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Urbanology is defined as the understanding of incremental developmental processes and daily practices in any given locality through direct engagement with people and places. 

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Urbanology organizes residencies and talks that bring together local actors, activists, artists, architects and urbanists. It uses art, architecture, story telling, informal dialogue and other creative means of expression to stimulate discussions and interventions in the urban realm. It uses the web as well as live events to document, convene, produce and diffuse diverse modes of development.

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Urbanology was first imagined as a research  practice in Mumbai, where the urbz team has been active for over 10 years and still runs an local practice in the neighbourhood of Dharavi. In India it studies homegrown practices in the fields of housing, artisanship and trade, and physical and theoretical spaces where these fields converge.

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It is now taking roots in a totally different environment in Geneva's international quarters, where it explores participatory urban planning in the context of cultural diversity, in a city that prides itself with a long humanitarian and democratic tradition. 

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This new space has come to life thanks to a partnership with the Fondation Terra et Casa, whose mission is the production of housing to host people coming from all over the world to work in Geneva's many international organisations. From the collaboration between urbz and Terra et Casa emerges a common theme, which is explored in theory and in practice at the Villa Boccard: Hospitality.