Since May 2013, Eric Frijters has headed the Future Urban Regions research group, a collaborative project of the six Academies of Architecture, focused on improving the city and the urban environment. The objective is to organise collaborations between the Academies and the spatial assignments of local and regional governments.
Through the Future Urban Regions (FUR) research group headed by Frijters, the Academies of Architecture together elaborate on the Network Programme of Design Study Programmes (Netwerkprogramma Ontwerpopleidingen). This programme stems from the Action Agenda for Architecture and Spatial Design (ActieAgenda Architectuur en Ruimtelijk Ontwerp) of minister Schultz van Haegen. The research group will set up and implement a research programme, in which the Academies will collaborate within their curricula with various governments on a number of contemporary and relevant spatial assignments at a local and regional level. Both specific and more generally applicable schools of though and problem-solving approaches will be developed for these assignments by mean of design-based research.
The FUR research group has formulated six major challenges for the city. Each of these lines of research has been assigned to a researcher at one of the Academies of Architecture. On behalf of the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, architect and urban planner Marco Broekman will be occupied with the question of how spatial strategies can contribute to the development of vital economic urban regions.