Great Reset - Innovations in Urban Planning, Crisis as Catalyst?

Elena Schirnding de Almeida, 2020-2025

Ongoing climate change and rapid urbanization worldwide have shifted the question about urban change processes to the center of political attention.  The adoption of the 2030 Agenda by the United Nations means that cities all over the world have committed themselves to the paradigm of Sustainable Development. Taking for granted this unifying principle, the research project asks the questions: How can cities get the job done on a local level? How do local, historic, political, and administrative circumstances determine the urgently needed urban change processes? How does innovation intersect with urban design practices? In 2020 one could observe rapid and unexpected changes in urban spaces, such as “Pop-Up Bike Lanes” and “Shani gardens” (sidewalk seating for restaurants) - projects that were discussed for years, but never realized. This is followed by the question of whether we can learn something from the current Covid-19 crisis that could serve as a profound strategy to design cities in the 21^st century.

Elena Schirnding de Almeida is an Architect and Urban Planner, currently leading the Public Planning Lab at the Professorship of Urban Design at TUM. She started her research project in 2020 under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Benedikt Boucsein.

“IN BETWEEN: Hybridity as a framework for (re)developing cities, a case study of Dharavi”

Ayesha Mueller-Wolfertshofer, 2020-2025

Informal settlements—including slums, favelas, gecekondus, barrios, townships, and bastis—are integral parts of cities across the globe, providing shelter for people who lack access to formal housing, employment, or documentation. This dissertation argues that conventional planning cultures and instruments must evolve to address the realities of contemporary urbanisation by integrating the needs and practices of inhabitants into planning processes. Focusing on Dharavi in Mumbai, the research bridges ethnographic approaches and urban spatial design to examine the socio-economic practices that sustain everyday life and to identify the spaces required to support them in future (re)development. 

The dissertation develops hybridity as a conceptual framework for inclusive urban (re)development. It comprises three scientific publications that examine hybridity at different spatial scales—from the hybrid unit to the hybrid complex and, finally, the hybrid settlement. Together, the publications explore collaboration, identity and sustainability as interconnected dimensions of Dharavi's spatial and social organisation, demonstrating how these qualities can inform more inclusive, context-sensitive and sustainable approaches to urban redevelopment.

Ayesha Mueller-Wolfertshofer earned a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in India between 2010 and 2015. She completed an M.A. in Architecture, specialising in Urban Planning, at Munich University of Applied Sciences between 2015 and 2017. Since the beginning of her studies, she has worked in a range of architectural and urban planning practices and has been a registered architect with the Bayerische Architektenkammer since June 2020. She completed her doctorate at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) between 2020 and 2025 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Benedikt Boucsein, graduating magna cum laude, with Prof. Dr. Amita Bhide of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai serving as external examiner. 

The research was funded through a scholarship from the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Germany. 

Dissertation (open access): https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1776291 

Research video (3 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9hjFunypk8