Projects
INTENTIONS – INTERVENTIONS – EFFECTS
Since the beginning of the 1990’s we can observe how public space in many cities is increasingly used as a stage for action in order to achieve various goals differing greatly from each other. In this sense, actions are being increasingly taken as an answer to peripherization and privatization of traditionally urban functions which improve the character of the inner cities as locations of leisure and consumption. While the spatial surrounding of particular institutions of the state or for cultural use are expanded as a public sphere in the sense of an altered form of representation, simultaneously, remote quarters and such which are evaded by the majority society experience interventions which are intended to increase social integration.
Today, mega cities are usually defined as metropolitan areas with at least 10 million inhabitants. Large cities, whose dynamics of development allows for prognosis that in the next 10 to 15 years they will reach or even exceed the 10 million population “barrier”, are referred to in this BMBF-project as „Mega cities of tomorrow“.
This definition applies to the case of the Chinese city of Shenyang. With a total population of 7 million (approximately half of which live in the city proper) Shenyang is the largest city in north-east China and administrative centre of Liaoning Province. Such types of large cities are characterised by a high development rate, combined with their own challenges for accomplishing the objective of sustainable urban development.
Searching for a new generation of researchers wanted for training programme "Urban Governance"
The European Commission supports young scientists involved in researching the European city via the Project “Future Urban Research in Europe – FUTURE” for a duration of four years within the framework of the Marie-Curie-Program. The project takes place under the supervision of five European universities with the overall coordination conducted by Dr. Frank Eckardt, Junior Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Bauhaus-University.
Forschungsprojekte - INTERREG IIIB
Heritage and New Media for Sustainable Regional Development (HERMES)
Facing the "Eastern enlargement" of the European Union on 1 May 2004, as well as a steady growth of attention on the side of the EU towards structural and regional policy, two questions are increasingly drawing attention: How will European space develop in the future? And what are possible means of influencing this process in such a way as to fulfill the goal of social and economic cohesion laid down in the European contracts? In recent years a number of strategies and guidelines for spatial planning have been elaborated by the EU (e.g. ESDP), hinting towards a gradual re-orientation of measures in the field of regional policy: in line with the general aim of an harmonious and sustainable spatial development not only (technical) infrastructure is to be enhanced, but also "soft" locational factors such as culture or identity of a given region are to be considered.
ECommerce and Urban Trade
The development of virtual markets can be observed during a period of time in which retail is searching for new profiles due to spatial situations of competition and altered consumer expectations. The individual’s consumption decisions, which determine the spatiality of availability in retail, shape the configuration of particular locations and their meaning for urban life. Consumer behavior however – strongly influenced by technological and social change – is subject to perpetual change.
