The climate crisis, increasing social and spatial polarisation, and the deterioration of democratic decision-making processes are among the most critical challenges we are facing in the 21st century. Urban spaces are central to addressing these issues and others.

The Institute for European Urban Studies works and carries out research in the field of socio-environmental transformation, social participation and heritage based on the principle of spatial justice. The Institute combines expertise in urban and spatial development, urban planning, and urban and rural life, focussing on – but not limited to – European regions. The Institute's work centres around dealing with these issues within the context of global processes, power relations, as well as researching sociological and ecologically just methods and strategies.

The Institute for European Urban Studies was founded in 2004 as a research and teaching centre in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. It acts as a space for dealing with questions concerning urban and rural spaces and their interrelationships within an international context and from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The Institute’s strength lies in its ability to interweave research and design approaches: The nine professorships associated with the Institute – Urban Planning, Spatial Planning and Spatial Research, Urban Studies and Social Research, Landscape Architecture and Planning, Design and Urban Architecture, Urban Design I, »Stadt Raum Entwerfen«, Conservation and History of Architecture, and European Cities and Urban Heritage – contribute to the development of research from various scientific perspectives and through different methodological approaches based on material, social and discursive spaces.

The following movie from 2019 is a collection of interviews with current professors, researchers and students at the Institute for European Urban Studies.