URBAN is the third and last studio of the first year. This studio lasts 19 weeks and was supervised by Gerjan Streng of CloudCollective in collaboration with architects from the The Hague based office of La-di-da. This studio departs from the urban context and focuses on urgent societal issues within 'the relationship that people, as users, have with their immediate living environment'. On the basis of extensive research by a variety of research tools, the students develop (temporary) spatial interventions that are relevant to the context and carry out a try-out/pilot version of these interventions on location. With their interventions in the public or enclosed space the aim is to strengthen the most diverse places where people come together and communities emerge. The implementation of proposals as an example of a context driven design reveals the organisation, realisation, presentation and documentation of the students’ projects and is a crucial transitional moment at the end of the first year. It marks the moment when the students take over the responsibility for identifying and executing their own research and design.

The URBAN studio in the 2022-2023 academic year took place in The Hague South-West, a post-war part of the city recently challenged by immigration, unemployment and poverty. The students explored the neighbourhood, interacted with residents and professionals, and from this developed personal proposals for spatial interventions that could strengthen the neighbourhood.