Markus Moos

Dr. Markus Moos is an urban planner and professor at the University of Waterloo's School of Planning. His work focuses on how cities are changing in response to shifting demographics, housing pressures, and evolving patterns of urban life, with particular attention to the experiences of younger generations. Trained in urban planning, geography, environmental studies and economics, Moos brings a highly interdisciplinary perspective to his research. He combines quantitative analysis with creative and critical approaches to understanding cities. In addition to his academic work, Moos engages broader audiences through writing and public commentary, and is interested in how imagination and arts-based methods can enrich planning and urban thinking.

• Youthification - gentrification nexus

• Urban demography

• Housing markets

• Life-course urbanism and neighbourhood change

• Imagination, creativity, arts-based methods in planning

Professor Markus Moos’ research examines how demography, economic change, and housing transformations are reshaping contemporary cities, with a particular focus on the intersection of generational change and urban restructuring. His work advances understanding of the youthification–gentrification nexus to explain how age and class dynamics jointly reconfigure neighbourhoods, housing markets, and patterns of central-city growth. Empirically grounded in analyses of housing affordability, residential location, and mobility, his research highlights how young adults both shape and are constrained by evolving urban economies and planning regimes.

A central contribution of this work is the development of a life-course urbanism perspective, which foregrounds age as a key axis of socio-spatial differentiation and situates urban change within broader trajectories of household formation, labour precarity, and intergenerational inequality. This approach connects processes such as youthification, studentification, and gentrification to shifting housing pathways and the restructuring of metropolitan regions.

Complementing this analytical focus, Moos engages with questions of planning practice, sustainability, and social justice, while also emphasizing the role of imagination, creativity, and scenario-building in shaping urban futures. His work explores how planning can move beyond prediction toward more speculative and reflexive modes of inquiry, including arts-based and imaginative approaches to understanding and intervening in urban change.

• 2012, PhD, Geography, University of British Columbia, Canada

• 2006, MPL, Planning, Queen's University, Canada

• 2004, BES, Environmental Studies and Economics, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2021 Canadian Institute of Planners’ Award for Planning Excellence, Merit, Planning Publications and Media Category, for “Canadian Cities in Transition” (sixth edition, co-edited volume)

• 2021 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2019 Journal of the American Planning Association, Best Paper Award (‘Early Career’)

• 2019 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2016 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2014 Early Researcher Award, Province of Ontario

• 2013 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2020 - 2023, Director, School of Planning

• 2015 - 2018, Associate Director Graduate Studies, School of Planning

• 2019 - 2025, Editor, Urban Studies Journal

• Registered Professional Planner, Ontario Professional Planners Institute

• Member, Canadian Institure of Planners

• PLAN 103 - Planning, Administration, and Finance
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• PLAN 431 - Issues in Housing
  • Taught in 2024
• PLAN 701 - Land Use Planning Fundamentals
  • Taught in 2023

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Ayambire, R. and Moos, M. (2024) Inclusive Futures? A Systematic Review of Social Equity in Scenario Planning. Journal of Planning Education and Research. 45(3), 608-622.

• Collishaw, S., Moos, M., and Vinodrai, T. (2023) Does Subsidized Housing Facilitate More Sustainable Commute Patterns? Insights From Canadian Metropolitan Areas. Housing Policy Debate. 34(4), 552-573.

• Filion, P., Sand, G., and Moos, M. (2023). Urban Neoliberalism, Smart City, and Big Tech: The Aborted Sidewalk Labs Toronto Experiment. Journal of Urban Affairs.

• Prayitno, N. and Moos, M. (2022) Freeing the “Captive Rider”: Young Adults’ Public Transit Experiences in Toronto High-Rise Suburbs. Canadian Planning and Policy, 2022, 20-48.

• Moos, M., Vinodrai, T. and Walker, R. (Eds.) (2020) Canadian Cities in Transition: Understanding Contemporary Urbanism (Sixth Edition). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.

• Moos, M. (Ed.) (2019) A Research Agenda for Housing. Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

• Moos, M., Pfeiffer, D., and Vinodrai, T. (Eds.) (2017) The Millennial City: Trends, Implications, and Prospects for Urban Planning and Policy. New York: Routledge.

• Moos, M. and Walter-Joseph, R. (Eds.) (2017) Still detached and subdivided? Suburban ways of living in 21st century North America. Berlin: Jovis Press.

• Moos, M. (2015) From gentrification to youthification? The increasing importance of young age in delineating high-density living. Urban Studies, 53(14), 2903-2920.

• Moos, M. (2014) “Generationed” space: Societal restructuring and young adults’ changing location patterns. The Canadian Geographer, 58(1), 11-33.