How can we plan a city with a future, or: How can we plan the future of a city? Entire cities are rarely planned from greenfield sites to their full urban sprawl. The challenge instead is what can be done to make cities fit for the future, how they can be adapted to new realities – one might say that urban planning is more like urban development that requires change management skills. This does not apply to city districts or individual projects on the fringes: Here it is far easier to plan and create agglomerations so that they are fit for the future.
People have planned their ‘settlement projects’ since they first started putting down roots. Cities laid out in the form of a chessboard were around even 5,000 years ago. The layouts of Vienna, Cologne and Geneva, for example, adhere to typical Roman patterns. Over time, urban planning increasingly evolved into urban development, with a city centre at its core – in the most literal meaning of the word – as the nexus of various traffic routes. A town hall, market square, shops and pharmacies were the hallmarks of a lively melting pot for public services, work and shopping establishments. ‘Vibrancy’ and ‘densification’ – combined with speed and sustainability – are the keywords that have transformed purely structural urban planning into an extremely complex development task involving many areas and disciplines. For urban planning to be considered ‘successful’, it must incorporate all aspects of life in public spaces: a city or neighbourhood appears ‘vibrant’, local amenities are available and there are places for social interaction as well as for personal regeneration. One major issue in this context is the abandonment of city centres. For a long time, inner cities were not just the geographical focal point, but also the centre of where people lived – with all the consequences, availabilities and possibilities outlined at the beginning. But the development of city centres has been restricted to retail since the 1970s. And the one-dimensional use of these shopping cities is at odds with their original purpose and – as numerous show examples – harbours the risk of depopulation if this use fails to materialise or, in our specific case, shifts to the fringes.
Cities are inherently linked to their infrastructure. From a historical perspective, the railway and the discovery of electricity were the major driving forces behind infrastructural development. The focus on retail was an interlude, which now must be replaced with more contemporary concepts. The new drivers of urban infrastructure, the new forces behind societal development, are: Climate, social cohesion, mobility, health, care and the merging of knowledge, work and private life, also in public spaces. This public space is abut to be taken back, as shown impressively by a wide variety of trends such as ‘third places’ or ‘urban gardening’. It is then easy to recognise that ‘successful’ urban planning – or rather urban development – is an exciting, challenging, active and multi-perspective undertaking that never ends.
A staggering variety of approaches and concepts exist for successful urban development. Digitalisation creates many opportunities for more multidimensional use of public spaces. The commitment to sustainability, to optimising the inner-city microclimate, creates green spaces that are also good for citizens and their quality of life. Under the motto Building Places People Love, the Washington-based Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU for short – a non-profit organisation with supporters from many relevant sectors) has developed a detailed Charter that acts as a guide for liveable cities of the future: “We provide resources, education and technical support to create socially equitable, economically robust, environmentally resilient and people-centred places. We harness design aspects and social principles enshrined in New Urbanism to achieve three important goals: diversifying neighbourhoods, designing for climate change and creating pedestrian-friendly spaces.” And we can only agree.
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Congress For the New Urbanism