The Master 2 Quarter “Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis”. led by Qu Lei and Verena Balz kicks off in February.
Regional design is the core theme of the third quarter of the MSc Urbanism curriculum. This is urbanism at a high level of scale. The way global economic powers influence social, cultural and environmental development is best sensible at this level. Global influence results in the inability to fully control spatial development. Regional design is about steering development in the right direction. Regional design – as the exploration of plausible futures – promotes and debates solutions to problems in a given context. It is a reflection on prevailing spatial conditions, political agendas and planning regimes, meant to improve good (democratic) decision-making and to inform long-term strategic planning approaches to desirable spatial change.
The responsible chair of the quarter Spatial Strategies for a Global Metropolis is Spatial Planning & Strategy. The 2019-2020 edition of the studio is prepared in collaboration with the Province of South Holland (Provincie Zuid-Holland). Results will contribute to policy development concerning a fully circular economy in South Holland in 2050 (see Zuid-Holland: naar een 100% Circulaire Economie in 2050). The edition builds up upon expertise acquired during the Horizon 2020 research project Resource Management in Peri-urban Areas: Going Beyond Urban Metabolism (REPAiR), funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 framework.
At TU Delft, Urbanism is concerned with understanding the spatial organisation and dynamics of the built environment and with inventing new ways to maintain spatial quality and equality. The MSc Urbanism education develops core knowledge and skills as a basis for innovative practical and theoretical applications. It provides students with typological knowledge and insights into urbanism tools and techniques. Urbanism at the TU Delft is a scientific design education, characterized by interaction between thinking (analysis and reflection) and doing (the speculative/intuitive imagination of spatial interventions).
