- WHEN: Upcoming summer, 2027; Date to be determined
- SCHOOL: 4TU Built Environment
- INSTITUTION: Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e),
- DEPARTMENT Department of the Built Environment
- CITY: Eindhoven
- COUNTRY: The Netherlands
- LANGUAGE: English
- CREDITS: 3 ects
- FEE full program: €1500
- FEE first week only €500
- HOUSING (OPTIONAL) €400
Programme:
Contemporary cities face intertwined challenges: housing shortages, climate stress, demographic change, and spatial- and socio-economic divides. At the same time, these challenges create space for fundamental rethinking of how urban living is organised, governed, and experienced.
The Transforming Urban Living Places (TULIP) summer school is a three-week hybrid programme that brings together master students, PhD candidates, researchers, and working professionals to explore what inclusive, regenerative, and socially just urban futures can look like in practice. The programme is situated at the intersection of academic knowledge, professional practice, and civic responsibility.
Participants engage with emerging paradigms in urbanism and planning, including post-growth thinking, regenerative development, and participatory governance. Through lectures, guided self-study, field visits, and real-world, place-based challenges, they examine how abstract ideas can be translated into understandable, explainable, and actionable proposals for diverse urban stakeholders.
The first edition of TULIP focuses on the growing city of Eindhoven, specifically on the spatial and social boundaries between long-established neighbourhoods and newly developed districts. These urban edges often concentrate social, ecological, spatial, and technological divides between long-term residents and newcomers. At the same time, they offer critical opportunities for regeneration and connection. Participants investigate these tensions and develop locally grounded proposals that aim to bridge divides and strengthen Eindhoven’s urban fabric.
The programme places strong emphasis on civic competencies and democratic decision-making. By working closely with local communities and institutional partners, participants gain insight into lived urban experiences and the realities of policymaking and implementation. Supported by expert coaching and access to state-of-the-art facilities, they develop proposals that can inform future policy, inspire collective action, and contribute to bottom-up urban transformation. When completing the full programme, participants will be awarded a certificate of completion. Additionally, students attending the summer programme will be able to gain 3ECTS.
The course is a collaborative endeavour of the 4TU Built Environment alliance between the 4 Technical Universities of the Netherlands: TU Delft, Wageningen University and Research, Eindhoven University of Technology, and University of Twente. Oana Druta (TU/e) will take the lead for this first edition working closely with Johanna Hoffken (TU/e), Ana Pocas Ribeiro and Juliana Goncalves (TU Delft), Meghann Ormond (WUR), and Pirouz Nourian (Twente). This first edition of TULIP is organized with local collaboration partners: Urban Development Initiative (UDI), Gemeente Eindhoven, Bloemfontein, Van Abbe Museum.
Schedule:
- Week 1: Immersion, through digital lectures and coached group activities (digital methods clinics, team building, guided discussion using CuCO (Center for Unusual Collaborations) methods for interdisciplinary collaboration)
- Week 2: Reflection, individual assignment with 1-2 group catch up moments with the group
- Week 3: Design week, challenge-based bootcamp in Eindhoven ), including site-visits, coaching sessions, group work, final exhibition