How We will Live Together in the North
Cooperation among Port Cities in the Baltic Sea Region
P. Kliučininkas (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Marcin Dabrowski – Mentor (TU Delft - Spatial Planning and Strategy)
B. Hausleitner – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Urban Design)
Verena Balz – Coach (TU Delft - Spatial Planning and Strategy)
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Abstract
The integrated, cross-border, cross-territorial and macro-regional planning paradigm is recalibrating the world and planning practice all around the globe. The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) has become one of the exemplary models of macro-regional practice in the European Union (EU) context. It is recognized as a flexible entity due to its activities, actors and informal institutions (Purkarthofer et al., 2021). Since the
first initiatives of the Helsinki Commission for integrated Baltic sea management around 1980, many strategies and organizations have been developed. Also, the spatial vision for the Baltic Sea Region is being updated. Indeed, the BSR has entered a new chapter of development with a new generation of Interreg projects.
However, the planning of the BSR is pictured as the highest authority conformative planning. On the one hand, there is a struggle to integrate different stakeholders, planners, ministries and citizens, to name a few. On the other hand, the linkages between the strategic documents and their local implementation could be stronger and more visible in a surrounding environment.
The project aims to carry out the planning framework for the BSR. The patterns for cooperative planning, design and principles inform what systemic solutions and actions are required to achieve the region’s performative, integrated, cross-scalar planning. The framework is applied in 4 scales: district, city, regional and macro-regional strategies and visions. The emphasis is given to the ports, cities and their regions as the main catalysts for cross-border cooperation. These units are crossed by sustainability, manufacturing and shipping lens. Here the macro-regional planning meets local target design and implementation.
The framework of Meta-territory is introduced as a synthesis between theories of soft space and territoriality. Meanwhile, strategic-spatial planning frames the project, so these theories inform the cooperation framework. Moreover, a mix of scientific methods has been used to determine the complexity between different scales, time-frames and society. The exploratory research is based on semi-structured, static, dynamic and proactive methods. Finally, the method of pattern language defines the cooperation framework.
The project is expected to inform and inspire planners, decision makers or citizens about their capacity to act and the necessity of complex and integrated planning. Nevertheless, geopolitical uncertainty might occur if the macro-regional planning practice is sufficient enough to ensure the presence of public goods and safety and sustainable development simultaneously.