Urban design, inequality and segregation are strongly connected.

Cities around the world, from the Global South to the Global North, are facing a rise in inequality and socio-economic segregation. The wealthy are increasingly concentrating in the most attractive urban areas and poverty is spreading to the suburbs. Rising levels of segregation have major consequences for the social sustainability of cities and leads to unequal life opportunities depending on where in the city you live.

In this course, aimed at a broad range of professionals, from urban planners and architects to geographers, you will learn what the main drivers and indicators of urban inequality and segregation are, using examples from cities from all over the world. You will learn how segregation is measured, how to interpret the results of the analyses of segregation and how to relate these insights to urban design. With this knowledge, you will be able to analyze how these issues may be affecting your local environment.

Additionally, we will present some historical examples of how urban design has played a role shaping spatial inequality and segregation in a selection of case study cities. This will help you to get a better understanding of how urban design can reduce spatial inequality and segregation.

The course is taught by the editors of the new SpringerOpen book “Urban socio-economic segregation and income inequality. A global perspective” and senior experts from the Urban Design section of TU Delft, which is ranked number 2 in the QS World University Rankings in the field of Architecture.

Are you an urban planner, designer, policy maker or involved or interested in the creation of good living environments?

This course will broaden your scope and diversify your take on the field of urban planning and design. We will focus on a unique Dutch approach and analyze how it can help those involved with urban planning and design to improve the physical environment in relation to the public good it serves, including safety, wellbeing, sustainability and even beauty.

You will learn some of the basic traits of Dutch Urbanism, including its:

contextual approach;
balance between research and design;
simultaneous working on multiple scale levels.
You will practice with basic techniques in spatial analysis and design pertaining to these points. You will also carry out these activities in your own domestic environment.

This course is taught by the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at TU-Delft, ranked no. 4 in Architecture/Built Environment on the QS World University Rankings (2016).

All the material in this course is presented at entry level. But since the course has an integral perspective, combining planning and design aspects, it can still be relevant for trained professionals who feel they lack experience in either field.