Entwürfe für die Metropole

Abstract

Facing serious economic, structural and demo-graphic shifts as well as environmental challenges such as climate change, European urban and metropolitan regions are forced to think intensively about their future development and role as urban systems. In order to cope with the diverse challenges, more and more metropolitan regions experiment with long-range planning approaches like visions and leitbilder for future development. In the last decade also various planning competitions for metropolitan regions in Europe have been carried out: ØresundsVisioner 2040 (2007/08), Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 (2006/07), Le Grand Pari (2007–2009) or recently the Ideenwettbewerb Metropole Ruhr (2013) for the Ruhr region. The new visions are asked to be more than only vague guidelines – in most cases the organizers seek concrete proposals envisioning the development of the region's settlement structures, transportation systems, its open spaces as well as governance structures over the next 50 years. Based on a reflection of the outcomes of the three first mentioned competitions this article aims at a first classification and assessment of such large scale approaches as a tool for planning and spatial design at the metropolitan and regional level fostering strategic planning processes.Designing for the Metropolis – International Visioning Competitions as a Driving Force for Strategic (Regional) Planning?