The Urbanism group investigates the relationships between urban patterns, society and design and planning interventions that may promote a more sustainable and fair urban environment. The group has a world-class international reputation for its socially relevant applied research and scholarship, and for its contribution to educational programmes.

The quality of the urban environment is a determining factor in the social, economic and environmental performance of societies, and the quality of life of their citizens. Practice in urbanism has a huge part to play in the quality of places, often allocating great advantages to some and costs to others. The agenda for research in urbanism at the TU Delft is strongly influenced by these concerns.

The programme is a preferred partner of some of the world's leading universities and attracts leading international visiting professors. The Urbanism programme as one of the few research centres in the world that brings together expertise in design, policy and research, and has a deep involvement with international networks arising from a long history of successful collaboration particularly in Asia and Latin America, and now extending to North America.

Research themes:

• Delta Urbanism
• Design of the Urban Fabric
• Landscape compositions & systems
• Metropolitan Spatial Structures
• Regional Design
• International Planning and Developing Regions
• 3D Geoinformation
• Smart Cities & Urban Metabolism
• History and Heritage Vector

The quality of the urban environment is a determining factor in the social, economic and environmental performance of societies, and the quality of life of their citizens. Practice in urbanism has a huge part to play in the quality of places, often allocating great advantages to some and costs to others. The agenda for research in the urbanism programme is strongly influenced by these concerns. Patterns of physical urban development are critical to the objectives of economic competitiveness, sustainability and social cohesion. 

Both basic and applied research will have implications for the knowledge that can contribute to more fair and sustainable development. The design of the Urbanism programme, and particularly the content of the cross-cutting themes, has taken these questions into account whilst also seeking to align with current and potential future key scientific questions in the field.

Want to know more about the scope, research environment, academic reputation, valorisation, and the key journals and articles of this specific research programme?
Download a complete overview of the research programmes (BK Books website)

Urbanism research programme summary 2015