Thomas Machiels holds a master’s degree in history (2016) and urban design and planning (2018) from the University of Antwerp. He spent his last semester at City University of Hong Kong (2018).
Thomas started in 2018 as a researcher at the research group. He was a visiting researcher at the University of Michigan (Oct 2021-Mar 2022), where he collaborated with Prof. Robert Goodspeed. In 2023, he obtained his PhD in Urbanism and Spatial Planning with the title Real options for real urban projects: Uncertainty and adaptive planning in complex spatial projects. In his PhD, he developed a qualitative and quantitative real options theory based approach for adaptive spatial planning. From September 2023 onwards, he will be part of the European Horizon project CLIMATEFIT to conduct research about alternative financing instruments for climate adaptation projects.
Thomas is also a member of the GECORO in Hasselt since September 2020 (municipal commission for spatial planning).
For more: Google Scholar, LinkedIn
Favorite (place in the) city
Hong Kong.
A two-faced city, where east meets west, where space is scarce and every square inch counts, where life never stops. From the everlasting crowd between the uncountable skyscrapers ‘till the complete silence of the beautiful nature surrounding the city, after every corner a new discovery. More than ever a scene of tensions between its promised autonomy and China’s tightening grip.