Description
The presentation provides an overview of the evolution of urban design education in the Netherlands, with a specific focus on Delft University of Technology.Against the backdrop of post-war political and societal ambitions to establish timely guidelines for long-term urban development, urban design became an official graduate track in Delft. This programme was shaped, on the one hand, by a belief in progress and modernist visions of the future, and on the other, by the necessity of social housing and a more traditional desire to build for the local community. However, this post-war urban design programme was not the first in the country. This presentation delves into earlier courses in Delft offered by professors who were engaged in urban design too and who, in turn, could draw on the rich heritage within Delft’s broader architecture curriculum, as well as the often-overlooked historic roots of earlier urban design programmes elsewhere in the Netherlands.
The presentation also outlines how the urban design graduate track in Delft has developed over time. The programme in the later twentieth century was marked by shifts, overlaps, and fragmentation, with a key turning point in the 1980s when the discipline rediscovered its identity as integrative field of study, with attention for urban analyses, design and research methods, and critical theory. From a locally oriented design programme, it evolved into an international and interdisciplinary curriculum, leading globally with both doctoral programmes as well as open online courses for the broader public. This reflects the changing demands of societies and the increasing demand to understand the complexity of urban challenges. The presented narrative highlights also how urban design is not merely a technical discipline, but joints together societal and cultural discipline as well.
| Period | 25 Jan 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Urbis Symposium |
| Event type | Seminar |
| Location | Rotterdam, NetherlandsShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | National |