In this studio we design for and with a neighbourhood that deals with major transitions. Physical transitions, for example climate change, sustainable mobility, energytransition, and social transitions such as how we live together, how to integrate work in the urban tissue, demographic issues such as aging. Both types of transitions have huge impact on our everyday life on the scale of the neighbourhood. You will choose a transition that fascinates you and combine it with a relevant neighbourhood of your choice. This neighbourhood can be anywhere on earth, but you should be able to visit the neighbourhood at least three times during the graduation studio.  This leads to your assignment.  Transition + site = assignment. This will result in a design for a neighbourhood embed in the larger city fabric on a tangible scale 1: 500.

Graduating in this studio, you will start designing right away, as we consider design to be an excellent tool for discovery. Design starts with looking closely at what is already there. Reading the place by different means to understand its specific urgencies, potentials, and constraints. Reading a place involves tracing the present material layers and underlying processes of the urban fabric and uncovering latent potentials. What does this place offer and what does it need? How do different uses work together to form a complex urban fabric? How can this fabric adapt to current and unknown future use?

In the studio, design and analysis are interwoven, integrating imagination and evidence throughout the process. We put learning from and with the place central. Design can be done in a systematic way, researching different scenarios, or in a more intuitive way, discovering the options of the place by drawing and comparing. Designing is testing, failing and trying again. The imaginative, explorative component of your project will be across scales. Learning from reference cases, discovering (local) stories, applying metaphors, literature or music.

During the design process reflecting on your design is crucial. Does my design answer the needs of the place and the people? Is it answering the goals I have set? The main approach of the studio is design by research in an explorative and iterative way.

The Neighbourhood studio allows us to compare different transitions and different approaches. Each student chooses a personal neighbourhood and method. We acknowledge the plurality of people and processes and like to learn from each other in the studio. We explore together how can transitions shape the urban design in a sustainable and liveable way.