The Healthy Inclusive City: Addressing Socio-Spatial Inequalities

The world's urban population has increased drastically during the last century. At the turn of the 20th century, approximately 10% of people lived in cities. By 1950, the world's urban population had grown to 29%. Today, more than half of the world's population resides in cities. By 2050, it is expected that at least two-thirds of the world's population, or nearly 7 out of 10 people, will live in cities.

The objective of this minor is to address socio-spatial inequalities within urban settings, promoting a holistic approach to creating healthy, inclusive cities. Urban design and city planning policies actively shape how people live and move around in cities. Policies determine the form and function of our neighborhoods and thus the behaviours, exposures, and lifestyles of urban dwellers. Current planning policies often create unhealthy cities. Traffic exposure, noise and air pollution, social isolation, low physical activity, and sedentary behaviors are fueling global epidemics of injuries, chronic diseases, and mental illnesses. Moreover, these health impacts are not distributed equally across the urban population. The design of our environment and the way we manage our cities also tends to exacerbate urban inequities and disadvantage or exclude vulnerable populations—women, children, older adults, migrants, disabled, low-income populations, and other groups, in ways that affect their health and well-being.

This minor will offer students the skills and competencies to engage in cross-disciplinary collaborations to promote human health in urban contexts. Topics include urban design and city planning principles (e.g., population density, land use), impacts on human health (e.g., physical, psychological, social, environmental health), designing healthy and sustainable cities, and impacts of urban design on mental health and well-being. This minor is based on an interdisciplinary problem-solving approach for the analysis of complex environmental problems, drawing from the interaction of approaches from architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and planning, geography, sociology, social and behavioral sciences, and public health. The curriculum emphasizes the identification and analysis of socio-spatial inequalities as well as the development of design strategies and interventions to mitigate them.

This minor enables students to:

• acquire a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts that contribute to the development of a healthy and inclusive city
• develop an interdisciplinary perspective on socio-spatial inequality and the factors that contribute to inequities in access to resources, opportunities, amenities, and exposure to burdens/stressors
• apply methods and techniques that are essential to analyse socio-spatial inequalities at various spatial scales
• create strategic plans and interventions to address socio-spatial inequalities

Registration for this thematic minor is on a first-come, first-served basis and available places. (No lottery draw).

This minor is intended for students who are highly motivated to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on designing healthy and inclusive cities. You must have a passion for social scientific research and combine a strong academic curiosity with a determination to apply interdisciplinary knowledge in real-life situations of complex urban planning and design cases in the Netherlands.

Student at Leiden University, TU Delft or Erasmus University Rotterdam?
Check the eligibility matrix to see if your bachelor’s degree programme offers access to this and other minors at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor.
BSc students from TU Delft: BSc programme of Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences, Civil Engineering, Technology, Policy, and Management, and Industrial Design.
BSc students from Leiden University and Erasmus University: students from Public Administration and Sociology at the Erasmus University and students following the interdisciplinary bachelor programme Urban Studies at Leiden University (Faculty of Humanities). For all BSc programmes from Leiden University and Erasmus University with which you can apply for this minor please check the eligibility matrix.

Student at another educational institution?
External students cannot register via EduXchange. Interested in this minor, read the whole registration procedure at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor.
BSc students from other Dutch universities: students with backgrounds in human geography or urban planning (Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Utrecht) and urban sociology (Amsterdam, Utrecht).
BSc students from HBO: this minor is not open to HBO students.

For information about the courses, visit the TU Delft study guide.
For additional information on this minor, visit the TU Delft minor page.

Teaching Methods
This course will utilize a combination ofinteractive lectures and workshops, studio feedback sessions, desk research, fieldwork (observations, interviews with citizens and professionals), policy evaluation, and design strategies.

Assessment
This minor will consist of a combination of summative and formative assessments.
Formative assessment: Students receive feedback for the required deliverables which will be embedded throughout the course (e.g., tutor meetings with the literature review paper, peer feedback, and weekly in-class feedback for the action research and design strategies course).
Summative assessment: Students will be evaluated on a literature review paper (individual), action research report (group), and design report (group). For some group projects, students will be required to independently demonstrate their perspective, understanding, observations, and analysis of (and contributions to) the group process. The nature of this minor requires regular, continuous attendance to optimize the in-group collaboration process. Assessment will take into account student participation, which involves actively engaging in discussions, group activities, and class interactions, along with regular attendance and the demonstration of professional behaviour.

Check the detailed overview of courses, learning activities and study load at https://www.studyguide.tudelft.nl/