Spatial development as a discipline explores the appropriate arrangement of economic areas and living spaces in a region. The Chair of Spatial Development interprets this challenge to mean the promotion and organization of these regions according to the principle of sustainability. In addition, the Chair takes into account that spatial development is not only based on spatial and political conditions and on public planning. It is also influenced by private enterprises and private households and therefore is subject to the conflicting interests of environment, society, state and economy. These assumptions form the basis for research, education, knowledge transfer and post-graduate education at the Chair of Spatial Development.

The current research at the Chair focuses on three different fields: ‘innovation dynamics and spatial development’, ‘network infrastructures and sustainable development’, and ‘conurbations and regional development’.

Courses in spatial development and spatial development policy are addressed to students in architecture and engineering but also in environmental, agrarian and forest sciences, a fact which points up the Chair’s interdisciplinary orientation. These courses are intended to enable students to connect the spatial implications of their own field to the goals and interests of spatial development policy.

Knowledge transfer and post-graduate education offer information for people who work in spatially relevant areas. Social, economical and political processes are constantly changing the conditions of regional planning and, therefore, the hierarchy of spatially relevant forces. An intensive interaction among those who represent these forces and on-going training are therefore very important. The ‘Forum for Spatial Development’ is a series of events that offers a platform for the exchange of experiences between academia and practice. In the area of continuing education, the Chair of Spatial Development offers lectures and projects as part of the newly reorganized post-graduate education in spatial planning.

Together with the University of Basle, the Chair of Spatial Development has developed an Internet- supported training tool. With AREA (Access to Regional Economic Approaches), participants of the postgraduate education program can prepare for the course module ‘Spatial Economics’ from their office or home. Further internet-supported training tools for other modules of the post-graduate education are being developed.

Functional Spaces

The Conurbation as a New Functional Space: Forum for Spatial Development 1999/2000

The development of the conurbations has gone beyond the scope of historically grown institutional boundaries and competences. A distinctive reason for this effect is the intensified globalization that has given rise, not only to a worldwide competition between enterprises, but also to a notable competition between locations. Consequently the spatial organization occurs without the consideration of political borders. Lately various economical regions, defined by functional criteria, appear as independent actors and enter the international competition of locations. As a response to this development the cantons recently began to intensify the consideration of problems concerning cities and agglomerations. But also the Federation is aware of these effects. One area of action defined in the ‘Swiss Planning Policy Guidelines’ is the development of a conurbation policy.

The Forum for Spatial Development 1999/2000, which is organized in cooperation with Prof. Dr. René L. Frey from the University of Basle, aims to bring new aspects into the discussion about conurbations. The series consists of six events with the overall topic ‘The Conurbation as a New Functional Space’. Participants from spatially relevant fields in science, politics, economics and planning practice lecture and discuss various subjects concerning the development of conurbations, emerging problems and new solutions.

CAPRI: Capital Market Processes and Regional Innovation Systems

The metropolitan region of Zurich serves as a case study to investigate the link between the new landscapes of capital markets, financial institutions and market intermediaries on the one side and corporate decisions on location of activities and the organization of production as well as the division of labor on the other hand.

More than any other sector, the financial sector is experiencing strong global dynamics. Capital markets and regional development are changing rapidly these days. Innovation and investment decisions of companies are more and more influenced by new instruments of the financing system. These inter-linked processes thus have a profound impact on spatial organization and therefore on regional and urban development policies. A new logic of capital allocation and a new and dynamic set of institutions are influencing the regional socioeconomic structure of production and services. That reveals a chain of processes that lead from power of decision-making to the development of locations, infrastructure, buildings and human networks, which work as life-veins within regional systems in a global world.