‘The New Planning is a movement in our profession’, quoted as a concluding remark by Tracy Metz, during the International Conference, ‘Take on the Future’ (December 2019), best summarizes the project so far. Here we share with you our progress in 'The New Planning Movement' of the recent activities and the process of further development of the project.

At the end of two years, the expected products of the co-creative process of the new planning dialogue will be the following:

─  Book launch at ISOCARP 2021: a publication combining all the results and process of 2 years.

─  Manifesto for the Dutch context Spring 2021: creating a new model in a co-created framework and putting research into practice. Finding an efficient working method with the involved practitioners.

But, as an intermediate results, you can already read our research done before, during and after each dialogue in our website. Following are various reflections and articles written by us and our partners for each activity. 

dialogue # 1 – groundwork

4 July 2019 | In collaboration with core partners of The New Planning

According to the literal meaning of ‘groundwork’, this was the first opportunity to lay the foundation of the dialogue with the consortia of The New Planning. This interaction was utilized to formulate the right direction and focus on the extensive project. At the first master class, “The New Planning- Groundwork”, organized on 4th July 2019 , we hosted 35 inquisitive minds to interact over the current unprecedented challenges. The panel discussion with the speakers at the end of the event, lead to a list of directions and learnings for the dialogue. This originates as an important starting point as a common ground for the consortia to define and refine the project focus for the research and dialogue.

ACTIVITY | RESULTS | PHOTOS | FURTHER READS

dialogue # 2 – defining ambitions

1 Nov 2019 | In collaboration with core partners of The New Planning

The second event was a brainstorming session ‘Defining Ambitions‘on the 1^st November, 2019, with a selected group of experts to refine the future course of the project as well as lay down the expected outcomes. Together with the 11 experts, we discussed the urgencies, probable solutions and methods and try to answer the underlying question, ‘What is lacking in the old planning’? On a Friday evening, brainstorming with a group of experts and some nice pizzas was this session all about. It was made clear in this session that the ambition of the partners and collaborators of the project is to add an European perspective to this discussion.

 RESULTS | PHOTOS | FURTHER READS

dialogue # 3 – take on the future

10-11 Dec 2019 | In collaboration with core partners of The New Planning

The third event was the two-day international conference, ‘Take on the future – Critically reflecting on Planning Visions’, held on the 10th and 11th December, 2019. The event saw hundreds of experts from the Netherlands and Europe in one room to discuss and debate over the subject of National Planning and vision making, while reflecting on the recently published draft Dutch national environmental vision, NOVI. An interesting mix of scholars, academicians, practitioners, government officials and students were present, engaged in critical discussions about planning for a resilient and adaptive society. With a wide range of subjects being covered from development policies, spatial planning, territorial governance and small scale local initiatives, the conference pushed forward the agendas of The New Planning dialogue. As an external attendee, Selina Abraham wrote her experiences and raised some crucial questions after the conference.

ACTIVITY | RESULTS | PHOTOS | FURTHER READS

dialogue # 4 – stretching metropolitan regions

2 March 2020 | In collaboration with core partners of The New Planning

The fourth event in the series was ‘Stretching metropolitan regions’, held on 2^nd March 2020, in the wonderful city of Paris. The event organised in collaboration with L’Institut Paris region, METREX and Studio Hartzema saw experts from all across Europe discuss the importance of metropolitan regional scale in planning through an interactive dialogue with narratives from different case studies. It raised questions about the approaches and sectoral focus in 10 different metropolitan regions. Along with an expert audience of planners, policy makers and academicians, the ambitions of this ‘one afternoon dialogue’ was to share knowledge, create good narratives and specify aspects of typologies in search of apt solutions for the Metropolitan Regional scale.

ACTIVITY | RESULTS | PHOTOS 

dialogue # 5 –  directing city visions

8 May 2020 | In collaboration with municipality of Amsterdam and 9 cities

The fifth event in the series, ‘Directing City Visions’ was organised as a peer review session by Vereniging Deltametropool in collaboration with Amsterdam Municipality. The online session took place with ten cities of Europe and a wide audience, almost reaching to a hundred, of planners, designers, policymakers and academicians. The current pandemic situation led Vereniging Deltametropool to develop and experiment with the online session format, and coincidingly that supported the opportunity to have city representatives and other stakeholders from all around Europe to come together for this peer review session.  In this fifth activity Directing City Visions, we focused the discussion on the city scale and the subject of decision making. Keeping this the foundation of the discussion, we took up city specific subjects and how decision-making process can be improvised and position in a more participative approach? Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Helsinki, Lyon, Zurich, Oslo and Paris joined the discussion.

ACTIVITY | RESULTS | FULL VIDEO

dialogue # 6 – value this!

26 August 2020 | In collaboration with BNA International and Arcadis

The sixth event in the series, Value this! was organised as a masterclass session by Vereniging Deltametropool in collaboration with BNA International and Arcadis. This was second online session focused on some of the important global agendas and their definitive role in planning systems. With various eminent speakers, the event focused on the relevance of global agreements such as ‘The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs), The Paris Agreement 2018, Davos Declaration, European Green Deal etc, on addressing the urgencies of the Dutch spatial planning agenda. Through this session, we looked at how these agendas are perceived in decision making and how they can be translated from theory to practice with the help of two panel discussions and examples from projects in practice.

ACTIVITY | RESULTS | FULL VIDEO | FURTHER READS

dialogue # 7 – planning for all

2 October 2020 | In collaboration with Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Planning for all – The seventh activity of the The New Planning Dialogue, and the third digital session focused on the repositioning of the spatial planner or designer as an orchestrator and enabler of sustainable regional futures. In this session, we looked at the changing roles of spatial planning and design and the challenges in capacities faced by planners and designers. The debate focused on the repositioning of the spatial planner or designer as an orchestrator and enabler of sustainable regional futures. Earlier planned as a live meeting at Pakhuis de Zwijger was later shifted to a fully digital session due to the ongoing pandemic. With this slight change, Vereniging Deltametropool along with Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, successfully organised the digital debate with two panel discussions on topics; 1) the changing roles of planners and 2) the skills and competences that are crucial for planners of tomorrow. You can also view here the videos done by Rijksuniversiteit Groningen; Urgencies of Planning, and Skills and roles of Planners and Designers.

ACTIVITY | RESULTS | FULL VIDEO

dialogue # 8 – mega-regions: old concept, new roles?

21 October 2020 | Side event within the European Week of Regions and Cities 2020, with ISOCARP, METREX and WRI.

The last and final event of the ‘The New Planning Dialogue’ series, ‘Mega-regions; old Concept, new roles?’ was organized by Vereniging Deltametropool, as a side event within the European Week of Regions and Cities 2020, with ISOCARP, METREX and WRI. In this discussion we looked at the mega-regions such as the Eurodelta, to understand how they can become a catalyst for a sustainable green recovery. We focused on some of the inspiring initiatives of cross-border collaborations with presentations on SURE network, GO Europe GO Rail and tips and tricks from the STRING network. We also looked at what are the strategic actions and institutional agendas to strengthen the Eurodeltathrough panel discussions from experts from network organizations and institutional or political point of view. The event also had an active audience interaction with questions and ideas shared by our participants. Overall, the event marked the end of the New Planning Dialogue series with concluding suggestions from the fellow New Planning enthusiasts and many points to move forward to keep the discourse alive!

ACTIVITY | RESULTS | FULL VIDEO

Next Tentative steps:

The New Planning Cookbook

As the end of the research, dialogue and results compilation in a co-creative process, The New Planning: Cookbook will be published combining all the results. This will also include a manifesto for the Dutch context in spring 2021: creating a new model in a co-creative framework and putting research into practice, finding an efficient way of working with the professionals involved. We look forward to your suggestions and input and you can do so by filling in this google form.

The New Planning Community of Practice

The idea of a collective and community requires the foundational base of communication and interaction.We are developing a community of practice to sustain the dialogues and discussions that were developed along the New Planning project. Communicating intermediate results will need more attention while developing the platform as the stronger built of of results will add the value to the community and this collective. We foresee this project as a platform and building up a community where communication and networking becomes one of the most prior tasks and reaching a wider audience.

The New Planning dialogue is a platform, to discuss the progressing issues and the crucial questions about the planning and policies, with a broad audience of planners, policymakers, developers, and academicians. 

Join the dialogue to opinionate, influence and revolutionize the planning model and support the project by your eminent participation.

Follow  the link  to know more about the project and  connect to us .