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Six students sitting on a seating group. © Felix Schmale​/​TU Dortmund
RP-Newsletter

78. RP-Newsletter: May issue 2025

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Welcome

Are you looking for the right degree program and interested in topics such as urban planning, urban design, sustainability, climate change, mobility, housing or the energy transition? Would like to learn more about the study programs of the Department of Spatial Planning? Are you looking for one of our seminars or detailed information about the research carried out here?

Then you have come to the right place - enjoy browsing through the pages of the Department of Spatial Planning at the TU Dortmund University!

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The Department of Spatial Planning

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The Department of Spatial Planning

Spatial planning is an interdisciplinary field of research and practice that is influenced by engineering and social science, dealing with the different demands of society on the built and unbuilt environment. In 1968 the history of spatial planning began in Dortmund as an independently institutionalized discipline. Half a century after its founding, the Department of Spatial Planning at the TU Dortmund University is one of the largest planning science institutions in Europe and has been the strongest research Department in Germany for years.

Our 18 research groups offer a wide breadth and depth of content, so that interdisciplinarity lives not only in research projects with other scientists, but also in research and teaching here at the department. In addition to interdisciplinarity, our courses are strongly oriented towards the concept of research­based learning, at each stage the study is enlivened by important practical elements of project study.

50 Years Department of Spatial Planning

Start of construction Campus South in Dortmund Eichlinghofen © Archive​/​TU Dortmund
Start of construction Campus South in Dortmund-Eichlinghofen 1965.

On 16 December 2018, the TU Dortmund celebrated its golden jubilee. Fifty years ago, the Department of Spatial Planning was founded together with the University of Dortmund. Teaching began on 1st October 1969 with 74 first-year students on the diploma course in spatial planning. Under the influence of the 1968 movement, today's Department of Spatial Planning soon developed the project study pro­gram, which was intended to focus on the social and societal dimension of spatial planning and to facilitate an anti-authoritarian form of "research-based learning". Since then, this concept has been practised by many generations of students and is regarded by a majority of alumni as a central element of the pro­gram.

Fifty years of spatial planning means, above all, 50 years of scientifically sound and at the same time application-oriented study programmes. They mean 50 years of interdisciplinary research and teaching interlinked closely with practice. For more detailed insights into the history of the Department, we recommend the anniversary volume of the Department of Spatial Planning:

Gruehn, Dietwald; Reicher, Christa; Wiechmann, Thorsten (eds.) (2019). 50 Jahre Dortmunder Raumplanung. Berlin: Jovis Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86859-550-5.

TU Dortmund University

Three students are talking © Roland Baege​/​TU Dortmund

The TU Dortmund University has a special profile with 17 departments in natural and engineering sciences, social sciences and cultural sciences. The various scientific disciplines are united by a university spirit in which interdisciplinarity and cooperation are practiced.

The range of courses includes around 80 degree programmes, including a broad range of teacher training for all types of schools. In research, the TU Dortmund is particularly strong in four profile areas: (1) materials, production technology and logistics, (2) chemical biology, active substances and process engineering, (3) data analysis, modelling and simulation, and (4) education, schools and inclusion.

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