Port cities have long stood at the crossroads of global trade, cultural exchange, and urban transformation. Their layered histories and unique spatial dynamics offer valuable insights for shaping sustainable and inclusive urban futures. Understanding where infrastructure, water, heritage, and community intersect is vital for designing cities that thrive amid change.

In this workshop, you will explore the spatial, social, and cultural dimensions of port city development. Through site visits to Rotterdam and The Hague, hands-on exercises, and multi disciplinary discussions, you will investigate real challenges and opportunities faced by contemporary port cities.

Explore the design and management of water systems through analyzing the successes and failures of water systems of the past. Bring your own case to the course and apply what you have learned to your own context to ensure the long-term resilience of water systems in the light of the challenges of climate change.

Port city regions are at the forefront of many urgent contemporary issues such as migration, climate change, digitization, etc. Addressing these challenges and developing sustainable solutions, requires more than technical interventions, it requires rethinking and redesigning the basic spatial and socio-cultural paradigms that prevail at present.

In this course we analyze examples of port cities from a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural perspective. You will develop the skills to identify and address the challenges port cities face now and into the future.

Water has served and sustained societies throughout history. Understanding the complex and diverse water systems of the past is key to devising sustainable development for the future with regard to socioeconomic structures, policies, and cultures. Today, past systems form the framework for preservation and reuse as well as for new proposals.

In this course, you will learn how to identify the spatial, social and cultural aspects of water heritage in your environment. You will investigate real situations, assess specific issues and evaluate the impact of potential measures, following existing expertise on water heritage and water management traditions as a model for your own practice.