The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: New Urban Quarters – Concepts and Built Reality

Project briefing

  • Status Completed
  • Project duration November 2017 – November 2020
  • Programme ExWoSt

Many municipalities experience a continued or resumed population growth due to migration. As a result, new urban quarters emerge in numerous local authorities. However, this process has not been a focal point of academic and planning practice-related discourse, mainly due to the strong focus on the (re)development of existing urban areas and previously developed land. Nevertheless, new urban quarters are highly relevant for the development of cities and their hinterland, not least due to their size. This research project strives to give a comprehensive overview of the development of new urban quarters in Germany.

Background

Recent years have seen a rising awareness of dynamic population development and linked housing shortages in many cities. As a consequence of rising rental costs and house prices, households face increasing difficulties in finding affordable housing in prospering urban agglomerations and university cities.

Many municipalities focus the development of new residential areas within existing urban areas with the aim of reducing greenfield development. In this context, the the main approaches are the regeneration of previously developed land, the use of vacant plots and urban intensification.

In the context of very tight housing markets – for example in the metropolitan areas of Munich, Hamburg, Rhein-Neckar, Rhein-Main and along the so-called Rhine Corridor – these often relatively small-scale developments are not sufficient to compensate for the existing deficits. Furthermore, many sites are not deliverable as residential land in the short term, which adds to a significant increase in prices in many places. These conditions make the development of affordable housing even more difficult.

In this context, the importance of developing residential areas of the size of new urban quarters has increased not only within existing urban areas, but also as major urban extensions.

Despite population decline in many areas, new urban quarters are not a rarity. Since the end of 2004, the BBSR has recorded new urban quarters in a database. By the end of 2006, this database comprised more than 180 quarters. The last systematic evaluation took place in 2012. At this time the database included approximately 300 new urban quarters (cf. Breuer, Schmell; 2007 and 2012). At the start of this project, information was available on around 580 quarters. These new urban quarters met the following criteria:

  1. They were built after 1990.
  2. They include more than 500 residential units or more than 1,000 inhabitants or comprise an area of more than 10 hectares of land and include a significant proportion of residential use.
  3. They were developed on the basis of a comprehensive urban planning concept.

Objective

The main objective of this research project was a nationwide survey and analysis of new urban quarters in order to achieve a comprehensive, qualitative and quantitative overview of the development of new urban quarters. Quarters in the process of planning as well as completed developments were examined. In doing so, their distribution, location, main characteristics and planning process were analysed.

The research focused on large and medium-sized cities as well as on selected small towns – either in the vicinity of fast-growing metropolitan areas or with military conversion projects. With the completion of this project, the expanded database now includes 751 new urban quarters in 263 municipalities.

A cross-sectional analysis including all recorded projects shows the scope of the development of new urban quarters. The results demonstrate how requirements for new quarters and their development change and which planning procedures and instruments are applied.

The guiding questions for this research were:

  • How are new urban quarters distributed spatially?
  • What are the essential characteristics of new urban quarters?
  • Which current development trends can be identified in the context of planning and implementation?
  • Over the course of time, what changes can be observed in the structure of new urban quarters and their developing processes? Are there specific developments that require enhanced observation and / or management in the context of urban development?

The contractor of this research project was STADTRAUMKONZEPT GmbH, Dortmund in cooperation with the Institute for Urban and Real Estate Development (Nuertingen-Geislingen University) and Weeber+Partner, Institute for Urban Planning and Social Researches, Stuttgart/Berlin.

Contact us

  • Franziska Bensch
    Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
    Division WB 8 "Housing and Society"
    Phone: +49 228 99401-1289
    Email: franziska.bensch@bbr.bund.de

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