Spatial design is commonly positioned as a neutral technical discipline concerned with improving cities and spatial conditions through rational analysis and objective methods. This research challenges that assumption by examining the colonial foundations embedded within the discipline itself. The tools of spatial design emerged within colonial systems of governance and continue to participate in the territorial logics of dispossession, extraction and control. Colonialism is therefore not approached as a historical event but as an ongoing structure that continues to organise space in the present.
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This research investigates the complicity of spatial design in the reproduction of these structures. Through the cases of Palestine, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it examines how colonial relations continue to shape contemporary spatial realities. These territories are not treated as isolated contexts. They are read as interconnected manifestations of a broader global system in which spatial design plays an active and largely unexamined role.

The research is structured around the Situated Negotiation Methodology, a framework developed to address the limitations of conventional urbanist methods when engaging with contexts shaped by colonialism, occupation and ongoing violence. By positioning positionality as a methodological necessity, the framework enables engagement with fragmented, contested and uneven forms of knowledge while accounting for the researcher’s own embeddedness within the systems under investigation.

The research concludes through radical imagination. By constructing speculative spatial futures for Palestine, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the absence of colonial intervention, it explores how these territories might have developed beyond the constraints imposed by colonial rule. Decolonisation is approached as both a disciplinary and personal process. Ultimately, this research calls for greater accountability within spatial design and argues for forms of knowledge production that recognise, confront and resist the colonial structures through which the discipline continues to operate. ... Read more

In Colombia, the expansion of self-built neighbourhoods is driven by displacement, rapid urbanization, and entrenched structural inequality. In cities like Cali, self-built neighborhoods have become a critical response to the failure of formal housing systems, offering shelter to displaced communities, migrants, and the urban poor. Despite their longevity and contribution to the city’s social fabric, these neighborhoods remain largely excluded from urban policies, which favors a limited set of communities based on legal and technical criteria. This exclusion reflects a broader capitalist planning paradigm that prioritizes economic interests over social and territorial justice.

Yet in the absence of institutional support, residents of self-built neighborhoods continue to construct and care for their territories through collective organization, resilience, and shared values. Practices rooted in solidarity, care, and autonomy give rise to alternative forms of urban life that challenge dominant planning models. This research analyzes the trajectories of self-built neighborhoods in Cali to identify both the structural barriers that must be transformed and the territorial values that can guide more just, community-driven forms of urban planning. It argues for a redefinition of planning and design practices grounded in the social production of habitat and the right to the city, from below and with dignity. ... Read more

This research offers a critical reassessment of Chilean urbanism through the integration of territorial memory and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of Indigenous peoples. From an interdisciplinary perspective that bridges urbanism, anthropology, history, and ecology, it explores how Indigenous communities have inhabited and understood the land for millennia, in contrast to the colonial, extractive, and technocratic logics that have dominated in recent centuries. The thesis argues that incorporating these perspectives is not a symbolic gesture, but a fundamental strategy for confronting climate change, building territorial resilience, and responding to natural disasters from a situated, contextual, and relational viewpoint.
Through the concept of radical spatial imagination, it proposes a methodological framework to envision and project more just and sustainable urban futures, rooted in reciprocity with nature. This proposal challenges the dominant narratives of modern urbanism and disaster management, promoting a paradigm shift: from viewing territory as a resource to understanding it as a living being.
Accordingly, planning, design, and public policy must evolve toward practices that recognize the land as an extension of collective identity, fostering a mode of inhabiting that is conscious, restorative, and deeply connected to ancestral territorial knowledge. ... Read more

Zeeland’s landscape is currently dominated by fossil fuel-based industries. Four big companies emit huge amounts of greenhouse gasses. As the energy transition progresses and stricter limitations to these polluters are set, they will have to drastically change their processes or phase out. Though necessary, this threatens the livelihood of these practically educated employees. To come to solutions that fit within a just transition, this research explores how spatial transformations can empower these workers.
The study uses spatial analysis, policy and plan review and stakeholder research to come to a vision of diversification of the labor market spaces and voices. This vision is worked out according to three spatial design principles: smart land use, multifunctionality, and evolving place identity. Smart land use prioritizes the redevelopment of brownfields and salinized farmland over using more unused land to develop. Multifunctionality means the use of large open spaces for more than one type of industry. An evolving place identity means that the future is built upon a past that is seen as a vital stepping stone instead of something to be ashamed of.
The results include the conclusion that for a just transition to take place, there is a need for worker-centered policies, retraining initiatives, and spatial strategies that allow individuals to choose their own pathway through the energy transition. This report presents a multisectoral and integrated strategy, working out the sectors of tourism, food production, and clean and green energy production. An expanded mobility network ties these changes together, allowing for better accessibility within and into Zeeland.
By positioning workers at the core of the transition, Zeeland can serve as an example for industrial regions navigating similar structural changes. A more diverse future will make Zeeland more resilient to both the current energy transition as well as other uncertainties and changes.
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The Port of Rotterdam is currently undergoing a crucial energy transition, promoting the production of sustainable energy in the port to provide the Netherlands with clean energy. In current approaches, though, non-human species are severely underrepresented in the spatial design of the port. This makes the port inherently unsustainable because this approach destroys current ecosystems that are beneficial for the well-being of the space and the well-being of humans living and working in these spaces. (Jørgensen, 2009; Latour, 2012). This research builds on the Post-Anthropocene philosophy and expands on this concept by integrating spatial justice and an ecosystem approach into it. In this approach, we aim to create a design that considers humans and seagulls as inhabitants of one ecosystem. Based on spatial data about seagulls and humans, we create an analysis of the spatial needs of the two species. In the analysis, we also investigate differences in energy production sources and discuss which sources are spatially and ethically just. These analyses combined form the base of a just vision of the Port of Rotterdam during the energy transition. After this, we visualize the feasibility of the new vision for the port by creating a potential strategy to achieve the created vision. This strategy visualizes the timeline in which future policies and spatial interventions are represented. We zoomed in on three key projects, which we based on key principles our strategy aims to represent spatially. The report concludes with a discussion on how the research has impacted current energy transition approaches and reflects on the conceptual foundation this research builds upon. The reflection will additionally cover ethical constraints, this research’s impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, n.d.), its relevance to science and society, the incorporation of public goods, and recommendations for further research. ... Read more

The Syrian conflict, beginning in 2011, has escalated into a complex crisis marked by the aggressive response of the Assad regime and geopolitical power struggles. Humanitarian consequences, including mass displacement, neoliberal reconstruction policies, and environmental degradation, pose substantial risks. The 2023 earthquake has made the humanitarian situation severely worse. Oversimplification, selective compassion, and a business-oriented research approach hinder comprehensive academic engagement. This multifaceted problem manifests as the appropriation, oversight, and commodification of the Syrian narrative, evoking a sense of a stolen story among Syrians. The thesis will reclaim the Syrian narrative by researching the procedural urban practices that have contributed to the conflict and have led to the worsening of the violations. It will investigate how spatial planning can be a narrative tool to provoke change, provide alternative realities, and bring war-torn societies back together. That is, by first analyzing and mapping the unjust spatial consequences of the authoritarian practices before and after the uprising and, second, embracing the current grassroots movements. As a result, the thesis will provide a framework for change that deals with the political complexity of the context and provides a conciliation tool toward social-political reconciliation. Those different outcomes contribute to bringing justice, freedom, and co-existence back to Syrians. ... Read more