Pieter J.V. van Wesemael

“Through research and education, I aim to contribute to the sustainable transition of existing cities, anticipating key societal urban agendas, local spatial identity and systemic innovation processes.”

Pieter van Wesemael is professor of Urbanism and Urban Architecture (UUA) at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He is responsible for the Living Cities research program of the unit AUDE, which focuses on correlations between architecture and urbanism as well as on urban and regional planning. This program focus complies with the strategic research areas of the faculty and university, bringing architectural, urban and cultural heritage expertises to sustainable transformation of existing cities, building in an evolutionary way on existing social, economical, cultural and spatial capital, taking into account the issues of governance. He recently established the Urban Lab at TU/e as a platform for applied research in which actors of the triple helix collaborate on policy research and case studies related to the sustainable development of the city and the urbanized region. The current research agenda of the UUA chair within both the Living Cities fundamental research program as well the applied research program of the Urban Lab focuses on three clusters of themes: 1) healthy cities, smart mobility and public space design; 2) smart cities, participation and placemaking; 3) cultural heritage, spatial biographies and contextual design.

Pieter received his Masters with honors (cum laude) at the Delft University of Technology, where he also did his PhD (“Architecture of Instruction and Delight”) with honors. For two decades, he was partner in the Architekten Cie and INBO, both in Amsterdam, leading the consultancy and design department in urban design, area development and spatial policy. He has published widely on topics related to sustainable evolutionary urban development, based on a contextual and systemic understanding of its inherent path dependencies.

He is responsible for bachelor and master courses, seminars and studios on urbanism and urban architecture. In the bachelor, Pieter teaches the courses on Architecture and the City, the USE line on sustainable urban development, Urban Case Studies and Landscape and Public Space. In the master he teaches in the courses Public Domain, Urban Planet and Urban Trends. He is also  involved in graduation studios for the urbanism track as well as selected master seminars and a member of several boards on spatial planning, healthy cities, smart cities and cultural heritage.

• Smart Mobility
• Quantified Self
• Vitality Academy
• Smart City Center

Partners in (semi-)industry

• Werkplaats Ruimte
• Platform Gezond Ontwerp
• Spark
• Denk 040