Global Theories of Urban Design
Our understanding of how urban designers and architects can design cities is still largely affected by Western urban conditions and perspectives. The European city, in particular, with its steady and controlled growth, has served for a long time as the background against which new urban design methods and instruments are developed. As scholars who advocate a decentring and reframing of the widest conceptualisations of the urban have argued, urban design history is still based upon the dichotomy of “First World” model cities, seen as generators of new theories versus “Third World” cities, perceived as problematic and in need of correction. However, if our urban theorisations remain anchored in this Euro-American experience, we will be incapable of analysing and understanding the heterogeneity of urbanisms around the world.
This course sets out to contribute to overcome this asymmetry by reconsidering our perspective. Course reading, lectures and in-class discussions centre around urban theories developed in cities in the so-called Global South to illustrate that urban design and urbanisation are not prerogatives of the Western world. The course will highlight alternative canons of knowledge which have been hitherto marginalised or dismissed, yet are crucial in understanding the design and production of cities. Through studying urban theories based on cities that develop according to their own logics and generate different urban experiences, this course seeks to extend our knowledge of urban design, interrogate its assumptions, and enlarge our intellectual horizons to include a wider range of perspectives.
Hover Image: Women protest in the streets of downtown Amman, Jordan, 1968. Author unknown. Source: Wikicommons
Seminar 01 | Introduction
Friday 21 February 2025 | protected page slides
Seminar 02 | Vernacular & Participation
Friday 28 February 2025 – Guest Speaker Peter Makachia (Technical University of Kenya)
Seminar 03 | Poetics & Practice
Friday 7 March 2025 – Guest Speaker Óscar Andrade (Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso)
Seminar 04 | The Tropical & the Regional
Friday 14 March 2025 – Guest Speaker Setiadi Sopandi (Indra Tata Adilaras, Museum Arsitektur Indonesia)
Seminar 05 | Preservation & Positionality
Friday 28 March 2025 – Guest Speakers Alessandra Gola & Abed Kittana (Birzeit University, Tampere University, Yalla Project)
Seminar 06 | Design & the Emotional
Friday 4 April 2025 – Guest Speaker Menna Agha (Carleton University)
Seminar 07 | Embodied Knowledge & Cartographies
Friday 11 April 2025 – Guest Speaker Rossana Brandão Tavares (Fluminense Federal University)
Seminar 08 | In-class Workshop
Friday 2 May 2025
Seminar 09 | Final Presentations
Friday 9 May 2025
Seminar 10 | Final Presentations
Friday 16 May 2025
Tutors: Dr. Sebastiaan Loosen, Dr. María Novas Ferradás, Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Seminar 01 | Introduction
Friday 23 February 2024 – Dr. Nadi Abusaada, Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Seminar 02 | Colonial Toxicity: Algerian Sahara
Friday 1 March 2024 – Guest Speaker Prof. Dr. Samia Henni
Seminar 03 | Nation-Building by Housing: Casablanca
Friday 15 March 2024 – Guest Speaker Lahbib El Moumni
Seminar 04 | Migration and Labour: Dubai and South Asia
Friday 12 April 2024 – Guest Speaker Dr. Todd Reisz
Seminar 05 | Environmental Transformation and Capitalism: Costa Rica
Friday 19 April 2024 – Guest Speaker Prof. Dr. Natalia Solano-Meza
Seminar 06 | Heritage and Modernity: Baghdad
Friday 26 April 2024 – Guest Speaker Mysa Kafil-Hussain
Seminar 07 | Materials, Crafts, and Scarcity: Havana
Friday 3 May 2024 – Guest Speaker Prof. Dr. Wesam Al Asali
Seminar 08 | Writing Workshop
Friday 10 May 2024 – Dr. Nadi Abusaada, Dr. Hans Teerds, Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Seminar 09 | Final Presentations
Friday 17 May 2024 – Dr. Nadi Abusaada, Dr. Hans Teerds, Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Tutors: Dr. Nadi Abusaada, Dr. Hans Teerds, Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Seminar 01 | Introduction
Friday 24 February 2023 – Dr. Cathelijne Nuijsink (in-class)
Seminar 02 | Urban Displacement, Informal Housing, Right to Housing, Post-Colonialism, Colonial Legacy, Decolonial Urban Planning
Friday 3 March 2023 – Guest Dr. Soraya El Kahlaoui (in-class)
Seminar 03 | Southern Theory, Citizenship, Decolonial Feminisms, Subalternity, Agency, Resistance
Friday 10 March 2023 – Guest Speaker Prof. Rita Velloso (via Zoom)
Seminar 04 | Multiscale Urbanism, Democracy, Cities for Life, Healthy Cities
Friday 17 March 2023 – Guest Speaker Jorge Pérez Jaramillo (via Zoom)
Seminar 05 | Informal Public Space, People as Infrastructure, Shebeens, Coffee Carts
Friday 31 March 2023 – Guest Speaker Prof. Hannah le Roux (in-class)
Seminar 06 | Urban Labour Spaces, Capital-Labour Relationship, Unemployment, Rural Distress, Gendered Spaces, Pandemic and its Effect on Labour in India
Friday 21 April 2023 – Guest Speaker Prof. Sucharita Sen (via Zoom)
Seminar 07 | Urban Informality, Postcolonialism (representation), Planetary Urbanization, Urban Conflict
Friday 28 April 2023 – Guest Speaker Dr. Deen Sharp (in-class)
Seminar 08 | Writing Workshop
Friday 5 May 2023 (in-class)
Seminar 09 | Final Presentations
Friday 12 May 2023 – Critics Prof. Tom Avermaete + guest (in-class)
Seminar 10 | Submission of Final Group Assignment
Friday 19 May 2023
Tutors: Dr. Cathelijne Nuijsink, Dr. Hans Teerds, Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete