Taught Courses
The Healthy and Inclusive City (THIC): Addressing socio-spatial inequalities
Institution: TU Delft, Netherlands
Role: Minor Coordinator and Course Instructor
Credits: 15 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System)
The Healthy and Inclusive Cities (THIC) minor examines how urban design and planning policies shape how people live, move, and interact in cities. Many existing policies contribute to unhealthy urban environments— characterised by traffic exposure, air and noise pollution, social isolation, low physical activity, and sedentary behaviours—which fuel global epidemics of injuries, chronic diseases, and mental illness. These impacts are are unevenly distributed, often exacerbating health inequalities and marginalising vulnerable groups such as women, children, older adults, migrants, people with disabilities, and low-income communities.
This interdisciplinary course equips students with the knowledge and skills to analyse and address socio-spatial inequalities through collaboration across architecture, urban design, geography, sociology, and public health. Students learn to evaluate how environments shape physical, mental, social, and environmental health, apply analytical methods to identify inequalities, and develop strategic design and planning interventions for more equitable, healthy, and sustainable cities. The minor focuses on a different urban challenge each year, and students work on a site in a Dutch town or city, liaising with the municipality, local residents, and community stakeholders.
The minor consists of three interconnected courses:
Action Research
Delft University of Technology
Students adopt an action research approach to collaboratively investigate real-world urban issues with practitioners and community members. Using diverse research methods such as field observations, street interviews, and stakeholder engagement, they explore neighbourhood dynamics around a chosen theme.
Design Strategies
Delft University of Technology
Building on insights from the action research course, students combine fieldwork, data analysis, and design thinking to develop spatial interventions. This course emphasises teamwork, iterative design processes, and the translation of research into actionable design strategies for healthier, more inclusive cities.
Lecture Series and Review Paper
Delft University of Technology
This course features interactive lectures by leading scholars, where students examine how global urban trends manifest in local health and inclusion challenges. It culminates in an individual literature review paper, in which students investigate a selected theme, synthesise theoretical perspectives, and analyse its spatial implications.
Article Mentions
A THIC minor course coordinated by Dr. Deepti Adlakha and taught by Dr. Thomas Verbeek
Environment and Behaviour
Institution: North Carolina State University, USA
Role: Course Coordinator and Instructor
Course code: LAR 582 – 008
Credits: 3
This course brought international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the relationships between environments and human behaviour. In the context of rapid population growth and increasing environmental sustainability challenges, the course emphasised the importance of understanding these relationships for human well-being. Students examined how environmental experiences such as restorativeness, place attachment, and perception influenced physical, psychological, and social outcomes.
Topics included pro-environmental behaviour, environmental cognition, wayfinding, crowding and stress, effects of ambient conditions, and the design of spaces that support health, well-being, and sustainability. Case studies spanned neighbourhoods, schools, workplaces, parks, and hospitals, with attention to diverse and vulnerable populations, including children, older adults, and individuals with disabilities. Students learned to integrate insights from architecture, urban design, public health, and behavioural sciences to promote healthier, more equitable, and sustainable environments.
View example student works:
Landscape Architecture Introduction Design Studio: Design Thinking + Place Making + Representation
Institution: North Carolina State University, USA
Role: Studio Coordinator and Instructor
Course code: LAR 501
Credits: 6
This foundational design studio introduced landscape architectural design thinking and its practical applications, including site analysis, post-occupancy user studies, programming, site planning, and elementary site grading. Through an iterative, hands-on studio pedagogy, students learned to analyse sites, examine how people used landscapes, and develop design narratives that responded to diverse cultural, social, and environmental contexts.
The studio emphasised design process, experimentation, critical reflection, and communication, with projects addressing sustainable and resilient landscape design across multiple scales. Students developed skills in graphic representation, including drawing and physical and digital modelling, alongside verbal communication, critique, and reflective practice. The studio cultivated their ability to think creatively and critically about how landscapes shape human experience.
The studio was structured around three major projects: (1) Landscapes Have Meaning, which introduced site-based design inquiry through close observation, research, and interpretation of cultural and spatial conditions; (2) Post-Occupancy Evaluation, an evidence-based research project in which students analysed existing public landscapes to understand patterns of use, environmental performance, and user experience across time and conditions; and (3) Design Narratives, which focused on sequencing, movement, and spatial storytelling, guiding students to translate ideas into coherent landscape experiences through two- and three-dimensional design exploration
Advanced Topic Design Studio: Urban Design and Redevelopment
Institution: North Carolina State University, USA
Role: Coordinator and Instructor
Course code: LAR 507, Section 002
Credits: 6
This advanced urban design studio focused on the redevelopment of Shaw University and its role in shaping the future of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Situated within a rapidly growing city and a historic planned urban fabric, the studio engaged with Shaw University’s rich legacy as one of the nation’s oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Students examined urban form, history, and socio-spatial inequities rooted in the legacy of slavery and systemic racism, while exploring opportunities for inclusive and equitable urban transformation. Through research, analysis, and design development, the studio built skills in urban design theory, three-dimensional spatial thinking, and graphic communication to propose resilient, context-sensitive, and socially just urban environments.
Advanced Topic Design Studio: Intergenerational Interactions – Design for Children, Youth, and Families
Institution: North Carolina State University, USA
Role: Coordinator and Instructor
Course code: LAR 507, Section 002
Credits: 6
This advanced, interdisciplinary design studio explored child-centred and intergenerational design as strategies for creating urban environments that are engaging for children, supportive for older adults, and better for everyone. The course examined how car-centric planning and exclusionary public spaces restrict children’s independent mobility, access to nature, and opportunities for play, while also limiting older adults’ social interaction, outdoor activity, and community engagement.
Students worked on a preselected site in Washington Terrace, a predominantly African-American community in Raleigh, North Carolina, analysing the impacts of long-term redevelopment, including affordable housing, community gardens, playgrounds, and senior apartments. Drawing on international precedents, they employed methods such as site and historical analysis, community plan assessments, modelling and simulation, and quantitative and qualitative research to design nature-rich, socially just neighbourhood-scale interventions. Studio topics included play sufficiency, affordance theory, loose parts, outdoor learning, complete streets, tactical urbanism, biophilic design, environmental sustainability, and healthy cities, with proposals grounded in children’s rights and environmental justice.
