Dr Alexander Wandl is an Associate Professor of Urbanism at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. His work examines how circular, sustainable and just transitions become spatially possible. Trained as a landscape ecologist and urbanist, he connects spatial planning, regional design, territorial metabolism and environmental sciences to study the relationships between resource flows, land use, infrastructure, urban form, governance and everyday practices. He is a member of the Environmental Technology and Design section in the Department of Urbanism and part of the steering group of the Circular Built Environment Hub, TU Delft’s think tank on the circular built environment.

Research
His research focuses on the spatial organisation of circularity and sustainability transitions across urban, peri-urban and regional contexts. Rather than treating circularity only as a matter of materials, technologies or individual buildings, he investigates the spatial conditions that enable circular practices and infrastructures to emerge: land-use patterns, material and energy flows, logistics, ecological systems, urban morphology, governance arrangements and forms of collaboration between public, private and civic actors. This work contributes to debates on the circular built environment, territorial metabolism, regional design, spatial planning for circularity and the governance of socio-ecological transitions.

Teaching
In teaching, he works with students and professionals on spatial strategies for circular and sustainable futures. His courses and studios engage with circularity, urban metabolism, regional design and socio-ecological transitions, asking learners to connect systems analysis with spatial imagination and design proposals. He is particularly interested in design education as a way to help students work across scales, from materials and buildings to neighbourhoods, cities, landscapes and regions, and to translate complex transition challenges into spatially grounded strategies. He also contributes to TU Delft’s online and professional education, including the course Spatial Circularity Strategies for Sustainable Regional Development, developed through the Circular Built Environment Hub for professionals working on the spatial dimensions of circularity and regional development.

Projects and impact
His research has been developed through several European and national projects that connect spatial planning, design research and societal transition challenges. He was scientific coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project REPAiR, which developed spatial and governance approaches for circular resource management in peri-urban areas. In ASSET, he contributed to spatial strategies for a circular built environment at the scale of the Eurodelta. Through NEB-STAR, DUST and CED for the Future / Merwede, his current work addresses New European Bauhaus values, democratic and just sustainability transitions, and the spatial, organisational and behavioural dimensions of collective energy districts. Across these projects, he works with public authorities, researchers, designers, civil-society actors and industry partners to translate transition ambitions into spatial knowledge, strategies and decision-support methods.

Background
Alex completed his PhD in Urbanism at TU Delft, focusing on the sustainable spatial development of peri-urban areas. He also holds a European Postmaster in Urbanism, a joint programme of TU Delft, IUAV Venice, UPC Barcelona and KU Leuven, and a Master’s degree from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. This background informs his interdisciplinary approach, which connects urbanism with landscape ecology, environmental planning and regional design.