciplinary or professional lens. What constitutes a surface, and what is its role or significance in your work? - INTERVENE: If you could change one thing about how urban surfaces are designed, valued, maintained, or governed—what would it be?
Use one specific example to describe a point of friction or opportunity. What types of surface values— social, ecological, economic, aesthetic, or otherwise—is your example based on? - CHALLENGE: What is a common misconception about urban surfaces that frustrates or limits your work?
Debunk a myth, assumption, or oversimplification—whether in public discourse, policy, or practice—and illustrate your point with an example.
Each workshop will result in an open access booklet publication available online and in print. Previous booklets from workshops 1-6 have been hugely successful with a combined 5,300 views and 1,200 downloads as of mid January 2026. They are available here.
Urban Surfaces Research International workshop 7 (online, 21 April 2026)
The seventh collaborative discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities.
Convenors: Sabina Andron (AU), Konstantinos Avramidis (CY), Tom Ward (SE)
Participants: Agampodi Nirwadya Nirikshani Mendis Gunasekara (LK), David Littlefield (UK), Mirame Elsayed (EG), Gabriel Araújo Velasco (BR), Juan Carlos Guerrero-Hernandez (US), Francesca Bragaglia (IT), Yeşim Desticioğlu (UK), Shruti Mehta (IN), Eliza Demian Patrascu (RO), Doron Altaratz (IL), Zlatan Krajina (HR), Inês Valle + Andrew Esiebo (PT/ NG)
USRN booklet 7 coming soon!
Previous Activities
Graffiti, Posters, and Visual Governance in the City Workshop (University of Melbourne, 3-4 December 2025)
How are urban surfaces used for communication, governance, and political contestation in cities? And how are they designed, managed, valued, and contested as public assets?
This workshop brought together 20 academics, policy makers, and creative practitioners from Australia and New Zealand to develop a research agenda for urban surfaces, focused on the following themes: governance, labour, materiality, economy, and communication.
Drawing on the mandate of the Urban Surfaces Research Network, the workshop established awareness of the multiple research agendas that operate with urban surfaces, to foreground surfaces as a central research concept and field of study pertinent to numerous political, legal, social, architectural, and cultural concerns. We created a space for research exchange and consultation with non-academic actors (eg outdoor advertising companies, graffiti removal practitioners, street artists, and conservators).
Workshop details:
- The workshop took place at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus on Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 December 2025 and was in-person only.
- Day 1 consisted of presentation panels and roundtables focused on sharing research and practice, and exploring methodological tools to understand urban surfaces. Day 2 was designed as a site-visit working session focused on the governance of urban images and graffiti removal as creative practice.
- The event was conceived as a small scale, deep study session for approximately 20 participants. There was no audience for the event and all participants contributed to the discussion and research activities.
Workshop participants:
- Adrian Tanner, graffiti removal officer, Melbourne inner city council
- Alison Barnes, senior lecturer in design and place, Western Sydney University
- Asees Prab, design practitioner, RMIT University
- Caroline Kyi, specialist wall painting conservator, University of Melbourne
- Cecilia Brazioli, PhD candidate in sociology, University of Milan
- Chris Parkinson, artist and lecturer, University of Melbourne and Yarra City Council
- Enzo Lara Hamilton, artist and researcher, University of Melbourne
- Kostas Avramidis, Assistant Professor in architecture, University of Cyprus
- Kurt Iveson, Professor of urban geography, University of Sydney
- Laura Szyman, design-research practitioner, RMIT University
- Lucy Irvine, artist and researcher, Australian National University
- Maria Noriega, urban planner, University of Melbourne
- Michael Stonham, lecturer in architecture and graffiti writer, University of New South Wales
- Myra Abubakar, researcher in visual governance in Southeast Asia, Australian National University
- Nataly Arevalo, community safety practitioner, Darebin City Council
- Nazanin Moghaddam, independent muralist
- Sabina Andron, Research Fellow in cities and urbanism, University of Melbourne
- Tom Ward, PhD candidate in human geography, Uppsala University
- Young-Tack Oh, spatial practitioner, Archipleasure
This was the first of three events in the Urban Studies Foundation seminar series “Walls speak. Are you listening? A research agenda for urban surfaces” (USF-SSA-250602). Calls for the next two workshops in Nicosia, Cyprus (May 2026) and Uppsala, Sweden (August 2026) will be circulated in due course. Please email sabina.andron@unimelb.edu.au with any questions.
Urban Visual Dialogues 3: Graffiti, Posters, and Visual Governance in the City (University of Melbourne, 4 December 2025)
A panel discussion with makers and managers of public images, and learn about the interesting roles these play in the visual culture of cities.
Moderated by Dr Sabina Andron, urban visual cultures researcher and creative practitioner.
This was the concluding event of the Urban Surfaces project workshop "Graffiti, Posters, and Visual Governance in the City", funded by an Urban Studies Foundation seminar series award.
Presenters:
- Kyle Magee, Anti-advertising Activist
- Greg Ireland, Founder of Graffiti Removal Chemicals
- Jo Mair, Creative Urban Places Programme Lead at the City of Melbourne
- Kurt Iveson, Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Sydney
- Manda Lane, Botanical Artist
Urban Visual Dialogues 2: On values and assets of city surfaces (University of Melbourne, 18 November 2025)
This event included a discussion on the role of the concepts of “value” and “asset” in research on justice, images, and creativity in cities.
Presenters:
- Cecilia Brazioli (University of Milan), “Value attribution in urban spaces through graffiti and street art”
- Tom Ward (Uppsala University), “Understanding the mural economy”
Urban surfaces: architectural perspectives on public walls session at the Society of Architectural Historians annual conference (Atlanta, 2 May 2025)
This session built on recent multidisciplinary uptake in surface-related scholarship, to develop architectural perspectives for the urban surfaces research agenda.
Participants:
- Façades, Signboards, Screens: A Media Archaeology of Taiwan’s Urban Surface Techniques
Meng-Hsuan Lee, Columbia University, USA - Boundary Walls: Territorial Negotiation in the Indian City
Melissa Smith, CEPT University, India - The Facade in the Age of Data-Enriched Technologies: oddviz's Shedding
Efrîn Özyetiş, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye - Surface to Volume to Surface: Postwar Wall, Germany 1945-49
Lynnette Widder, Columbia University, USA - Learning from Shopfronts: Why Signage is Not Superficial
Christian Williams, University of Technology Sydney, Australia - From Construction Fences to LED-rendered Skyscrapers: Urban Beautification Campaigns and State Dominance in Contemporary Chinese Cities
Cheng Chen, University of Virginia, USA
Urban surfaces: values and uses of public walls session at the Royal Geographical Society conference (London, 30 August 2024)
Painting urban narratives @ Global Street Art (London, 30 August 2024)
Who benefits from painting public walls?
A showcase of international ideas about muralism, street art, and the value of urban surfaces hosted by Global Street Art as part of the second London Mural Festival. The Urban Surfaces Research Network partnered with Global Street Art for a panel discussion during the Royal Geographical Society conference in London.
The session explored overlooked writing cultures and inscriptions found on urban surfaces around the world. Researchers, artists, and practitioners shared key findings and challenges around documenting, interpreting, and fostering these vernacular, political, and commercial expressions.
A central theme was democratising access - giving voice to the diverse images and voices that shape public spaces, yet often go unnoticed or undervalues. Discussions highlighted the need for better communication, funding, and inclusive processes to truly engage communities in co-creating and preserving their textual and visual landscapes.
Panel moderators: Sabina Andron (University of Melbourne), Wom Ward (Uppsala University), and Susan Hansen (Middlesex University)
With Frederico Câmara (Southern Methodist University), Meriky Lo Alexander (University of Auckland), Selma Piukovici (University of Amsterdam), Nian Paul (Indian Institute of Technology Madras), Danae Santibáñez (independent scholar), Giulia Riva (BLocal), Moral Masuoka (Beautify Earth), Stuart Holdsworth (Inspiring City), and Caroline Newton (TU Delft).
Urban Surfaces Research Network inaugural international workshop (online, 6 March 2024)
A first collaborative discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities.
Convenors: Sabina Andron (AU), Konstantinos Avramidis (CY), Tom Ward (SE)
Participants: Emma Arnold (NO), Katya Assaf-Zakharow (IL), Peter Bengtsen (SE), Andrea Mubi Brighenti (IT), Maria Chatzidakis (GR), Anne Cronin (UK), Eduardo de la Fuente (AU), Kurt Iveson (AU), David Pontille (FR), Tim Schnetgöke (DE)
Access USRN booklet 1 here: Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 1
Urban Surfaces Research Network international workshop 2 (online, 30 April 2024)
A second collaborative discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities.
Convenors: Sabina Andron (AU), Konstantinos Avramidis (CY), Tom Ward (SE)
Participants: Sneha Annavarapu (SG), Anneke Coppoolse (KR), Jacob Kimvall (SE), Panos Leventis (US), Susanna Newbury (US), Laima Nomeikaite (NO), Liz Oakley-Brown (UK), Christian Simonetti (CL), Myrto Tsilimpounidi (GR), Julia Tulke (US), Gerda Wielander (UK)
Access USRN booklet 2 here: Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 2
Urban Surfaces Research International workshop 3 (online, 18 June 2024)
Our third collaborative discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities.
Convenors: Sabina Andron (AU), Konstantinos Avramidis (CY), Tom Ward (SE)
Participants: Cecilia Brazioli, University of Milan (IT), Lucy Finchett Maddock, Bangor University (UK), Mia Gaia Trentin, Cyprus Institute (CY), Alex Hale, Historic Environment Scotland (UK), Ingrid Halland, University of Bergen (NO), Adam Hudec, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT), Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen (UK), Simon Marvin, University of Sydney (AU), Liz Oakley Brown, Lancaster University (UK), Chris Parkinson, University of Melbourne (AU), Rafael Schacter, University College London (UK), Sprya Sharma, Independent researcher (IN)
Access USRN booklet 3 here: Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 3
Urban Surfaces Research International workshop 4 (online, 25 September 2025)
The fourth collaborative discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities.
Convenors: Sabina Andron (AU), Konstantinos Avramidis (CY), Tom Ward (SE)
Participants: Elijah Agwaru Anomet (Independent Artist, Uganda), Natalie Bauer (KU Leuven), Taylor Coyne (University of New South Wales), Tom Critchley (Northeastern University), Megan Hicks (Independent Researcher, Australia), Joumana Ibrahim (University of the Arts London), Christoph Lueder (Kingston University London), Nian Paul (University College London), Lorenzo “SERRAGLIA” Servi (Independent Artist, Finland), Pierre-Édouard Weill (Université de Bretagne Occidentale)
Access USRN booklet 4 here: Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 4
Urban Surfaces Research International workshop 5 (online, 13 October 2025)
The fifth collaborative discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities.
Convenors: Sabina Andron (AU), Konstantinos Avramidis (CY), Tom Ward (SE)
Participants: Chris Boyko, Ruth Dalton & Kevin Muldoon-Smith (Lancaster University & Northumbria University), Adrian Burnham (Independent Researcher, UK), Susan Hansen (Middlesex University), Dan Johnston (Western Sydney University), Miti Kinaawola (Tembea Kampala Tours), Friederike Landau-Donnelly (Humboldt University Berlin), Diana-Raisa Lolici (Babes-Bolyai University), Richard Müller (University College London), Jazoo Yang (Independent Artist, South Korea), Dina Yunis (Kings College London), and Yufeng Zhao (MIT Media Lab).
Access USRN booklet 5 here: Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 5
Urban Surfaces Research International workshop 6 (online, 18 November 2025)
The sixth collaborative discussion about the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities.
Convenors: Sabina Andron (AU), Konstantinos Avramidis (CY), Tom Ward (SE)
Participants: Alison Barnes (Western Sydney University), Jane Elizabeth Bennett (Reading University), Peta Carlin (Wenzhou-Kean University), Joanne Choueiri (Griffith University), Lucy Irvine (Australian National University), Ronald Kramer (University of Auckland), Margarethe Kusenbach (University of South Florida), Moral Masuoka (Beautify Earth, UK), Petr Vašát (The Czech Academy of Sciences), Iain White (University of Waikato), and Erna Husukic & Emina Zejnilović (Prince Sultan University & CUQ Ulster University)
Access USRN booklet 6 here: Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 6
Outputs
- Andron, S., Avramidis, K, Ward, T. (2025), Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 6, Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne. [Online resource]
- Andron, S., Avramidis, K, Ward, T. (2025), Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 5, Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne. [Online resource]
- Andron, S., Avramidis, K, Ward, T. (2025), Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 4, Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne. [Online resource]
- Andron, S., Avramidis, K, Ward, T. (2024), Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 3 Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne. [Online resource]
- Andron, S., Avramidis, K, Ward, T. (2024), Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 2 Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne. [Online resource]
- Andron, S., Avramidis, K, Ward, T. (2024), Urban Surfaces Research Network Vol 1 Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne. [Online resource]
Project Team
| Person | Position | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sabina Andron | Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Cities and Urbanism, Melbourne Centre for Cities | ||
| Konstantinos Avramidis | Lecturer, Architecture and Landscapes, University of Cyprus | ||
| Tom Ward | PhD student, Human Geography, Uppsala University | ||
| Enzo Lara - Hamilton | Research Assistant |