R and D Studio: Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis

The R&D studio Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis is the core activity of the Q3 quarter and focuses on regional design. In an analytical perspective, regional design is an exploration of agglomerations of dependent places, often stretching across multiple administrative boundaries. Exploration seeks an understanding of autonomous spatial development, and the impact of public works and policies that diffuse across intricate spatial networks in ways that are often difficult to foresee.

In a normative perspective, regional design imagines desirable spatial futures and promotes these in a given regional planning and governance context. Regional design proposals likely cause conflict among a broad audience of critical observers who are ready to express their stakes and defend their interests forcefully. Regional design is therefore often a collaborative effort that includes deliberation and negotiation among public, private, and civil actors.

The motivation of the third MSc Urbanism quarter is to teach students how to design in such an ‘arena of struggle’, constituted by multiple perceptions of the built environment as well as rules and procedures to resolve conflicting interests.

The Research and Design (R&D) studio emphasizes:

1. A comprehensive, evidence-informed understanding of regional spatial structures and development trends

2. An understanding of interrelations among design, planning, and politics

3. Communication skills that are required in collaborative decision-making

Students conduct a regional design in groups of 4-5 students. Two main products demonstrate achievements: notably, a spatial vision and a related development strategy. The vision represents a desirable spatial future and serves as a guiding normative principle for the development strategy. The strategy sets out a practical path towards spatial change, by identifying spatial interventions that are ordered over time and associated with interests, resources, and capacities of actors in development. The thematic exercises of Spatial Development Strategies (SDS) and the Capita Selects lectures are an integral part of and steer studio work. Parallel to the R&D studio runs the course Research & Design Methodology for Urbanism. The course Research & Design Methodology for Urbanism focuses on a theoretical understanding of design, planning, and research. Students write a research plan on the grounds of this understanding. Important criteria in the assessment of both, design and research proposals are their critical consideration of spatial and institutional circumstances and the strength of their argument for change.