Education
Urban Planning Studio students Eleanne van Vliet and Laticia Crispin consult a map of Nairobi with Professor Peter Ngau and his colleague from the University of Nairobi during a stop on a tour of the city.
Photo credit: N. Volavka
CSUD is committed to a number of educational initiatives. The Columbia University urban planning studio is one of the central aspects of the center’s educational activities. The first studio for this project will be launched in the beginning of our second year — 2006. The pilot studio will focus on planning in the the dormitory city of Ruiru, Kenya within the framework of the greater metropolitan Nairobi area. The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation/CSUD Studio will be a collaborative one, and will work in conjunction with Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs' Workshop in Applied Development and the University of Nairobi's Planning Studio.
A planning studio involves a small group of students, working under the supervision of one or two faculty members. The students prepare a plan or planning document for a client under conditions that approximate, as closely as possible, professional work. The studios will be international, focusing on sustainable urban development in rapidly growing cities in developing countries. The studio projects will serve as springboards to larger continued planning efforts, acting as starting points for longer term research and consultative relationships between CSUD and the selected cities. In addition, the semester-long studio projects will be transformed into long distance learning modules, which will serve to extend CSUD’s educational mission to worldwide audiences.
The findings of the Center’s research initiatives will be widely disseminated. It is committed to educating local government policy makers and international academics about research findings and the nexus between transportation systems, population health, climate change, land use and economic development considerations. CSUD will bring stakeholders and experts together and organize capacity building through summits, educational workshops and training. An international conference will be held at the end of the project to present research findings to promote the center’s work among a wider network of academic and other professionals concerned with these issues.
Read more about the Nairobi Studio.