The Urban Construction Laboratory (UCL) is a research “think-tank” on urban issues. U.C. Berkeley Professor Richard Bender, and John J. Parman founded UCL in May 1989. In 2025, Elham K. Hassani, Ph.D. joined as UCL’s Co-Director for the EU.

UCL’s current work, led by Dr. Hassani, focuses on resilient urban regeneration in different contexts, applying artificial intelligence (AI) to methods and processes.

In the past, UCL has studied the feasibility of a “super-high-rise” tower at Makuhari, a new town at the edge of Tokyo; advised on trends relevant to urban-scale development; led study tours to California, Hong Kong, New York City, and western Europe; consulted on the Mori Art Center, with Tokyo developer Minoru Mori; and advised the Mori Memorial Foundation on its Mori Global City Index, a leading city-ranking index.

UCL also consulted with Intep, a pioneering resilient planning firm based in Zurich and Munich, and advised on Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. After Richard Bender advised on the future growth of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, we shared our research on university/city co-development at three international Univer-Cities Conferences in Singapore and Newcastle Australia, 2013–2019, with U.C. Berkeley Campus Architect Emily B. Marthinsen, FAIA. Our papers were published in proceedings by World Science and Imperial University (Singapore and London).