Polycentric City Regions
The Agglomeration Ruhr in International Perspective
International conference
Zeche Zollverein Essen, Germany, June 2015
Organization: TU Dortmund University, ILS-Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, University of Luxembourg, Technical University of Darmstadt, Ruhr University Bochum, University of Duisburg-Essen, Wuppertal Institute
The processes of transformation and structural change in the Ruhr agglomeration in Germany are far from complete. Stronger cooperation between science and praxis is intended to ensure continuous revitalization, while an international perspective should advance the late-to-post-industrial transformation. Still, a region such as the Ruhr, with its newly revised regional plan and its dialogue-oriented and integrated development strategy, is predestined to lead an international discourse on the future of polycentric post-industrial urban regions. This international conference deals with transformation processes and urban revitalization strategies in polycentric urban regions and aims to provide an unbiased review of previous methods. Here, an international comparative view is useful. This perspective is, however, not intended to be prescriptive, but rather to search for impulses that might embed the transformation of the Ruhr region into a broader context, while at the same time correctly identifying and classifying the present conditions.
Thematic panels:
- Structural change & transformation
- Two-scale urbanism
- Planning cultures
- Industrial landscape & identify
- Productive landscapes
- Economic and social perspectives
- Energy, mobility & sustainable development
- Urban redevelopment beyond big plans
