Rachel Keeton
Architect and Researcher in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management at the University of Twente in the Netherlands
Education:
PhD in Urbanism, TU Delft (2020)
Master of Science in Architecture, TU Delft (2008)
Bachelor of Architecture, UNC Charlotte (2006)
Previous Employment:
Editor for B_Nieuws (Architectural magazine)
Columnist for TU_Delta (TU Delft university paper)
Hometown:
Fayetteville, NC
Rachel Keeton is researcher, architect, and urbanist specialized in the intersection of design and social equity in African urban environments. Rachel completed her Master of Science in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences at Delft University of Technology. The Netherlands, in 2008. In 2015 she founded Urban Anecdote, a consultancy, research, and design office dealing with urban questions through contributions ranging from exhibitions to independent films. From 2016-2020 she completed a PhD in urbanism as a recipient of the Delft Global Initiative Fellowship. This work developed an alternative approach to New Town planning in Africa that integrates no-income, low-income, and middle-income housing, aiming to make services and educational opportunities accessible to all.
Rachel is the author of Rising in the East: Contemporary New Towns in Asia (2011), African New Towns: An adaptive, principle-based planning approach (2020) and co-editor of To Build a City in Africa: a History and a Manual (2019). In addition, she has served as an advisory committee member for the Dutch Creative Industries Fund and board member of the Amateur Cities foundation. Since 2019 she has been a guest teacher at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, supervising graduation students and leading courses in climate change-driven migration, urban development in Ghana, and thesis writing.
Since 2020, Rachel has been a researcher at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. Her current research examines perceptions of migration factors as they relate to climate change in Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mali. In 2025, she received the CoA+A Distinguished Alumni Award in Architecture.
“Studying in the School (College) of Architecture at UNC Charlotte was an experience that I appreciate much more after studying in London and Delft,” she said. “At Charlotte we had the chance to interact with our professors on a daily basis, both formally and informally. We had our own studio spaces, with desks we could personalize and spaces we could appropriate. We became a tight (and somewhat inbred!) community. This is not standard for Architecture schools.”
“Although I am working as a researcher now, I am also a registered architect, which is a title that I value very highly and mostly attribute to my experiences at the School. I was influenced by many of the faculty, for different reasons. Professors Mark Morris and Krista Sykes were the first to combine my enthusiasm for design with analytical writing; Linda Samuels and Carrie Gault encouraged me to push designs to their aesthetic conclusions and they weren’t scared off by the use of color!”