We aim to contribute to sustainable, democratic and just urban development through research and teaching. We enhance the understanding of and develop possible solutions for policy and planning challenges that emerge in urbanized regions globally. We are an interdisciplinary group working at the intersection of public policy, planning and urban studies.
Theresia Morandell, Michael Wicki, and David Kaufmann recently published a new article in Territory, Politics, Governance. Their article examines the institutional conditions of local decision-making contexts that enable or constrain urban-rural policy coordination in municipal planning. The study finds that both vertical and horizontal multi-level governance structures have a significant influence on coordination.
In the study “Urban densification and displacement in Switzerland”, Fiona Kauer, Elena Lutz, Dominic Büttiker, and David Kaufmann, commissioned by the Federal Office for Housing (BWO), examine how residential construction activity in the five largest Swiss agglomerations - Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, and Zurich - contributes to densification and what social effects are associated with it.
Why are more new housing units being constructed in Geneva each year, while Zurich is seeing a decline? Why are older residential buildings in Basel, Geneva and Lausanne being vertically extended, while they are being demolished and replaced in Zurich? ETH researchers provide new answers to the role of housing construction and its social impact.
Dr. Dasha Kuletskaya will join SPUR as a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow from May 2025 to April 2027 to work on an interdisciplinary research project “The Power of Fiction: Unravelling the Social Construction of the Economic Value of Real Estate,” funded by the IDEA League and DAAD Prime Fellowships.
