The AA has been very central to the evolution of ideas about the informal city and the formulation of strategies to deal with it. The AA Research Cluster on Urbanism and the Informal City seeks to give continuity to that work while focusing more specifically on architecture and urbanism as tools of political engagement in the transformation of the informal city and the social conditions associated with it. This year the Research Cluster hosted a series of events that have investigated the role of design as a generative tool in reconceptualising the challenges and potential of informality. You are invited to a symposium that concludes this work, on the 9th of February (10am-6pm) at the Architectural Association, 36 Bedford Square, WC1B 3ES. The title of the symposium is Informal City: Design as Political Engagement. The symposium will bring together internationally acclaimed practitioners working directly with conditions of informality in a one day event of discussion and debate structured around two key themes: design as research and design as strategy. This is a public event so please circulate to others who might also be interested.