The Roles of Planning in Waterfront Redevelopment: From Plan-led and Market-driven Styles to Hybrid Planning?

Abstract

This paper delves into the different styles and roles that planning adopts in contemporary waterfront redevelopment. Traditionally, waterfront redevelopment practices have consisted of an array of plan-led and market-driven planning styles upon which the derelict areas of post-industrial cities have been transformed. Typical examples from North America and Europe generally tend to focus on the successes that these processes have generated in connection with large-scale and emblematic projects. However, less attention has been devoted to the efforts of a more recent generation of cities undergoing waterfront redevelopment, which often features different planning rationalities, forms of governance, and competing interests. While the precise character of this newer generation does not yet seem defined, the rise of planning practices that combine previous planning styles has been key in allowing these cities achieve their redevelopment aims. In adding to this emerging generation, this paper examines the nature of waterfront redevelopment processes in Aalborg, Denmark, wherein hybrid planning styles characterized bysituation-dependent and relational planning processes have increasingly substituted former practices. The paper concludes that planning adopts different roles depending on the determinants that qualify each redevelopment case, and that hybrid planning may be subjected to public interestdilemmas given its capacity to adapt to certain political and socioeconomic patterns.

Acknowledgements

The realization of this paper was grant-aided by Aalborg University. The authors would like to acknowledge the information provided by current and former planning practitioners at the City of Aalborg, particularly Anne Juel Andersen. Special thanks to Professor Bo Vagnby for offering valuable insights throughout the different research stages that led to the writing of this paper. The authors are also grateful to the editor of this journal and two anonymous referees for providing insightful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. Interviewees

Andersen, A. J. (2010/2011) Planner, Technical and Environmental Department, City of Aalborg. Interviews with D. Galland, 11 August, 14 September, and 27 October (2010) and 1 and 13 February (2011).

Ipland, J. (2010) Former City Architect, City of Aalborg. Interview with D. Galland, 3 December.

Malling, R. (2010) Planner, Technical and Environmental Department, City of Aalborg. Interview with D.Galland, 26 August.

Møller-Sørensen, E. (2010) Former Planner, Technical and Environmental Department, City of Aalborg. Interview with D. Galland, 17 December.

2. Located in Copenhagen's inner waterfront, Kalvebod Brygge was subject of criticism due to its spatial closures, lack of accessibility to the waterfront and lack of views from the buildings toward the waterfront (cf.Desfor & Jørgensen, 2004, pp. 486 – 487). In WHP, the mixed parallel and perpendicular design of the district's buildings was originally projected to allow for more public spaces and to offer most office domiciles and residential buildings a view to the water. However, the increased density of the block structure clearly hindered these well-intended objectives.

3. http://www.realdania.dk/Presse/Nyheder/2006/Musikkens+Hus+21-12-06.aspx?q=Musikkens (accessed October 2011).

4. http://www.realdania.dk/English/Grants.aspx (accessed October 2011).