My approach

In my teaching, I focus on questions of governance and planning and their inter-relations with urban and regional design processes. My approach is characterised by a creative and mutually-beneficial dialogue between research and teaching. I use research projects to ‘situate’ and anchor teaching process, while learning from the students and applying their insight to research. I put an emphasis on nurturing cross-disciplinary and critical thinking and ability to engage in debates in the world of practice and within academia. This entails pushing the students to address the ‘why’ and ‘for whom’ questions and to develop sound methodological, theoretical and empirical foundations for their design and research explorations. Finally, I pay special attention to sensitising the students to the social and governance dimensions and societal and institutional consequences of urban planning and design choices. I also provide them with methodological tools to explore those dimensions and design inclusive stakeholder engagement strategies.

MSc Urbanism at TU Delft (core teaching activity)

  • AR9330 Planning Policy and Governance
  • AR2U088 Research and Design Methodology for Urbanism
  • AR2U086 R and D Studio: Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis
  • AR3U013 Analytical Methods of Urban Planning and Design
  • AR3U023 Theories of Urban Planning and Design
  • AR3U100 Graduation Lab Urbanism Studio – Planning Complex Cities
  • Mentoring MSc Urbanism and European Post-Master in Urbanism students’ graduation projects (over 20 successfully completed graduation projects as of 2020). Topics: spatial justice, energy transition, resilience, climate adaptation, circular economy, eco-cities, citizen engagement, shrinkage. Example 1, Example 2. 

Seleted Invited lectures

Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University Rotterdam (various years):

Department of Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna (2022):

  • EU Cohesion Policy as a driver of Europeanisation

Department of Urban Planning and Design, Hong Kong University (2022):

  • Spatial Planning in the Netherlands

Urban Studies Foundation, COP26 seminar (2021):

  • Unlocking the potential of sustainability transitions to make cities more just and liveable Video