Detlef Briesen

A New Beginning?: Spatial Planning and Research in Europe between 1945 and 1975 Detlef Briesen

How spatial planning was transformed in Europe in the postwar period.

Spatial planning is a typical European attempt to shape the development of societies by ordering their territory. It emerged in the nineteenth century from colonial settlement and conquest projections, urban reform, and conservative or even fascist fantasies of order. With this legacy, further burdened by the Soviet planned economy, spatial planning entered a new epoch after 1945. Since then, it has attempted to participate in the reconstruction of Europe and to accompany the path into modern society, mass democracy, and mass prosperity. Therefore, parallel to the social changes between 1945 and 1975, a reform of spatial planning began from Spain to Germany and from the Netherlands to Italy. However, these developments found themselves in competition with the specialized planning of the ministries, economic framework planning, and the market economy. In the process, spatial planning was transformed, becoming an institutional part of the European legal and social states.