This cluster is led by the Collective Justice by Design cluster, convened by Irene Luque Martin and Johnathan Subendran from the Section of Urban Design at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. The Centre for the Just City participates as a contributor. Roberto Rocco, Juliana Gonçalves and Caroline Newton are among the CJC members who collaborate within the cluster.

The cluster adopts a feminist lens to confront intertwined systems of power and oppression within urban space. Urbanism, the integration of urban planning and design, is urgently in need of being reimagined through practices of disruption of the status quo — including practices of care, reciprocity, inclusion, solidarity and anti-colonial praxis. This is done by grounding ourselves in feminist epistemologies, explicitly questioning who can and is allowed to produce knowledge, and how this eventually manifests in space.

Students are invited to critically position themselves, interrogate the political economies of design and space, and expand the tools and terrains of urbanism through situated, accountable action. With the Centre, we offer a platform through which students can discuss shared concerns and burning questions.

Teams of students are invited to draft a Manifesto for the Just City, articulating their visions for cities that are sustainable, fair, and inclusive for all.

This workshop series is a collaborative effort by TU Delft, IHS Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the University of Illinois, Winston-Salem State University, Morgan State University, The Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and many more academic partners from across the globe.

This course seeks to discuss spatial strategies for an integrated urban recovery in post-conflict settings. It investigates the process of reconstruction and what “building back better” implies: tackling inequalities, strengthening the capacities of local actors and pursuing a green, resilient and inclusive economic recovery anchored in sound spatial planning, design and policy.

The course focuses on practical tools of spatial planning and strategy-making, land and resettlement policy, building and planning standards for climate adaptation and decarbonisation, policies and programmes for ensuring the development of adequate (re)housing, as well as mechanisms to ensure fairness, participation and transparency throughout the urban recovery and reconstruction phase.

Eight sessions with experts on aspects crucial for reconstruction. Available online.

The Centre for the Just City, in collaboration with the Department of Urbanism and the Chair of Spatial Planning and Strategy at TU Delft, announces the eighth edition of the Summer School Planning and Design with Water for Justice and Sustainability. The Summer School is supported by the Resilient Delta Initiative.

The school integrates spatial planning, urban design, and environmental technology to address spatial justice, sustainability, climate adaptation, and water management in urban transitions. Participants are invited to put the notion of spatial justice central in urban development, understanding and integrating theories and practices that connect spatial justice with sustainability.

This course presents today’s urban challenges with a focus on developing countries, referred to as the Global South. It debates three themes that go beyond traditional urban strategies and policies: spatial justice — having fair, inclusive and healthy urban contexts; housing provision and management — alternative approaches to meet increasing demand; and sustainable urban transitions — moving from current unsustainable systems towards fair and sustainable futures.

The course addresses questions such as: Is the Just City framework applicable to cities with extreme socio-economic inequality? Can community-led housing initiatives provide effective solutions for households in need? How can the transition towards an environmentally sustainable future also be socially just?

Through short theoretical lessons, case studies from Latin America, MENA, Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, testimonies from practitioners, and practical assignments, learners develop a critical perspective on their own urban environment and translate this knowledge into analytical tools and innovative solutions.

Methodology for Urbanism runs parallel to the Q3 studio and sits at the intersection of two intellectual concerns: the construction of a rigorous conceptual framework and critical engagement with theoretical debates in urbanism — principally socio-spatial justice and socio-technical transitions to sustainability.

The course distinguishes itself from the studio by foregrounding conventional academic research methods, which it treats not as alternatives to designerly inquiry but as its necessary complement. Students build and articulate a conceptual framework that serves as the foundation of their graduation research, identify the relevant scholarly communities that sustain it, and produce an academic report in which they situate their research questions and justify their methodological choices. The second component grounds this framework in the key theoretical debates of contemporary urbanism, equipping students to critically assess planning and design challenges and to formulate problems, objectives, and research questions that are theoretically coherent.

The course ultimately engages students with questions they carry into academic and professional life: evaluating the validity of knowledge claims, underpinning spatial arguments with evidence, combining text and image in effective communication, and formulating original knowledge that is both rigorous and communicable.

The following publication, developed within the Department of Urbanism at TU Delft, supports the report-writing component of this course: Rocco, R., & Gonçalves, J. E. (2025). Guide to Effective Report Writing in Urbanism. TU Delft.