The Context

© Adrien Olichon on Unsplash

Challenges and need for action

Since the Covid-19 pandemic it has become clearer than ever which challenges inner cities are facing in the 21st century. The ongoing crisis might be an extreme example for changing needs in urban landuse, however it shows very well what has been indicated for many years. In the future, the digitally networked knowledge society, economic transformation, transport turnaround and climate change will place completely different demands on city centers than city planners of the past century could ever anticipate.

Current challenges are therefore symptoms of a decades-old understanding of a planned city that is increasingly reaching its limits. Against this background, the time-critical question arises as to how inner cities will be able to cope with the current and future complexity of economic, ecological, social and technological trends.