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Cooperative and smart urban design: vibrant cities for economy and people
Attractive inner-city areas and local centres hold central importance not only for urban businesses but as vital economic hubs.
They not only represent quality of life and serve as major locational factors in the competitive market for skilled labour and leadership. Attractive inner cities and local centres become the emblem of a city’s economic and civic investment—but are currently facing a profound crisis. Never before have issues such as mobility, digitisation, housing, climate, energy costs, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic converged so intensely.
Strengthening these spaces demands innovative ideas, strategies, resources, and concepts for multifunctional usages—a development that must be localised and cooperatively executed with all inner-city stakeholders. Cities must transition to multifunctional, climate-considerate, digitally networked, and accessible spaces while offering diverse opportunities for all age groups. Central to initiating this transformation remains urban renewal.
Many areas have overwhelmingly high influx rates leading to shortages in available land for housing and commerce. Additionally, spatial competition and proximity of housing developments to industrial businesses impose restrictions on industry and commerce. Weak structural rural regions—particularly smaller and midsized towns—experience the decline of retail, service sectors, hospitality outlets, and closures of postal and banking establishments.
Objectives outlined by the New Leipzig Charter—that advocate equitable, green, and productive cities while fostering innovation and competitiveness—are widely supported by the economy. Yet, disparities in mobility demands between urban and rural environments underscore differing development requirements. Divergent political goals in striving for stronger urban centres reinforce the necessity of coordinated and unified planning.
The following guidelines should determine economic policy actions
It is essential to develop regional urban and settlement strategies to also ensure the supply of industrial sites for business. Concepts of metropolitan regions and regiopoles along with their interconnected areas, as well as accessibility to small towns in rural areas, are suitable approaches for this. Infrastructure offerings should ensure accessibility to all industrial locations. City logistics concepts and infrastructure development should create and connect forward-looking regional mobility solutions. They are an integral part of urban development. Innovative approaches to delivery traffic, such as bundling deliveries and setting up city hubs, should be increasingly utilized.
Attractive inner cities and town centers consist of businesses from the trade, service, leisure, culture and creative sectors, hospitality industry, as well as production sites, residential housing, and other non-commercial uses such as educational institutions. Where available, city and center managements play an invaluable role in balancing interests and developing (new) marketing ideas – usually supported by the respective IHK.
Diversity in urban development also means integrating businesses and the real estate industry into these urban development processes. Noise protection regulations must not hinder economic growth in inner cities. Accordingly, noise levels should be flexibly configured. A fundamental revision of the TA Noise regulation is therefore necessary.
For the inner city experience, it is crucial that cooperative, preferably digital solutions are developed by the city and commercial location communities. Municipalities must be supported in this task. For retail and gastronomy projects outside of the centers, it has proven advantageous to carefully examine their impact on the economic location. Integrated urban development concepts as well as retail or center development concepts channel developments to suitable locations and prevent urban planning missteps. They provide clarity on municipal aspirations and offer planning security to all market participants.
In the competition between economic locations – virtual and real – the urban economic location benefits from an attractive range of areas and infrastructure. Forward-looking urban development should – supported by digital tools – begin with joint idea generation, define criteria for achieving objectives, and implement these in the subsequent planning and approval processes. This ensures attractive cities and enhances the quality of stay.
Urban development should rely more on cooperation with companies and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHKs), seeing affected parties as participants, in order to provide demand-oriented infrastructures for the economy as well. Intelligent, integrated, and interconnected urban development must be designed to continue offering attractive locations for companies in the future. Digital technology provides the basis for efficient processes in integrated planning procedures. It is necessary to link financial support for cities and municipalities with the creation and adherence to concepts. The federal and state governments should provide structural guidelines with spatial planning to give the economy long-term location perspectives.
From the perspective of the industrial economy, the urgent demand for industrial and commercial land must be given greater consideration. In urban areas, mixed use of residential and commercial spaces can be a way forward, particularly at so-called high-tech locations, where industries and universities complement each other and start-ups also wish to settle in close proximity. However, the encroachment of residential buildings on established industrial and commercial sites – including in many harbour areas – remains a challenge with regard to emissions protection. Necessary distances should be maintained here. The demand for emission-protection-free areas for industrial and commercial development – especially in thriving regions – should be appropriately taken into account.
An (inter-)regionally coordinated industrial and commercial land concept, land monitoring, and innovative solutions for sustainable industrial estates, such as multi-storey industrial and commercial spaces, help ensure sustainable land development. From these, evidence of land requirements can be derived. For the reuse of brownfield or conversion areas, it is advisable to always examine, in close collaboration among property owners, users, and administration, whether they can be made available for new commercial usage. It should also be investigated whether compensatory measures are required, and whether creative solutions, such as the Eco Agency in Hesse, can be utilised for this purpose. The Eco Agency handles the nature conservation approval procedures, compensation planning, implementation, and maintenance of compensatory measures.
