Delft University of Technology
I am an associate professor of spatial planning and strategy at TU Delft. My research interests are urban, metropolitan and regional governance, social sustainability and spatial justice. These are frameworks that enable critical understanding of urbanization processes and tools that enable planners to design for sustainable, fair and inclusive urban and regional development. At TU Delft, I am responsible for course development and coordination in the areas of research methodology in areas of planning and design practice, regional planning and design, governance and sustainability. I lead the TU Delft Summer School Planning and Design with Water, in which a large group of international students explore how to make cities simultaneously more just and more resilient to climate change through water sensitive urban planning and design. Additionally, I study informal urbanisation in the Global South, connected to rapid urbanisation in weak institutional environments. I lead the Confronting Informality Symposium in which strategies to upgrade, reform and develop slums are explored. I have recently edited the Routledge Handbook on Informal Urbanisation. I am a member of the editorial board of Revista da Pós, The Brazilian Journal of Urban and Regional Studies, and the Italian Journal of Planning Practice.
Most recently, I have been leading the writing of the Union for the Mediterranean Action Plan for Sustainable Urbanisation, a policy framework to be adopted by countries around the Mediterranean, in a team with Carola Hein and Remon Rooij.
Last publications
Abascal, E. E., Rocco, R., & Borges, H. (Eds.) (2019). Urban projects in areas near river fronts in transformation neighbourhoods: An exercise for the region of CEAGESP, São Paulo. Editora Mackenzie.
Hein, C., Mager, T., & Rocco, R. (2019). Water Resilience: Creative Practices Past, Present and Future. European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, 2(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2612-0496/9827
Pojani, D., Kimpton, A., & Rocco, R. (2019). Planning Students’ Conceptions of Research. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X19884107
Rocco, R. (2017). Planning for Rights: Bewildered young planners in Brazil, in T. Tasan-Kok & M. Oranje (Eds.), From student to urban planner: Contemporary ethical challenges and reflections of a young practitioner (pp. 168-181). New York: Routledge.
Rocco, R., & Ballegooijen, J. v. (Eds.) (2019). The Routledge Handbook on Informal Urbanisation. New York: Routledge.
