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Das «Kirchberg-Syndrom»: grosse Projekte im kleinen Land: Bauen und Planen in Luxemburg

Hesse, Markus

The paper deals with planning strategies and building practices in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, particularly in its capital, Luxembourg City, which is a small but highly internationalized metropolis. The main goal of the paper is to reconstruct local planning trajectories, starting with the 1960s urban extension of the European quarter and banking district of the Kirchberg Plateau. Since then, spatial planning in city and country seem to favor relatively large-scale projects, considered as drivers of both economic growth and apparently sustainable patterns of spatial development. This particular style of planning and policy-making has been coined the Kirchberg Syndrome.

However, the tendency to favor big projects (of which the new, €1 billion university campus/ science district in Esch-Belval is the most recent incarnation) faces serious problems, such as the dominance of office space, a lack of urban integration, and the high risks of financing and implementation. It also happens in a fragmented, intricate environment of urban policy, characterized by small towns and municipalities, limited public planning capabilities and a rather recent tradition – and thus limited acceptance – of planning, policy and regulation. This rather specific “exceptional urbanism” of Luxembourg does not fit in with contemporary planning theories. It can only be understood against the contradictory background of rapid development dynamics, unusually “thick” ways of decision-making and international policy mobilities.

English Title: The Kirchberg Syndrome: LargeScale Projects in a Small Country – On building and planning policies in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg