Cucuta is a border city between Colombia and Venezuela with complex dynamics due to its location and historical background, affected by drug trafficking, guerrilla warfare, and Venezuela's most recent multidimensional crisis. The city's structural plan (POT) is under review, trying to adapt to the local and global challenges: mass migration; social integration of communities in a post-conflict transition; an economic shift from a commercial dependency of the border into a self-productive region; the demand for housing and the occupation of high-risk areas, are some of the main aspects. These issues are more evident in the fringe areas of the city (edges), where informality is the main pattern of urban growth, with a later upgrade by the local government.
Then, how to achieve an inclusive urban development in the edges of a border city with rapid social and economic transformations?
This graduation project explores the process of urbanization in the edges of Cucuta and the implications of the border in the city's growth. The intention is to question the disparity between spatial planning and the spontaneous consolidation of the city's peripheries. In particular, this research focuses on one of these edges called 'El Rodeo', where more than 5,000 families have settled illegally during the last 20 years. Currently, there is a community development project for this area that involves multiple stakeholders, including the mayor's office. However, there is not a spatial strategy that envisions El Rodeo in the coming years.
Hopefully, the outcome of this work can be used as feedback for the planning office and inspire interventions in similar contexts.

Since the fall of socialism, the production of space in Serbia has been uncoordinated and chaotic, without a clear national policy. Post-socialist countries went through the period of transitioning to free-market and democracy, and this process resulted in hybrid institutional, social, and urban forms. As the global pressures intensify, countries need to employ development mechanisms that will ensure a more sustainable future and slow down the process of global warming. Transitioning to sustainability planning is becoming more urgent, as scientists warn that scenarios for the future in which the business-as-usual approach is carried out bring disastrous consequences to our environment. Many post-socialist countries, such as Serbia, are caught in a path-dependency ideology, trying to position themselves in a global economic network, thus ignoring the social and environmental issues. Current development in Belgrade is shaped by market-driven mega projects that are a result of public-private partnerships. There is also a lack of participation in the planning process, which is institutionally allowed. This leads to the development of the most attractive locations which are predominantly located at the riverfront. This kind of ad hoc development does not follow a comprehensive strategy and leads to fatal consequences such as – loss of biodiversity, social stratification, endangered heritage, loss of sense of place and ultimately: unsustainable development of the riverfront. This thesis provides an overview of the consequences that led to the present state that the country is in regarding urban planning and development. The goal is to examine the implications for transitioning to sustainable urban development, starting from the actual conditions of the Belgrade riverfront territory and the planning procedure in place. Urban planning is a political process that has certain values embedded in it. Instead of adapting the values to the existing procedure, the values should shape the process. The current government has a strong agenda which many citizens protest against and this is why the proposed framework for transition is meant to serve as a starting point for moving towards a comprehensive sustainable planning and development process that would provide real results in the actual state of the riverfront. The framework that is proposed is an altered urban planning process that approaches the riverfront territory holistically, through different scales. This has to be done through a participatory process in which the acceptance of limits, protection of existing qualities and regeneration play an important role. These guiding principles are applied to environmental, social and economic dimension to provide a comprehensive urban planning approach for the sustainable riverfront.

The thesis aims to explore the potentials and possibilities of open space landscapes with the goal of utilizing them in a new spatial landscape infrastructure device of integrative socio-spatial value. It will attempt to acknowledge the hidden qualities of open spaces, often overlooked due to responsibilities limited only to administrative borders and general lack of awareness. It will develop upon the hypothesis that units of the territory are abundant in natural, historical and cultural assets which, if systematically exploited through regional design framework, could empower a multi-purpose ‘regional park’ capable of slowing down, halting and even reversing social, natural and cultural deterioration processes imposed by rapid urbanization, climate change manifestations and human agency.
The study will be conducted within the south part of the Noord-Holland province, which stretches from the West border of Amsterdam to the coast of the North Sea and along the North Sea canal. It is a territory chosen for its programmatic complexity, natural resource capacities and the intricate relationship between the numerous natural ecosystems and urbanization. Furthermore, he study will attempt to advance in the utilization of the ‘regional park’ concept notions, translating them from theorical notions to applications, through spatial design principles. These spatial design actions will be tested within the targeted metropolitan context and will set base for wider possibilities of application within regions alike, where the open space condition is of urgent nature.

Gated communities exist in most urbanized contexts around the world and San José, Costa Rica is not the exception. Following the discourse of insecurity and the claim of building community with-in the confinement of the gates, new developments are constructed with a peripheral wall. As gated communities diversify to all available markets they have self-segregated from the city.
The result is a city composed by clusters of enclaves separated by functions thus, car dependent and in detriment of the public space. Under this condition this thesis research will focus on possible spatial strategies to modify public spaces with the aim to allow for and facilitate social interactions in areas that are dominated by gated communities. Using as a starting point the understanding that public spaces mediate between the private spaces, thus having an important role in the confronting process of socio-spatial fragmentation and that the promotion of public spaces can address the imbalance manifested by the privatization of public spaces (Madanipour, 1999).

Almost ten years ago Bernardo Secchi begun to portray the radical transformations faced by many western urban territories and regions. His vivid analysis was grounded in the idea that whenever the structure of the economy and society is changing, the urban question comes. Today Secchi's new urban question is certainly not "new" anymore but rather "on-going". Issues such as climate change, spatial mobility/freedom of movement, and the widening of social divide are common, even though the specificity of the various context and different forms of urbanisation result in different challenges. In the light of the "on-going" urban question, the spacial transformations due to climate change, urbanization, and the widening of the socio-spatial divide require a constant interrogation. Urbanists, geographers, sociologists, data analysts, historians. and other studious often find in the various forms of mapping a way to unfold the complexities of territories. The agency of mapping as a tool of inquiry becomes more prominent in interrogating the "on-going" urban question. However , the necessity of interrogating the changing territories mirrors in the necessity of questioning the tool of inquiry-mapping-itself. Whether the provided reading techniques are still relevant and how these mapping techiques could change, is the focal point of Q10. This Quaderno gathers various mapping explorations, conducted in the recent years by experienced and young researchers across Europe. The various studies share the struggle of questioning not only the territory under observation, but also mapping as a tool of inquiry. Each work attempts to explore further the agency of mapping from different perspectives. Quasi dieci anni fa, Bernardo Secchi ha descritto come alcune radicali trasformazioni stavano cambiando le città. Egli sosteneva che ogni qualvolta la struttura economica e sociale cambiava, emergeva una nuova questione urbana. Oggi la questione urbana sollevata da Secchi è in continua evoluzione; il cambiamento climatico, la mobilità intesa come libertà di movimento all’interno della società e dello spazio e il continuo aumento delle disparità sociali creano nuove sfide spaziali, che obbligano a porci continue domande sul futuro dell’urbanizzazione. Urbanisti, geografi, sociologi, storici e altri studiosi trovano nelle varie forme di mappatura un modo per svelare le complessità dei territori. La mappa diventa uno strumento sempre più importante per misurare la questione urbana. Tuttavia, la necessità di interrogare i territori che cambiano si riflette sul bisogno di mettere in discussione lo strumento stesso di indagine: la mappa. Il punto focale di questo Q10 riguarda la rilevanza delle tecniche di lettura fornite e come queste tecniche di mappatura potrebbero cambiare. Questo Quaderno raccoglie differenti punti di vista e varie esplorazioni cartografiche condotte negli ultimi anni da ricercatori provenienti da tutta Europa. I vari articoli condividono la messa in discussione non solo del territorio osservato, ma anche della mappatura come strumento di indagine immaginando nuove prospettive.@en