INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR URBANISM at KU LEUVEN

The International Center of Urbanism (ICoU) focuses on the most pressing contemporary issues at stake in settlements and environments across the globe. Urbanization continues to gallop ahead in most parts of the world, while massive restructuring is clearly necessary in postindustrial societies. At the same time, business as usual is challenged by unprecedented migration of humans and species and the consequences of climate change. The ICoU studies cases in urbanism (the science of the city) as well as develops strategies for urbanism (the discipline that acts upon the city). The worldwide spectrum of changing urban conditions in interaction with the continuous adaptation of urbanism provide a living lab for the centers work. On the one hand, it draws upon the wide range of alternatives to the contemporary body of mainstream conventional, almost hegemonic, urban projects that do little more than surf on the neo-liberal waves of market-driven globalism. On the other hand, it seeks t...