Research and Design Methodology for Urbanism

The course Methodology for Urbanism runs parallel to the Q3 studio and is one of the central elements of this quarter. It is designed to prepare you for academic research that will provide a solid theoretical foundation for your work in the studio. The course has two main components:

1. Research Skills and Report Writing:

   This component introduces you to fundamental research skills, helps you build a conceptual framework, and teaches you how to organise and write an academic report—a critical skill set for your graduation project.

2. Theoretical Debates in Urbanism:

   This component examines key theoretical issues underlying current debates in urbanism, including socio-spatial justice and socio-technical transitions to sustainability.

This course differs from the studio in that it focuses on traditional academic research methods, which complement the less traditional, designerly research approaches used in the studio. This connection between conventional and non-traditional research methods is a hallmark of education and research in the Department of Urbanism at TU Delft.

Regarding the first component (organisation of the report and conceptual framework), the methodology course will help you:

• Explain what a conceptual framework is.

• Build a conceptual framework to sustain your research and design in Q3.

• Identify a community of authors and practitioners who discuss the core ideas underlying your theoretical framework.

• Design, organise, and write an academic report in which you describe the main questions you will address in Q3 and the best methods to answer them.

• Explain the values and ethical issues involved in planning and designing for people, as well as articulate the public goods created through your design and strategy.

For the second component (socio-spatial justice and sustainability), the course will help you:

• Explain the main issues of socio-spatial justice and sustainability in relation to socio-technical transitions in urban and regional design and development.

• Build on these concepts to formulate your research questions, conceptual framework, and objectives.

• Critically assess urban and regional planning and design issues using ideas linked to these concepts.

• In other words, formulating a regional design that integrates these concepts is a key task in the studio, and the methodology course will help clarify and operationalise them. Developing your own problem statement, research questions, and methodology is among the primary goals of the Urbanism Master track, as the conceptual framework serves as the foundation for your entire research and design process.

Ultimately, this course introduces several issues you will encounter in both your academic and professional life, such as:

• Evaluating the validity and relevance of knowledge claims;

• Underpinning claims in spatial planning and design;

• Combining text and images in effective communication;

• Formulating and communicating original knowledge.

Assessment Format and Procedures:

The course evaluation consists of three components:

• Final Written Report (Group Work): Accounts for 70% of the overall grade. The report is identical to the AR2U086 design examination submission.

• In-Class Exercises: Eight individual exercises, uploaded to Brightspace, representing 15% of the overall grade.

• Home Exercises: Seven individual assignments based on seven booklets provided to students, also uploaded to Brightspace, representing the remaining 15% of the overall grade.

Grading will be based on a detailed rubric available in the quarter guide and on the course-specific Brightspace page. A minimum grade of 6.0 is required to pass the course.

The assignment is awarded a grade that is a whole or half number between 1.0 and 10.0. Students pass the course with a 6.0 or higher. With a grade below 6.0: students who handed in assessable work during the course can choose to hand in an improved assignment (repair)  (on the condition that an initial assignment was handed in during the course) to change the grade into a ‘pass’. The repair is unsupervised and must be handed in by the end of Friday of week 5.1. An assignment can be repaired only once. When the repair is unsuccessful, the student needs to follow the entire course again.

If a student’s final grade remains below 6.0 after the repair process, re-enrolment in the course will be required.