Uwe Altrock

This thematic issue focuses on newly planned and currently transforming districts at the outskirts of major metropolitan areas in Europe. After reurbanisation and inner development dominated urban research debates as well as planning practice from the turn of the century onwards, in the wake of continuing influx into large cities and a subsequent shortage of affordable housing, suburbanisation is coming back into focus. The contributions in this thematic issue are clustered within three key thematic areas: (a) sustainability and the planning of urban expansion, (b) planning imaginaries and the realities of suburban living, and (c) governance, conflict, and negotiation. The contributing authors have analysed case studies in Spain, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and Germany. While each case is different and analysed through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, all show that suburbanisation is a timely and highly relevant topic that serves as a powerful lens for making current planning ideals and guidelines, contradictions and challenges, as well as societal power relations visible.

1. This paper discusses changing urban development approaches in the transition from a dominance of comprehensive planning (second half of the 20th century) to that of ‘strategic planning’ (21st ce...

The transformation of industrial heritage buildings into cultural clusters has emerged as a prominent topic of academic research in urban planning, urban studies, heritage conservation, and architecture. Cultural clusters, defined as geographically concentrated cultural activities and organisations, have become a key instrument in urban regeneration, fostering economic growth and cultural development. Despite the benefits that cultural clusters offer in terms of fostering cultural activity, they often prove to be short-lived due to various external factors, including urban regeneration pressures, shifts in policy, and changes in zoning regulations. This thematic issue presents seven case studies that offer insights into the current state of cultural clusters, their transient nature, and the conditions necessary to guarantee their long-term sustainability in industrial heritage sites. The research is particularly relevant in light of the mounting pressure on urban land, where industrial heritage sites are frequently repurposed for residential, commercial, or industrial purposes.

With his saying “Berlin—poor, but sexy!,” former Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit framed the motto for a decade of transition in which the German capital became a Mecca for artists, media industries, and creative people from all over the world. Building on a longstanding tradition of tolerating diversity and as a centre of high culture and bohemians, the city developed a new cultural-political identity from a deep transformation crisis after German unification and the extensive loss of its industrial base. In conjunction with a blossoming of temporary uses in a wide variety of vacant properties, often abandoned production, infrastructure, or storage areas, an intense creative scene unfolded. Since the 2010s, this scene has been massively threatened by displacement due to the changed real estate market situation. Over the years, the city has tried to counteract this situation through cultural policy initiatives and niche projects for bottom-up initiatives, with limited success. Against the backdrop of accelerated development of former brownfield sites and funding cuts in urban cultural policy, the question currently arises as to what place subculture can occupy in urban policy in the future. Based on official documents, books, scholarly articles, project websites, newspaper articles, and own observations, this article attempts to evaluate the respective policies in the city over time, to place them in the context of approaches to a more land-security-oriented policy, and to make clear what role the re-used spaces and buildings from the industrial age play in this.

Housing supply is a controversial topic across the globe. In Europe, for example, housing provision is fundamentally characterised by capitalist market economy. However, the intensity of state intervention differs significantly in the respective European countries. Germany is certainly one of the countries in which the state traditionally intervenes considerably in the housing market and attempts to control it through various measures. In addition, the stakeholders in the housing market are very different, and the housing market is highly segmented. In Cuba, as a rather atypical example for Latin America, where the housing market is largely liberalised, the housing market is very strongly regulated by the socialist Cuban state. In this article, we address the topics of housing supply by analysing the institutional framework conditions and the different levels of intervention in the very different systems of Germany and Cuba. In doing so, we find that the objectives at the planning and political levels in these two case studies are quite similar despite the major political and social differences. It has become clear, that there is a gap between the aspiration of the political-administrative planning system and the planning expectations of the citizens in both systems. However, it is also emphasised that the state's claim to intervene in the housing market and the regulations, production and financing conditions are very different. Using Vaus’s ‘most-different-case approach’, we emphasise for the two cities of Hamburg and Havana that although considerable successes have been achieved in both systems in terms of adequate housing provision, but major challenges still exist in both cities. The analysis has also made clear how important it is to combine housing policy demands with the realities of housing industry, real estate markets and urban planning perspectives.

Amid rapid urban regeneration over the past decade, industrial heritage conservation in China has garnered increasing attention, focusing more on the reuse of listed buildings than on conflicts in the inscription process. This article examines the conflicts and dilemmas between urban redevelopment and industrial heritage conservation during the inscription process in China, through five case studies in Guangzhou. It aims to provide both an understanding of conflicts and institutional challenges posed by land banking, and insights into stakeholder dynamics, the role of media and NGOs, and the implementation of cultural heritage assessments. Grounded in the Institutional Analysis and Development framework, the empirical studies reveal that institutional conflicts, particularly resistance from land development centers and former factory owners, often stem from financial motivations. This resistance can lead to the premature demolition of potential heritage sites but also drive institutional innovations. Guangzhou’s introduction of the Wenping assessment system integrates industrial heritage identification with land banking and urban regeneration planning, aiming to protect heritage from hasty demolitions. Media coverage and NGO advocacy have been instrumental in heritage-making and prompting policy responses. The adaptive reuse of industrial heritage sites into creative industrial parks faces challenges from their temporary nature and land banking pressures, underscoring the need for policies ensuring stable and enduring reuse. Ambiguous responsibilities and fragmented management systems further impede effective heritage conservation.

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