I am an urban planner, an architect and a political scientist. I’m fascinated by the connections between the social and built environments.
Full CV available on request
Explorer. Educator. Researcher.
My professional and academic interests centre on the social and political dimensions of space: who belongs, who is excluded, and how design and planning can become tools of transformation rather than instruments of dispossession.
My research has evolved from an early focus on informal housing and participatory upgrading in the Majority World, through questions of postcolonial architecture and planning dynamics, to a sustained engagement with spatial justice, feminist and intersectional urbanism.
I am committed to the idea that academic work is most meaningful when it connects rigorous scholarship with social engagement. This conviction shapes everything from how I run a studio to how I write, collaborate, and advocate, both inside and outside the university.
Experience
Associate Professor, chair of Spatial Planning and Strategy, TU Delft
(2019 – present)
I teach in the R and D Studio: Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis and in the course on Social Inequality the City, Diversity and Design. I am involved in the Graduation Studio ‘Planning Complex Cities‘ and more specifically in the sub-studio ‘Planning as Critical Engaged Practice‘. I mentor graduation students that work on topics that are closely related to my interests, such as just transitions, inclusive planning, spatial justice, critical spatial practice and citizen’s engagement. Examples: Rescaling Climate Induced Migration, City-regions for Cultural Nomads, Geographies of Conflict, Loiter City: Spatial Strategies to redefine a woman’s place in a public realm and Reclaiming (Semi)Public Space.
I am a member of the Global Urban Lab.
Van Eesteren Fellow, TU Delft
(2019-2024)
The Van Eesteren Fellowship is an initiative of the EFL Foundation and the Urbanism Department at TU Delft. The fellowship focuses on design-based research at different scales and the contribution of design power to investigate metropolitan issues and translate them into new and future-proof concepts. The ambition of the five year fellowship is to put an engaged and inclusive approach to planning on the agenda, whereby spatial justice is a leverage and design research an enabler. A lecture series has been organised to start the discussion.
Visiting Professor in Critical Urban Theory and Urban Design , faculty of Architecture KU Leuven
(2014 – 2022)
As a Visiting Professor I taught Critical Theory and Design in the Master of Spatial Planning and in the International Master in Architecture. I was associated with the research groups Alt_Shift* (Altering Practices for Urban Inclusion) and P.PUL and involved in PhD mentoring.
Lecturer MSc Building and Urban Design in Development, The Development Planning Unit, The Bartlett, UCL London
(2012 – 2014)
As a lecturer in the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development I was teaching a course on participatory processes, a critical urbanism studio and the practice module. Furthermore I was a member of the Director’s Advisory Group and the Urban Transformations and the unit’s diversity officer.
For a full overview of my previous appointments, please download my CV.
Caroline Newton 