*Celebrating Spatial Planning at TU Delft: 2008-2019. Edited by Stead, Bracken, Rooij & Rocco

72 Spatial Planning & Strategy
Globalization Free Choice
A knowledge transfer model to reveal
regional development opportunities
DIEGO SEPULVEDA
Fig. 39: Globalization studio final presentations in Delft. Photo provided by Diego Sepulveda.
The Globalization Free Choice
course is designed as a platform
for co-evaluation of the
diverse metropolitan responses
to the Global City model and its
associated metropolisation spatial
model. Running since 2000, this
course has been followed by more
than 360 students, many from
rapidly developing countries, cities,
and regions (e.g. Beijing, Jakarta,
New Delhi, Mexico City, Sao Paulo,
Santiago, Buenos Aires, Shenzhen,
and Hong Kong in 2019 alone). The
case studies are defined by complex
conditions, such as sectoral
planning, large socio-economic
asymmetries, and environmental
decay.
The course is based on an evolutionary
bi-directional knowledge
transfer, where the students form
groups to evaluate the metropolitan
challenges of the selected
region. This evaluation is later
presented to key regional actors
and researchers in the selected
location, so as to co-evaluate the
process. This opens up a plethora
of diverse local questions for
models of metropolisation, revealing
local particularities that are
further considered by the students
so as to propose a series of new in
situ development opportunities to
counteract the main negatives externalities
on social, economic, and
environmental systems. This leads
to a second round of co-evaluation
where the scale is elevated to the
municipal level. Proposals are then
presented and discussed with key
municipal actors, including territorial
managers and inhabitants. The
students then develop a planning
and design framework to counteract
negative local conditions and
re-define the metropolitan model.
The final presentation is then
translated into local languages for
its final review by selected interested
actors.
This methodology facilitates deskbased
analysis and highlights clear
ways of redefining this through the
active inclusion of local stakeholders,
facilitating an understanding of
local planning frameworks, its main
scopes, and its diverse perceptions,
which validates this analysis and
guides it towards more diverse,
operational, and locally specific
design and planning proposals.