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• Stefan DE CORTE
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• Nadia CASABELLA
• Tim CASSIERS
• Isabelle DOUCET
• Ayat ISMAIL
• Seppe LAMBRECHT
• Els LECLERCQ
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• Maarten LOOPMANS
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Centre for urban research
COSMOPOLIS. City, Culture
& Society

Free University Brussels

Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel
Tel: + 32 (0) 2 629 37 41
Fax: + 32 (0) 2 629 33 78
cosmopolis@vub.ac.be

COSMOPOLIS is related to the department of Geography at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and a member of the UAB Urban Studies Network, an interdisciplinary research and teaching network in urban studies.

Nadia CASABELLA

Current Position
PhD candidate on Urban Networks as a new model for territorial planning, deploying the Dutch ‘Randstad’ and the Belgium ‘Flemish Diamond’ as case study.

Research mentored by Dr. Arq. Joaquín Sabaté, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC); and Prof. Dr. Eric Corijn, Department of Geography, Free University of Brussels (VUB)

Contact: nadia.casabella@vub.ac.be

Free University of Brussels
Department of Geography
Cosmopolis. City, Culture & Society
Room 6F329
Pleinlaan 2
B-1050 Brussels

Phone: +32(0)2/629.31.85
Fax: +32(0)2/629.33.78

Academic background and route
MSc in Regional and Urban Planning, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); long dissertation submitted in August 2005 with the title “Netherlands Inc.: the implications for spatial policy of the entrepreneurial turn of the nation state” on the topic of nationally-driven territorial competition

Eng. Architect, Architecture School of Barcelona (ETSAB); graduation project consisting of a “Bath House” in the historical core of Barcelona

Among my few teaching engagements: assistant teacher in urban design, 4th year (master level) at the school of architecture La Salle, University Ramon Llul, Barcelona (2003-04); reader of the bachelor thesis by Jelle Adamse on the topic of agency and recent landscape transformations of the Rotterdam and The Hague conurbation, together with Leonie Jansen-Janssen (University of Amsterdam, 2006); since 2000, guest jury in several presentations of student design and graduation projects, most recently at La Cambre (Brussel, BE –invited by Peter Swinnen, 2008) and TU Gent (Gent, BE –invited by Stefan Beel, 2008)

Several grants are to thank for my extended academic route: Dehousse doctoral scholarship (2008-10); British Council - La Caixa scholarship for postgraduate studies in UK (2004-05); Fonds BKVB grant for a study trip to Scandinavia (1999); Erasmus exchange program at the Landscape School of Versailles (1996-97); scholarship at the Department of Art and Architecture History, Architecture School of Barcelona, under the chairmanship of Josep Quetglas (1993-95)

Conference presentations
“Atelier Zuidvleugel: communicating spatial planning” (Amsterdam; 2008)
“Coses perdudes, coses retrobades” [“Things lost, and found back”], with Roberto Soto, within the lecture series “Nova Arquitectura Catalana” (COAC, Barcelona; 2005)
“Escala indiferente” [“Indifferent Scale”], exhibition and introduction to own work, with Roberto Soto (COAC; 2004)
“Raval’s urban reform”, guest in round table organized by the anthropologists’ association “Contraplano” (CERC, Pati Maning, Barcelona; 2004)
“A History of Extinction”, lecture about Social Housing in the Netherlands focusing on Planning Instruments, held as part of a lecture series on public housing (COAC, Barcelona; 2001)

Publications
Nova Arquitectura Catalana Vol. 3 [New Catalan Architecture Vol. 3], own architectural work, with Roberto Soto (COAC, 2008 – forthcoming)
“Money is the Driver”, with Bert Gellynck, a comment to the international symposium ‘Corporations and Cities’ (de Architect, 2008 - forthcoming)
Tussenruimte. Naar een New Deal voor metropolitane landschappen in de Zuidvleugel van de Randstad, with Helmut Thoele (Provincie Zuid-Holland; 2007)
“Een nieuwe omgang met landschap in de Zuidvleugel”, with Paul Gerretsen and Helmut Thoele (Rooilijn jg.40, n.6; 2007)
“Bru CD”, with Bert Gellynck (Bru nr. 002; 2007)
“Tussenruimte”, #008 Atelier Zuidvleugel, with Helmut Thoele (Provincie Zuid-Holland; 2007)
“Tien dingen die je gewoon moet doen... voor het ruimtelijk ontwikkelen van een topregio”, with BAVO, #010 Atelier Zuidvleugel (Provincie Zuid-Holland; 2007)
“Bouwstenen”, #012 Atelier Zuidvleugel, with Helmut Thoele (Provincie Zuid-Holland; 2007)
“Werkprogramma”, #003 Atelier Zuidvleugel, with Paul Gerretsen and Jelte Boeijenga (Provincie Zuid-Holland; 2006)
“Ruimtelijke Verbeeldingen”, #007 Atelier Zuidvleugel (Provincie Zuid-Holland; 2006)
Una nueva cultura del territorio, closing contribution (Observatorio Territorial, Diputación de Barcelona; 2006)
“256 seconds”, with Roberto Soto (Quaderns n.243; 2004)
“Eight small houses in Cuevas de Viñayo”, with Roberto Soto (Quaderns n.241; 2003)
“Sin interior”, in Artistas arquitectos: del Racionalismo a la Modernidad (Nova Galicia publishers; 2004)
“Comparative study of the Dutch and Italian Planning Systems”, research paper sponsored by the UPC (Catalan Polytechnic University), supervised by Dr.Arq. Joaquín Sabaté (UPC; 2003)
“The Cultural Other in the Multipl(e)cities of Postmodern Age” (electronic magazine Perspectivas urbanas / Urban Perspectives n.3; 2003)
“H2€”, own awarded entry for the regional planning international competition Grenzeloze Beweging, Eo Wijers Foundation, with Agnes Franzen, Stefan Pieterse and William Veerbeek (NIROV; 2002)

Favorite urban spot
Any train station at its congestion peak… the first day of summer holidays at Barcelona Sants; the end of a normal working day at London Waterloo; Rotterdam central station when the weekly shopping evening concludes; any early morning at Brussels central station. What do I find there? A city bursting through its seams…