News

We are pleased to announce that our ARL Forum 'Gender and Spatial Transformation' has developed a Code of Conduct for our cooperation and transdisciplinary knowledge production. 

This position paper from the cross-border working group of the ARL Bavaria Forum considers the multifunctional concept of green infrastructure to be a profitable approach for strengthening the role of spatial planning in the northern Alpine region, specifically with regard to coordinating planning and measures related to open spaces.

This position paper from the cross-border working group of the ARL Bavaria Forum considers the multifunctional concept of green infrastructure to be a profitable approach for strengthening the role of spatial planning in the northern Alpine region, specifically with regard to coordinating planning and measures related to open spaces.

The Alpine Space Interreg project “ PlanToConnect ” hold its final conference on the 7 ^th of October 2025 with an excursion to agro-photovoltaic sites on the 8 ^th of October to finalize its project as it ended at the end of October.

As a pre-event to the AlpPlan General Assembly and a thematic introduction to the PlanToConnect Final Conference on the following two days, AlpPlan and the PlanToConnect Expert Platform co-hosted a workshop featuring a keynote by Dr. Annika Keeley.

From the Alps to the Swiss Plateau, Switzerland is updating how it manages land use. The latest reforms focus on sustainable growth, compact urban development, and balancing public interest with property rights—giving cantons, municipalities, and citizens a stronger role in shaping the future of Swiss settlements.

Call for papers for a special issue on the topic

Persistent inequalities? Looking towards and beyond the continuing East-West divides in German society 

in the journal Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning (RuR).

Netherlands: Shaping Land in a Low-Lying Nation

By voting, you are helping young researchers to increase their visibility and reach.

Vote here: https://www.buildingsandcities.org/video-challenge/peoples-vote-2025.html

The group will work for three years (2026–2028) to explore how European countries can move toward No Net Land Take (NNLT) by 2050 — a core EU objective aimed at avoiding, minimizing and compensating land consumption.

Land as a scarce resource: The ARL brings experts together in Brussels for European dialogue

With the objective of reflecting on persistent tensions in spatial planning theory members of the ARL Working Group “Beyond the Process: Finding Common Ground for a Discussion on Planning's Substantial Foundation” came together with external experts for a roundtable discussion.

On 18 September 2025, VASAB hosted a hybrid workshop in Iława, Poland, and online, bringing together project partners of the Planners’ Forum project, and other key stakeholders involved in spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region.

Buildings & Cities and the ARL are once again calling on all doctoral students to take part in the Video Challenge

Montenegro’s dramatic geography and EU aspirations shape its evolving planning system, balancing tourism-driven growth with regional development and rule-of-law reforms.

RuR Call for Papers for a Special Issue

The aim of this special issue is to better understand and shape the role of cultural, social and spatial dynamics in the regional and local implementation of the energy transition.

From 29 August to 7 September 2025, the ARL is once again launching an open call for innovative working and transfer formats within its newly structured online application procedure.

On 18 September 2025 (9:00–12:00 CEST), VASAB will host an online workshop on good planning and cooperation practices in the Baltic Sea Region.

The International Working Group ‘Resilient Metropolitan Regions’ at the AESOP Congress 2025 in Istanbul

Spatial planning perspectives for overcoming conflicts of use in the context of the energy transition

This book by Eva Purkarthofer serves as a guide to navigate the connection points between EU policies and spatial planning by introducing the logics of EU policymaking and European spatial planning, outlining the most important EU policies with relevance for spatial planning.

Land Policies in Europe
No Net Land Take, the housing crisis and densification

01 October 2025, 12:00 to 02:00 pm 

A new publication developed within the Leibniz Research Network “Earth and Societies”, led by Dr. Barbara Warner with a team of authors from the Leibniz Research Network Earth & Societies has recently published in Environmental Science & Policy.

Save the date 

for the ARL Congress 2026

to be held in Cologne, Germany, on 1 – 2 October 2026.

With that the ARL has been honoured for its leading role in promoting regional issues