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

88 Spatial Planning & Strategy
Summer School Planning &
Design with Water
ROBERTO ROCCO
Fig. 53: Summer School Planning and Design with Water, class of 2018. Photo by R. Rocco.
SPS and the Department of
Urbanism organise a Summer
School for international students
every July. In 2019, the Summer
School had its 6th edition, with
97 students from all over the globe.
The School combines spatial planning,
urban design, and environmental
technology to tackle issues
of sustainability, climate adaptation,
and water management in urban
environments. It invites students
to understand the theories and
practices that bring together water
management, urban sustainability,
and spatial justice, and to apply the
knowledge acquired in the elaboration
of a vision and a spatial plan
and design for an area in the city of
The Hague in the Netherlands.
The Summer School focuses on the
UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and The New Urban Agenda,
launched in Quito in 2016 as frameworks
for sustainable urbanisation.
The aim of the Summer School is to
explore the Dutch tradition of planning
and design with water and the
integration of water management
and sustainability into urban development
within the framework of the
Sustainable Development Goals and
the New Urban Agenda.
The Summer School is led by the
Delft University of Technology, in
collaboration with national and
international partners, including the
city of The Hague, the Dutch Ministry
of Infrastructure and the Environment,
the Dutch Delta Programme,
ARCADIS, Deltares, and others private
and public partners.
This School includes site visits, talks
with professionals and academics,
and a short studio-based exercise,
where students and teachers
explore possibilities through the
elaboration of a spatial vision, the
design of a spatial strategy, and spatial
interventions in the city of the
Hague, located in one of the most
important urbanised delta regions
of the world.
A number of students from Africa,
Latin America, and Eastern Europe
receive full scholarships to attend
the School, which also operates on
a low-fee policy to allow students
from different parts of the globe to
attend, regardless of their capacity
to pay for such a School. Applicants
to the Summer School go through
a rigorous selection process before
they are accepted.
More information at: https://summerschooltudelft.org