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Department of Spatial Planning

​​​​​​Teaching

Like few other scientific disciplines, spatial planning conveys a holistic, integrative view of things by combining engineering and social science approaches, ways of thinking and methods. Since the establishment of the Spatial Planning course at TU Dortmund, the well-founded training in the field of comprehensive state-wide and regional planning has been a quality feature of the Dortmund planning program. The outstanding skills of Dortmund graduates in the field of spatial planning are now recognized nationwide and have led to many of them finding employment in state, regional and municipal administrations, in private planning offices or in project and real estate development.

The Working Group of Spatial Planning and Planning Theory represents the subject area in its entirety. The thematic focus is on the presentation of spatial planning on national, state and regional level in Germany, the transformation of cities and regions in  as well as aspects of planning theory and planning history. Spatial planning is understood as a systematic procedure for formulating decision-making premises for spatially relevant actions at the supra-local level.  This requires knowledge of spatial science and planning methods, but also extensive knowledge of regional structures and development processes and knowledge of important theoretical approaches to explain them. Today, this classic field of planning expertise is increasingly being supplemented by coordination and moderation tasks in open planning processes.

The central teaching objective is the practical training of basic knowledge of spatial analysis and spatial planning as well as scientific thinking. In addition, attention is also paid to teaching the essential basics of planning theory and knowledge of planning systems in other countries.