Masterproject 2019

Cross-border spatial development and planning cultures – Investigation in the context of a planning game

Duration: 15th April – 10th July 2019 (12 weeks)

Participants: 3 students

Supervisors: Beate Caesar, Jakob Schackmar

Language: German, French and English

 

The SaarLorLux+ Greater Region represents a cross-border planning area that is characterized by a variety of cross-border interdependencies. The planning systems and instruments of Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, which collide in the Greater Region, are very different. To find out what shapes spatial planning practice in a cross-border context beyond legal regulations and institutions, it is useful to examine planning cultures.

Within the framework of the study project, students have examined the concept of planning culture. To explore this, they designed and organized an English-language simulation game for students of spatial planning from the Greater Region. The game also aims to make students more aware of the specifics of planning in a cross-border area and to make visible the differences in the approach to spatial planning and the underlying paradigms between the participating regions and countries. Learning processes should be initiated and students should be prepared for cross-border cooperation in the field of spatial planning. Since the bachelor project of the department IPS simultaneously addressed forms of participation in cross-border spatial planning, both projects were closely interlinked. Through the evaluation of the simulation, first insights into the different planning cultures of the students and the influence of the studies on planning cultures were derived.

Within the framework of the project, a one-day excursion to Luxembourg and Saarbrücken was conducted to interview planners from the Greater Region.