Understanding cities begins with uncovering their layered histories. Through socio-spatial surveys, mapping, and embedded fieldwork, we reveal hidden logics, memory structures, and overlooked dynamics. This step lays the analytical groundwork for context-sensitive planning—where evidence becomes action.

Planning alone cannot transform cities—but people can. URBAN STEPS offers hands-on learning formats to reactivate cultural knowledge, strengthen local capacity, and empower a new generation of planners, researchers, and community actors to co-shape the urban future.

We connect past and future, the informal and institutional, tradition and innovation. Through transdisciplinary dialogue and experimental pilot projects, we reimagine inherited forms and practices to meet today’s needs—without erasing identity or coherence.

Ideas become transformative when they meet structure. We translate insights into anticipated, area-based planning and design—adaptive, strategic, and grounded in lived realities. Planning becomes a coordination tool to unlock potential and mobilize shared visions.

In fast-changing environments, strategy is not a masterplan—it’s a compass. We develop adaptive, data-informed frameworks that help administrations and institutions steer through uncertainty. Through pilot projects and collaboration, we test ways to work with complexity. Complexity is not an obstacle—it’s the field of navigation.