Planning as Critical Engaged Practice: Consequences for Studio Education.

Space, people, and time are all intertwined in the city, a complex system in which planners intervene. Their strategic plans and neighbourhood designs impact the daily lives of city dwellers. This emphasises the point that spatial planning and urban design ar enot technical disciplines. The everyday use of space and its symbolic meanings must be incorporated. Planning as an engaged practice involves explicit engagement with the Habitat III goals and, more specifically, the New Urban Agenda (NUA) goals. This commitment to sustainable urban development means we are working to create integrated and just societies for the future. The NUA paved the way for the right to the city to be incorporated into planning. This chapter discusses incorporating both aspects (socio-spatial complexity and the right to the city) into planning education, specifically the design studio. It begins by questioning the design studio’s current functioning. It then shows a resurrected studio setting, where socio-spatial complexity and the right to the city can be gradually integrated meaning that the studio will no longer be about what is, but about what is ‘yet to be’.Spatial Planning and Strateg

The Role of Government Initiated Urban Planning Experiments in Transition Processes and Their Contribution to Change at the Regime Level

Sustainable urban (planning) experiments play a crucial role in transitions and are tangible ways to contribute to innovation and change in the long run. This paper discusses how urban experiments contribute to sustainability transitions by explicitly looking at an urban experiment’s capability to influence the regime level. The consequences of spatial inertia and political actors’ involvement are two understudied aspects concerning urban experiments. The paper aims to introduce these two understudied aspects and suggests further research on both in current urban experimentation practices. First, the paper suggests spatial embeddedness as a relevant explanatory factor. Experiments that alter spatial structures or realize physical interventions on a neighborhood scale can anchor innovations in space. In doing so, they increase their sustainability in the long run. Secondly, the article contributes to the literature on institutions and politics in urban experiments. The article uses a literature study and a case to illustrate both points.Spatial Planning and Strateg

Celebrating HERstories in architecture and planning on International Women’s Day

At the dawn of International Women’s Day, I want to highlight the importance of feminist solidarity and the need to amplify the voices of these women who have been at the forefront of local organisations and planning in their communities. Too often, these women have been overlooked in the writing of (planning and design) history. By celebrating their contributions, we honour their work and challenge dominant narratives that perpetuate the erasure of women’s experiences and perspectives.Spatial Planning and Strateg

Reimagining Spatial Justice at TU Delft Summer School

Spatial Planning and Strateg

Walls That Speak: Unraveling the Messages of Urban Contestation

This blog post delves into ‘Imprints of Contestation’, the powerful art expressions within urban spaces that challenge systemic injustices. By exploring the dual nature of this art as a catalyst for change and its susceptibility to commodification, the post invites you to reflect on the transformative potential of urban creativity.Spatial Planning and Strateg

Summer School Planning & Design for the Just City 2022: Final Report

The Summer School Planning & Design for the Just City takes place every July at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (Bouwkunde) of the Delft University of Technology. The school is organised by the Centre for the Just City. It is a partnership between Bouwkunde and the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management of the TU Delft. The school is supported by the Department of Urbanism of the TU Delft, Delft Global Initiative, the Delft Design for Values Institute and the MOOC Rethink the City. For more information visit https://summerschooltudelft.or

Uncovering the Visibility of Blue Spaces: Design-oriented Methods for Analysing Water Elements and Maximizing Their Potential

Existing studies indicate that a direct view of aquatic elements benefits well-being, and houses with blue views are often associated with higher prices. Therefore, developing analysis and design methods for visibility research of blue spaces are crucial to advance spatial design practice. Especially digital methods for analysing blue visibility and their potential in design still need to be identified and explored. This study explores the application potential of some powerful digital visibility analysis methods for blue space design. Specifically, this research first provides an overview of poten- tial methods for analysing the visibility of water. Next, two practical design-oriented digital methods are briefly elaborated and illustrated by cases in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Meanwhile, the study explores how the analysis results support spatial design practice. Last, the study discusses the potential of integrating blue visibility analysis methods into the iterative design process and makes prospects for future research

Actually Existing Commons: Using the Commons to Reclaim the City

In Paraisópolis, a slum in São Paulo (Brazil) housing over 100.000 inhabitants, the Covid crisis seemed to have less of a death toll (0,0217%) than in other areas of the city (an average of 0,0652% as of May 2020); or at least it did at first. The sense of community in the area is strong, leading to many community initiatives and organisations to rise to the challenge of combating the pandemic with little help from the authorities. The community’s initial efficient response to the Covid crisis relied heavily on self‐reliance and self‐organization to mobilise common resources. Despite their later failure in containing the virus, the community’s response to the pandemic is exemplary of a well‐known phenomenon: how communities are able to mobilise the commons to create general welfare. The commons concept is used in this contribution to help us better understand slum governance and the power and limitations of community reliance. At the same time, we aim to refine our understanding of the commons as a contentious category rooted in agonistic relationships instead of the romanticised leftist social imaginary that views the commons as purely anti‐capitalist. Thus, we explicitly argue for a view of the commons and commoning that transcends the narrow “Leftist imaginary” of the commons as egalitarian, inclusive, anti‐capitalist, horizontal, and as expressions of sharing (and caring), and instead views the commons as embedded in everyday realities, where commoning practices emerge as practises that support the reproduction of (social) life.Spatial Planning and Strateg

Summer School Planning & Design for the Just City 2022: Final Report

The Summer School Planning & Design for the Just City takes place every July at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (Bouwkunde) of the Delft University of Technology. The school is organised by the Centre for the Just City. It is a partnership between Bouwkunde and the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management of the TU Delft. The school is supported by the Department of Urbanism of the TU Delft, Delft Global Initiative, the Delft Design for Values Institute and the MOOC Rethink the City. For more information visit https://summerschooltudelft.orgSpatial Planning and Strateg

Good Living in Brussel Post Pandemic

In Brussels (Belgium), as in other parts of the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated and legitimated changes in planning policy and regulation. The ongoing reform of Brussels’ regional planning regulations has been reframed as the ‘good living’ plan and has high ambitions to improve everyday quality of life, notably by setting more flexible rules for new developments. Despite long-lasting citizen engagement in planning processes, Brussels’ aspirations to improve its inhabitants’ quality of life have faced several spatial and institutional challenges. The Belgian capital hosts the European Commission and international and administrative office districts as well as industrial areas. Housing and public space quality are very contrasted between Brussels' south-eastern, high-priced neighbourhoods and the former industrial zone along the canal. Furthermore, its planning framework has suffered from institutional fragmentation, conflicting government agencies, politicised planning and strong market intervention. In this reflection paper, we discuss the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on planning instruments aimed at everyday quality of life through analysis of Brussels’ planning regulation reform, based on documentan alysis and semi-structured interviews conducted with actors of Brussels’ planning system. Beyond emphasising outdoor space, the revision proposal aims to improve housing quality through health and flexibility and sets criteria for density, mixed-use, green space…that relate to the 15’- city principles. Covid-19 may be an opportunity to reduce the gap towards ‘good living’ in Brussels and make us more resilient the next time we face a major health crisis. Setting and consolidating policy goals is one thing, making sure to implement them without excluding vulnerable groups is another one.Spatial Planning and Strateg