Overview of the Urban Lab

The Urban Lab runs throughout the academic year, with opportunities for engagement across both semesters through courses, fieldwork and applied research projects. As an integrative platform, it brings together academic insight, policy needs and lived experience to co-produce knowledge that is grounded in the realities of urban life.

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Join the Urban Lab

The Urban Lab is open to Georgetown graduate students, GSAP students and executive education professionals year-round, though individual course and research offerings will vary by semester. To join the lab you can take a course or join a research project.

Available courses

The Urban Lab offers the following courses:

• Liveable Cities
• Social Protection
• Local Development and Evidence-Based Policymaking
• Urban Water
• Urban Design and Environment

Course offerings may vary by semester. Contact the Urban Lab faculty to find out which courses are currently available.

Applied research

The Urban Lab advances applied, policy-relevant research grounded in real-world urban challenges. Students and participants contribute through field-based methods, including interviews, visual documentation and arts-based research approaches. Current research focuses on five areas:

• Urban flooding and climate vulnerability in coastal Jakarta
• Housing, relocation and in-situ upgrading in informal settlements
• Transit-oriented development and its social implications
• Urban inequality and access to services
• Heritage, art and conservation

The Lab serves as a platform for co-producing knowledge—bringing together academic insight, policy needs and lived experience.

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What you’ll learn

Through the Urban Lab, you will develop the ability to:

• Analyze urban challenges using interdisciplinary, policy-oriented frameworks
• Understand how governance structures, political economy and data shape urban outcomes
• Design context-sensitive, evidence-based policy interventions
• Engage with real-world stakeholders across government, communities and the private sector
• Translate field observations into actionable policy insights

The lab emphasizes immersion as rigor, equipping you not only to study cities, but to work within them.

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Fieldwork

Fieldwork is central to the Urban Lab experience. You will engage directly with urban communities, policymakers and practitioners through site visits, stakeholder interviews and collaborative projects. Current and past engagements include:

• Collaboration with the Planning Department of the Jakarta Provincial Government on urban policy and development planning
• Field-based research in flood-prone and informal settlements in North Jakarta
• Engagement with local governments, NGOs, and community leaders working on housing, resilience and service delivery

Through these partnerships, the lab situates learning within the realities of urban life, where policy meets practice.