Welcome to the Department of International Urbanism! We aim to contribute to critical urban research, policy discourse and the development of application-oriented methods and tools.
Rapid urbanization and other global transformation processes not only bring about new spatial formations and settlement typologies, but also pose unprecedented challenges – such as urban inequality, environmental degradation, and social conflict – in urban development. Addressing such challenges requires a detailed understanding of planning and urban design tasks. Therefore, our teaching and research focus on the governance of urban transformation, on an array of city actors and the informalization of planning processes to contribute to spatially relevant solutions. Our cornerstone is an integrated approach that combines planning and conceptual design with participation and co-production processes.
To achieve this, the Department of International Urbanism collaborates with other leading international urbanism departments, NGOs and international and national development agencies. Furthermore, we represent the University of Stuttgart as a partner in the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) of the United Nations, as well as hosting the international Master’s Program on Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD).
