Cities in Transition

New special affiliated Professor

Prof. Dr. Maddalena Ferretti is the new special affiliated Professor (part-time) for Cities in Transition at the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape of Leibniz University Hannover. With her focus on Cities in Transition she joins the Institute of Urban Design and Planning and strengthens the Faculty's research field Sustainable, Liveable, and Inclusive Cities aligned with UNSDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. Cities in Transition looks at cities as hotspots for change and test-fields for innovation in architecture. It aims at steering new ideas for future urban sustainable development and strengthening the crucial role of city making for society. Her teaching is part of the Faculty’s newly introduced English programme MSc Architecture and Urban Design.

She is an architect and urban designer, Professor at the Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona/Italy, with a Masters’ degree from Roma Tre University and a doctorate with Iuav University of Venice. Her research includes, amongst others, the National Research Project PRIN “B4R Branding for Resilience” and the project “Accessible and Inclusive Historic Centres” funded by the European Union. She is Dean of Studies of the Building Engineering–Architecture Degree Programme at the Università Politecnica delle Marche and member of the interuniversity Villard d’Honnecourt initiative in Italy.

Cities in Transition

Short Project, 5 ECTS

MSc Architecture and Urban Design / advanced BSc Architecture

Starting from winter 2025–26

In times of fast and radical transformations, of new demands and needs from people, of rising inequalities, cities can be regarded as hotspots for change. Steering their transition towards more sustainable, resilient and just conditions is a specific task of the spatial disciplines and particularly of urban design and architecture.

This course confronts students with topical and innovative disciplinary issues that are connected to current societal transformations. CITIES in TRANSITION (CiT) aims to strengthen students’ capacity to understand and successfully handle the relationships between the different dimensions of an urban design project, both in rapidly changing urban constellations and in more spread settlement structures.

The intensive workshop format will make use of real-world cases, investigated through analyses, designs and visions, to reaffirm the centrality of city making for society. The outcome is the proposal of new ideas for sustainable development that can balance different urban conditions, strengthening the role of cities in complex constellations as linkage and measure between diverse and sometimes clashing worlds. How can urban design and architecture help to redefine the agency of cities in transition for a better society?