Informed by the UN Millennium Development Goals, the program promotes forms of education and practice that will benefit under-served communities and facilitate bottom-up, collaborative partnerships.

MANIT Bhopal hosted the sixth Global Studio which consisted of the conference ‘Re-imagining Inclusive Urbanisation’ and six hands-on participatory design and planning studio and research projects.

Global Studio returned to Diepsloot at the invitation of the Diepsloot Community Development Worker, Ward Councillor and the City of Johannesburg. Some 40 participants worked on projects from 2008 and 2007, proposing designs and practical action.

Global Studio tried a new model in 2008 – the ‘return model’. With only 25 students, and five mentors, Global Studio returned to work in the township of Diepsloot, starting work on some new projects and continuing with others. The Arts and Culture Network was launched.

Working with Wits University and the City of Johannesburg, 85 participants from 52 universities worked in three locations: Alexandra, Marshalltown and Diepsloot.

Urban poverty and disadvantage exists in the most liveable cities in the world. 90 students and faculty from 23 countries and 30 universities attended the UN World Urban Forum: Sustainable Cities, and worked with five communities on design and planning issues of importance to them.

70 students from 25 countries came to Istanbul in worked in Zeyrek. Some 200 people attended the Global Studio’s People Building Better Cities sessions held each day of the Union of International Architects Congress.