This new seminar introduces the phenomenon of polycentric Megacity Regions on a European scale to students of Architecture, Planning and Geography. It arises through a long process of extended decentralization from big cities to adjacent smaller ones and results in a distinct configuration of places closely intertwined by the flow of people and knowledge. The first series of this seminar is focused on London and the South East of England as the main focus of economic activity and wealth production in the UK. London’s extraordinary connectivity to other global cities is both a result and a preposition for its buoyant regional development and we will use it as an exemplar of a Mega City Region in the European context.

The course aims to introduce key concepts in the spatial sciences to the students, bringing together spatial and functional drivers for development and revealing their interdependencies. Polycentric Mega-City Regions are to be understood as an emergent multi-scale phenomenon, which comes about through complex processes of physical-morphological and non-physical functional inter-relationships. Students learn to interpret and critically assess emerging space phenomena such as Mega City Regions. The European context sets the frame for a wider discussion on the governance of Mega City Regions in general.

Seminarleitung

Prof. Alain Thierstein, Michael Bentlage