As our planet has become increasingly urbanized, the ways in which we think about cities and urbanism are also being fundamentally reconfigured. However, current urban planning approaches often remain stuck in urban-rural dualisms. Across geographies and disciplines, interconnected regions and globalized hinterlands need new and more relevant conceptualizations and methodologies to better capture emerging forms of urban-rural development. Moreover, understanding the multilayered interrelationships and material flows between "city" and "countryside" is key if we are to aim towards more sustainable transformation of wider territories. Taking dynamically transforming Living Labs in China as a starting point, Urban-Rural Assembly provides reflections, best practices, and practical guidance on how to collaboratively investigate, envision, and plan todays urban-rural regions.
- Handbook for the sustainable development of urban-rural regions
- Planning aid for transformation processes in dynamic urban areas
- Comprehensive material on Living Labs in eastern China
Anke Hagemann is acting Professor at Habitat Unit, Technische Universität Berlin, and lead Principal Investigator of Urban-Rural Assembly. She researches and publishes on city-hinterland relationships, global commodity circulation and urban spaces, holiday architectures, and urban mega-events.
Ava Lynam is Researcher within the Urban-Rural Assembly project at the China Center (CCST) and PhD candidate at Habitat Unit, both at TU Berlin. Her research explores mobility, socio-spatial inequality, and the translocal production of space at globally connected borderland regions in China and Southeast Asia.
Gaoli Xiao is Researcher within the Urban-Rural Assembly team at Habitat Unit, TU Berlin, and PhD candidate at the Center for Development Studies (ZEF), University of Bonn. Her research engages with critical migration theories, neoliberalism, power, and social justice.
Wolfgang Wende is Head of Research Area Landscape, Ecosystems and Biodiversity at the Leibniz-Institute of Ecological and Regional Development and one of the Principal Investigators in the Urban-Rural Assembly project . His research strongly focuses on German and international Mitigation Regulation Systems (IMR), biodiversity offsets and habitat banking.
Li Fan was Senior Researcher at the chair of Habitat Unit at Technische Universität Berlin and coordinator of the Urban-Rural Assembly project. Her primary research area is urban and rural regeneration, as well as policy and governance of urban transformation.
Sigrun Langner is Professor of landscape architecture and landscape planning at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and one of the Principal Investigators in the Urban-Rural Assembly research project. Her research focuses on rurban landscapes as an expression of complex urban-rural interrelationships, incorporating mapping methods as practices of knowledge and idea generation in large-scale landscape planning and design.
Maria Frölich-Kulik is Senior Researcher at the chair of Landscape Architecture and Planning of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and part of the Urban-Rural Assembly team. She specializes in researching rurban landscapes, urban-rural transformation processes and co-creative planning strategies from building to regional scale.
Laura Henneke is Researcher at the Habitat Unit at the Technische Universität Berlin and part of the Urban-Rural Assembly team. Her research interests include infrastructures, global commodity chains, global corridors and the use of visual methods to investigate socio-spatiality.
Lukas Pappert is Researcher at the Habitat Unit at Technische Universität Berlin and part of the Urban-Rural Assembly team. His scientific and practical activities focus on the investigation and further development of tools for the sustainable and cooperative transformation of urban-rural regions.
