SKU (Urban Planning - Metropolitan Culture - Urban Design)

The SKU Department is united by its shared focus on cities, urbanity and society. Its research explores the interplay between spatial development, evolving urban lifestyles, and wider societal issues.

Cities have become pivotal places where the future is conceived, forecasted, shaped and negotiated. The management of spatial development and city planning are now closely intertwined with a multitude of pressing future challenges: climate change, resource exploitation and social and geopolitical conflicts pose a wide range of threats and risks to urban societies.

At the same time, cities have great potential as testing grounds and laboratories for innovation, as they can help to maintain political agency in the context of uncertainty and multiple crises, foster social equity, and develop forward-looking solutions.