Regional Design in the Context of Fragmented Territorial Governance: South Wing Studio

Abstract

In the Netherlands, the formation of governance arrangements around planning issues that cross administrative boundaries has been assisted frequently by a design approach that is often referred to as "regional design". This is a distinctive method of policy argumentation that makes use of spatial representations of the plausible future of regions. Such representations are intended not only to indicate physical changes, but also to stimulate debate on sharing responsibilities and resources for planning tasks among planning actors. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the performance of regional design in the context of fragmented regional governance through a case study in the southern part of the Randstad in the Netherlands. We argue that regional design has contributed to institutional capacity in a complex polycentric and, looking at the governance structure, pluricentric region like the Randstad South Wing, largely by allowing for multiple interpretations.

The impact of regional designing: New perspectives for the Maastricht/Heerlen, Hasselt/Genk, Aachen and Liège (MHAL) Region

“…Regional designing enables collective conceptualisation and shared envisioning, and builds support for the envisioned ideas (Kempenaar et al, 2016;Van Dijk and Ubels, 2016). This makes regional designing a powerful means to change perceptions (Balz and Zonneveld, 2015).…”

Design in the planning arena : how regional designing influences strategic spatial planning

“…Regional designing envisions possible and desirable futures (Stremke et al 2012, De Jonge 2009, Van Dijk 2011, Balz and Zonneveld 2015, Meijsmans and Beelen 2010. It engages with regional situations that face issues that put the existing situation under pressure, such as adapting to climate change (Brand et al 2014), transition to renewable energy sources (Stremke andKoh 2010, De Waal andStremke 2014), or structural demographic changes (Kempenaar et al 2016a).…”

“…This scholarly perspective is summarized and put next to the interview perspective in Table 2.2. (Hajer et al 2006b), and facilitating change (Balz and Zonneveld 2015).…”

“…In that sense they are reminiscent of late 19 th and 20 th century regional designs from well-known landscape architects and urban planners like Frederick Law Olmsted, Constantinos Doxadis, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. Current regional designs are the outcome of intense collaboration between people from different disciplines and with the participation of many stakeholders , Meijsmans 2010, Balz and Zonneveld 2015, Steinitz 2012).…”

“…There is still little understanding on how designing contributes to, alters or influences the planning and development of a region, or what factors explain the success of regional designing. Several authors have emphasized the need to further understand the role of design in planning (Balz andZonneveld 2015, De Jonge 2009).…”