Author: vanwezemael
Joris Van Wezemael is fascinated by the metamorphosis of contemporary urban landscapes. He engages with socio-economic spatial innovations for a cohesive spatial transformation under changing economic (chains of adding value and a revival of agglomeration economics), migration and technological conditions. Furthermore he deals with the shaping of liveable ageing cities (socio-demographic change), smart and responsive cities (automation and the generation of novel arenas for planning and governance), and spatially relevant interconnection of (global and local) systems such as capital markets and local places.
He has been trained as an economic geographer, an architectural sociologist, spatial planner and economist. In his academic work Van Wezemael significantly contributed to a theory of complexity-planning. Most significantly he introduced assemblage thinking as a key approach within the field of social complexity to spatial planning across various scales and to housing and property studies. Empirically Van Wezemael has been working on complexity & decision-making, socio-demographic dynamics and housing & real estate both in Switzerland and in Northern Europe, the UK, Greece and South America.
Professor Joris Van Wezemael teaches at the Department of Architecture (ETH Zürich) and at the Centre for Urban and Real Estate Management (UZH), he holds a number of academic mandates, works as a juror and consultant in urban projects, and he holds a position of a manager in an investment foundation (Pensimo Group, Zurich).