Urban Development

Cities are incubators for social change due to their high population density and their diversity. Urban spaces and neighborhoods are often learning spaces for social, cultural, technical and economic innovations. Increasing conflicts over space and usage make it necessary for the various interest groups to engage in a productive and understanding-oriented debate in order to jointly develop sustainable solutions for living together in the future.

We create urban spaces for experimentation

We are convinced that strengthening participation on the ground not only leads to sustainable urban development, but also contributes to a trusting culture of discussion and cooperative networking. After all, the major urban policy challenges of the future can only be overcome by working together. Viable solutions for sustainable urban development require close and democratically organized cooperation between all stakeholders.

We use purpos-developed multi-actor formats such as the Trialogues ® of the Berlin Governance Platform in our urban development projects to bring together actors from politics and administration, business and organized civil society, and academia. For the synergy of city-related research and urban society actors, we facilitate structured exchange, develop innovative solutions, and sound out joint options for action.

Our activities

We organise participatory urban development.

On behalf of the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing and the district office of Berlin Mitte, we are implementing digital citizen participation: The project "Voices at the Push of a Button" collects ideas via voice messages for the new city hall of the future in Berlin-Mitte.

We support the housing industry in participation processes.

The Trialogue series "Participation in Housing" (2017) resulted in the introduction of guidelines for participation for the state-owned housing associations in Berlin, which do justice to the diversity of perspectives of the urban society. After a pilot phase, we captured initial sentiment in an interim review (2019) .

We bring stakeholders together for sustainable housing policy.

In a series of talks on social housing in cities (2019 and 2020) we brought together representatives of politics and administration, business and organized civil society to discuss current challenges in the field of housing.

We promote international exchange on participatory urban development.

Our international project "Cities for citizens" (2019 and 2020), funded by the German Foreign Office, facilitates exchange between German and Belarusian stakeholders on pressing issues of urban development, housing and citizen participation.

We use transdisciplinary methods to combine science and practice.

In the past, the method of transdisciplinary trialogues was successfully tested in a first trialogue series with the Technische Universität Berlin "Aufbruch Stadt: Für zukünftige Infrastrukturen" (2016). In our joint project "New Urban Agenda Berlin" (2018-2020), sponsored by the LOTTO Foundation, we developed trialogues and transdisciplinary project ideas on the topics of mobility, immigration, housing, and tourism that benefit urban society and science alike.

Projects on this topic

  • Research atlas "Social cohesion" in cooperation with the BUA

    Research atlas "Social cohesion"

    The interactive research atlas "Social Cohesion" visualises the current research activities on the topic of social cohesion in the Berlin research area.  
  • Trialogue series: German special path?

    On behalf of the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing and the Mitte district office of Berlin, we are realising digital citizen participation: The "Voices at the push of a button" project collects ideas via voice messages for the [...]
  • Voices at the touch of a button: citizen participation via voice messages

    On behalf of the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing and the Mitte district office of Berlin, we are realising digital citizen participation: The "Voices at the push of a button" project collects ideas via voice messages for the [...]
  • Multi-stakeholder talks on housing supply

    In a series of talks on social housing provision in cities (2019 and 2020), representatives from politics and administration, business and organised civil society were brought together to discuss current challenges in the area of housing [...].
  • Guidelines for participation in state-owned housing construction

    In 2017, the Berlin Governance Platform, in cooperation with the state-owned housing associations, held a trialogue series on the topic of "Participation in housing construction" in order to discuss these challenges of the growing city in a public interest-oriented [...].
  • Trialogue "Science Platform Sustainability 2030"

    In cooperation with the Mobility Working Group of the Science Platform Sustainability 2030, the Berlin Governance Platform held the trialogue "Sustainable on the move - making mobility attractive now".
  • Additional benefits as a driver of energy-efficient building refurbishment

    The project "Additional benefits as a driver of energy-efficient building refurbishment" aimed to bring more clarity to the social debate on the multiple benefits of energy-efficient refurbishment.
  • Participatory development in Lusatia

    The coal phase-out is linked to the need to make our society and our economy more climate- and resource-friendly. Surveys show that a large proportion of the population supports the climate policy goals. But if [...]
  • International exchange Berlin-Minsk

    The bilateral project "Cities for Citizens" brings together German and Belarusian experts from politics & administration, business and organised civil society in Trialogue ® in order to integrate their accumulated knowledge into current [...]
  • New Urban Agenda Berlin

    During the two-year project period (2018 to 2020), TU Berlin, in cooperation with the Berlin Governance Platform, organised four trialogues and four trialogue project groups on the urban policy challenges of mobility, immigration, housing [...].

Publications on this topic